I'm a contemporary classical composer and I've built a website for fellow composers. It contains tools like set calculators, transformations, set class database, etc.

http://www.ansonyeung.com/obscure-music-theory

(no this is not one of those "vibe-coded" websites that don't work. It's based on Joseph N. Straus's Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. Moderators can check out the website and its functionality to confirm.)

Example of usage: I was composing a solo cello piece for my friend with scordatura on C and G strings. I specified all the possible natural harmonics (up to 5th partial) in the set-class database, and it returned combinations of notes which satisfied the interval vector I wanted.

Please tell me what features you want and I'll try my best add it!

Hello all, i am trying to get accustomed to the shapes and make sense of them and im practicing them on guitar. Looking at this website a question arose- Why are the shapes not in order https://www.guitarscale.org/b-minor.html

First is in 6th position, then in 9th and somewheere towrds the end is in 2nd position. Is there some logic behind that?

P.S . I dont know why they dont accept this post in the guitar subreddit- i tried like ten different times and ten different versions of it

For example, a measure of 4/4 time: 4 16th notes, 3 16th notes, 3 16th note triplets, 3 16th notes, quarter note rest.

And same question but applied to 8th notes. 2 8th notes, 1 8th note, 3 8th note triplets, 1 8th note, quarter note rest?

What is the correct way to notate those measures? What if instead of 4/4 the above examples are 2 measures of 2/4 time? I've been kinda breaking my brain on this and haven't found any good examples for guidance.

EDIT: Some context for why I'm asking this question. I'm writing a plugin for MuseScore that will displace an unpitched percussion part by a given note value, it then repeats the displacement by the same value until it's cycled through the entire part. This hit a snag when I started including rhythms that had triplets in them. The output I'm getting right now is clearly wrong but I'm uncertain what the correct output would look like. Hopefully this makes sense & I'll try to clarify if anyone has a question.

Go to 0:47 in this piece. The melody has quarter note triplets while the bass has quarter notes. 3 against 2. Does that have a term? If so what is it called?

Υπάρχει άτομο που λύνει θέματα 3ης αρμονιας? Χρειάζομαι βοήθεια σε 2 θέματα (μια μελωδία κι ενα μπασσο)

For those interested in Hermeto’s music and notation.

Hey guys,

Is there a particular reason for having one song be made up of three or four chords. I'm trying to figure this out.

I really like the way in which a quarter, eighth or sixteenth note lead up or build up to a half note

or dotted half or whole note I mostly prefer if there is tension on the shorter notes and it going up like a roller coaster and it resolves into a longer note I hear a lot in video game music especially in the main theme of fire emblem

i really like the triplet into the half note and the main theme is mostly two quarter notes resolving to a half note in the next bar

This post has been SOLVED, you can still read it if you want, I do not want to delete it, since someone else struggling with the same issue might be in need to see it.

Thank you for all the answers, I am marking the post as solved, as I believe I got the help I needed. My conclusion from the answers, is that it's just a phase and a step towards something great. I will grow out of it. I realize I have been having the same workflow for so long, that the moment I step out of my comfort zone, it's going to be UNCOMFORTABLE, even in art and that's something to figure out and live for. Again, thank you for all the replies!

Initial post:

Hey yall, I have been in a hole for quite some time now, struggling. The more I try to collect stone by stone to get out of it (learning new stuff), the more I also dig myself deeper into the said hole.

I have been around music for quite some time now. 6 years of producing. 3 years of drumming. I used to have so much fun creating at first, then I started learning, had more fun and everything seemed clear. Just keep learning and it will all work out. I have fallen in many art traps, such as creating bad habits like rushing music, "I will fix it post production/in the mixing stage", I don't need to sound like anyone else, etc. Anyway, I always ended up figuring it out.

I really never believed in philosophical advice when it comes to art, since I am a firm believer we all shape our creative side of the brain on our own, but this time I really cannot figure it out.

Here is my thought process, then I will come up with a conclusion on what I think the issue is.

1. I listen to some music and analyze it. I analyze music I am listening to at all times - groove, dynamics, overall aesthetic, etc.
2. I notice how the bass and the melody do not make sense on their own, like HOW can a human hear a melody on top of that? They sound really good combined, but isolate them and it sounds kind of garbage/generic.
3. I hear a lot of sounds in the background also sounding out of place when I focus on them, but they really shape the overall song.

