Comments on: Basic Music Theory for Beginners

By: RobFonner

RobFonner — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:38:31 +0000

I’ve got you beat, Alexi! I have been playing for 38 years and this is the best out there! Thanks Gianni!

By: Gianni

Gianni — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:24:57 +0000

I agree…having said that, functional harmony has been around longer than most American colleges…:)

By: Carrie

Carrie — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:58:11 +0000

I think what he’s trying to say is that the notation he suggests is typically what is taught at the collegiate level here in America. That is probably why he suggests that it is “the generally accepted standard”.

By: Gianni

Gianni — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:46:40 +0000

Thanks for the feedback, I think I will keep adding to it in the near future, keep an eye on this page. Thanks for your comment!

By: Alexi

Alexi — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:45:11 +0000

I’m a guitarist and have played for about 7 years, the whole time kind of dipping my toe in theory .. this is one of the best theory basics ive seen! Diagrams are great.

By: Gianni

Gianni — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:21:25 +0000

Thanks for pointing out the couple of typos, I have fixed them. At the beginning of the last paragraph I mention ‘major scale in any key’ so I guessed it was clear I was talking about major scales.
I get what you say about the Roman numerals, but I wanted to keep this as simple and obvious as possible…the title is ‘basic music theory’ after all!

Also, please allow me a humorous comment about ‘the generally accepted standard’…I have been playing for over 25 years, most of which spent reading other musicians’ charts…I have yet to find two musicians/arrangers that notate the same way!

Thanks for your comment.

By: Bmaj

Bmaj — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:40:59 +0000

You shouldn’t have to put “IIm” you should use lower case i and throw out the m. So it should be: I ii iii IV V vi vii°

This should also be reflected in your roman numeral seventh chords. Also you use a lower case m for minor and a upper case M for major. They should be IM7 ii7, iii7, IVM7, V7, vi7 viiø7

(the minor 7th is implied you only need to specify M, o, and ø as m, and Mm chords both have m 7ths)

The word is diminished not diminuished.

“valid for all 12 keys”??? Really? What about the minor ones? What about modes? All 12 major keys, I believe is what you mean.

Db has four flats, eh?

There’s multiple ways of notating things, but this is the generally accepted standard.

By: MusicOfSongs

MusicOfSongs — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:57:37 +0000

Great, you put it all on the one page!! All the basics of music theory are here! Thanx!!

By: Gianni

Gianni — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:19:08 +0000

that is not supposed to be solfege…it’s just the name of the notes in Italian (I am Italian an this article was originally in Italian)…I will edit that section as it proved to cause some confusion.

By: Ryan Furrer

Ryan Furrer — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:28:47 +0000

Um, in the VERY first table, B is “Ti” in the C Major Scale. “Si” is something completely different, it’s the raised 5th interval of a scale, or the raised “Sol.”