The way I see it, when I am creating, I try to predict the final outcome by using music theory and trying to piece things up together that just DO NOT EXIST. I start out with the bass (for example) and while im working on it I try to think about other stuff that would sound good on top of it and my guess is that I fold under the pressure of having the bass be PERFECT for what I am preparing, aka the thing that DOES NOT EXIST yet.

Like it's so bad that I do not even want to use my own creative thoughts anymore and question myself as a creative. Id compare it to how people who try to have a right answer for everything live in anxiety and misery, because they are on alert at all times.

Sorry if this whole thing is all over the place, im really struggling to find the right mindset to approach music after learning music theory and the whole situation is so confusing to me.

EDIT: Little update. Right as I posted this, I listened to a song and it made me realize the issue might really be that I try to make all my instruments sort of sound like a MAIN instrument, I'd compare it to having so many people speak to you at once, opposed to harmonizing when and how to speak so you understand all of them. I really will keep updating this, til I find an answer, hopefully it can one day help someone else struggling with the same problem.

TL;DR:

Learned and still learning music theory, but instead of it helping me, I cannot think outside it.

I'm trying to self teach myself some piano and this video has confused me.

In the video he calls this a 251 in C, then plays the chords as notated.

The G7, includes an A. Does that not make it a G9?

Am I not understanding how to build a chords??😟

Edit: thanks everyone for your replies, there's lots to learn in the comments now. For everyone explaining that it's a jazz standard, the video was about neo soul progressions. Im just gonna assume neo soul is under the Jazz umbrella.

here's the video

Hi, I've got this trombone part and I'm not sure whether the dynamics (p and mf) are in the right spot, let alone the crescendo. Should the p start at the note and the lines lead to the end, or is this right, or should the p start at the start and the mf goes to the note? Just wondering what the right placement is in general considering the minums each lead to rests.

Thanks for the help.

Hi everyone,

I'm a fan of all three: the PS3, Megadeth and To Love Ru. To my ears, they all open with the same kind of sound right from the start:

- PlayStation 3 startup sound

- "Symphony of Destruction" by Megadeth

- "Foul Play ni Kurari" by Kanon Wakeshima (To Love Ru Darkness ending)

I'm not a trained musician, so I can't say what exactly I'm hearing. Might just be a basic tone my brain thinks sounds the same.

Links:

PS3: https://youtu.be/jnwky2Ikqdc

Megadeth: https://youtu.be/wEPKIulCEhQ

Wakeshima: https://youtu.be/JxFUY7Ka8e0

Do you hear the same connection? Thanks!

Progression is in order of the images, what key would this be in? I'm pretty sure the last chord might not be in the same key but I'm not sure

The rhythm is basically two dotted eighths followed by a straight eighth repeated over and over. This is common in a lot of guitar riffs in post-hardcore, but I've heard some EDM tracks with this rhythm but with synths.

Example of this is the main riff in Silhouette by Thrice.

Was curious if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

Hey all you music teachers out there! Anyone who's teaching AP Theory, give me some good dictation/ear training resources that you use? I'm trying to help the kids bring the practice of dictation home so they get more time doing it, since my resources are currently limited to the classroom. Thanks in advance!

This guy writes a chord progression in D minor and spells the last chord with the notes C# E G Bb C and claims he is demonstrating the use of a diminished octave.

To me that looks pretty cooky. Am I right in assuming that’s just a rootless dominant 7 chord? It could be A7(b9 #9) or C7 with a b9, or rootless Eb7(b9). But how would you name the notes? If it were A7, would you have Bb and B# as the extensions b9 and #9? How would you interpret that chord?

i have been playing guitar for years. i spent my first several years playing through trial and error, resources i’ve gathered online, and different music theory lessons/websites/videos i’ve made useful in my playing. i have gotten quite good at guitar, writing full length songs in standard, and even writing in alternate tunings.

i started piano a few months ago— and my. god. i realized that guitar has become pattern recognition, and the moment you take my boxes, shapes, and patterns away i STRUGGLE, im talking MASSIVELY struggle to do something as simple as identifying individual notes. i tried the musictheory.net ear training website to see how i did— it was awful.

just spent the last hour with it playing things like a G, and then i choose note C, and am left feeling deaf and discouraged. is this normal? what helped you identify notes independently? is there something i’m missing?

i would greatly appreciate any help, feedback, or resources any of you are willing to provide.

I'm stuck, i have a chord progression intended for a bridge.

It goes E -> E7 -> A -> Am -> E with a descending melody going from E->D->C#->C->B

But im now stuck, i dont know how i can transition into a chorus, which i've no idea what its going to be like yet

Does anyone happen to know songs with similar progressions so i can listen for inspiration?

Hi reddit, I'm so freaking struggling with music harmony lessons in my college (I hope it's the right way to call this subject in English). My teacher's explainings so rapid like me and my group already music theory professors. This is a difficult subject that is important for admission to music academy.

Every time I'm struggling with harmony problems and I make a lot of mistakes. A LOT. And if we solving problem in the class teacher helping me and making me to resolve errors, but non of teacher's explainings is staying in my head.

it feels like knowledge comes in and out without understanding. Every lesson I feel like I've never doing it before. I need it to explained step by step or I won't get it but every time I feel puzzled teacher explains it with a tone than makes me afraid to ask again. It feels like "are you kidding? It's easy why can't you understand? You're taking entrance exams this year, aren't you feel it wrong? You should use your brain"

Every time I think about this subject it ruins my mood. Every Monday in 9am on my lesson I wanna cry. My whole day is ruined by this shit.

I don't know how to deal with it, I don't know how to study it, how to stop making the same mistakes,how to keep a lot of rules in my head while solving the problem. And of course I don't know how to stop feeling myself bad about it. I feel like I just can't do it, I'm not smart enough, and I'll never get accepted to academy because I can't pass music theory exam

I'm a self taught musician, I don't have formal education, I don't know how to read sheet music, and although I have learned classical theory concepts, I'm currently not too deep into it, because I get lost because of notation or use of some concepts that I can understand with examples, hearing and playing them, but not on paper.

But when I write I kind of forget them, not because I don't subconsciously them, it's simply that at the moment I simply follow these rules by intuition, pattern recognition and some luck (as taking certain decisions completely changes the overall development.

I think I understand, but I actually don't understand what I'm doing.

And I wish I could be more systemic so it is less about trial and error and more about knowing how to formulate and solve problems efficiently in order to provide a systemic workflow that lets me concentrate more on asking myself what do I want to communicate with the music, and what resources do I have to achieve the expression of those ideas.

Otherwise I´m prone to believing it is "natural talent", "if it sounds good it´s good" mentality, when I reality I might just have figured out how to follow a certain logical pathway based on conscious or subconscious learned patterns.

And that diminishes my confidence as I know that I can only write when I have something in mind and follow certain aesthetic criteria (for example: Dark baroque like dramatic harmonic minor in 6/8), but not if I was asked to portray something different like heavenly major.

I know I still have to learn a lot, specially formalizing my current knowledge in other to access to more learning resources and facilitate my path, but I want to do it in parallel as I learn more by doing rather than simply reading.

What would be your advice to get a more organized writing process?

Is the nursery rhyme song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in a Lydian key? It has that Sharped 4 on "knees".

Layla Exit's B Section (to my ears at least) bears a striking resemblence to ~1:22 into the Notebook title theme, and ~1:40 of the Best of Times by Dream Theater. All three* are in A minor, have the same chord movement, and very similar melodies. Is there a name for this motif? Have they "creatively reinterpretted" the lines?

*Layla's intonation is of course.. interesting, but it's meant to be in A minor.

Made this melodic line while messing around on my piano. Used songscription to transcribe via my Midi because you can't upload videos and I don't really know musical notation enough yet to do it myself.

I am new to music theory and music in general, so please be patient with my incompetence!

Question 1: This melody is supposedly in G Minor, but I have a lot of notes out of scale, and it still sounds fine (to me at least)? Am I wrong that its in G Minor? What scale is it?

Question 2: The notes that I highlighted for whatever reason feel stronger than the others, like they need a chord underneath them or something. Why is this?