I'm in the same position as you, OP. I've been flapping my gums for a long ass time about wanting to learn music theory and I finally started to put my money where my mouth is recently. I had some lessons a while ago, so I understand the essentials of scales and chords, but not a whole lot else.

Check out Michael New on Youtube as well. He does some good stuff that's just beyond absolute beginner difficulty, which is appropriate for my level of musical understanding.

Me, I've been simply playing/practicing on the Push and my guitar for about an hour a day. That helps somewhat. I brush up on scales on a regular basis. That helps a bit, but I think the most important thing is to understand that you can't really approach it on a macro scale. In my (limited) experience you have to learn little pieces of it one by one, and eventually when you have enough small pieces, things will begin to click.

I think it also pays a lot to focus on ear training. If you're watching a tutorial that talks about a minor third and you don't know what that sounds like, or at least what the interval is, all you're learning is a bunch of stuff that symbolically points to aspects of music, but you gain little to no understanding of the actual music it's supposed to represent.

 

Why don't you check ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Music_theory
You can learn everything from there - from the note names to advanced stuff that's only useful for musical analysis or composing abstract pieces useful only for scoring horror movies...

 

Hack Music Theory or 12 Music Theory Hacks by Ray Harmony

The shortest book which will give you the most essential MT knowledge

You can pay for it or get it for free if you subscribe to their site

 

I thought this guy was fairly good in explaining things

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHBXF6oIsTV5bS11N2CODGg/playlists

 

what they dont tell you is that Theory is one thing but ultimately you need a good musical ear to progress otherwise you will get stuck doing basic things.
moving to the next level takes time an dedication, you must train your ear to recognize automatically each note, don't think that your sequencer can replace all this becuase it's not true unless all your songs sound the same and you always use the same notes or chords.

i agree that lots of Hits are super simple and made of 2-3 notes at all but that's a choice of the composer, not the result of a lack of skills.

if you refuse to learn the basics this is the best you can achieve :

 

it so complex so much information that you have to take a college course on it i will give you one for free right now

there are 47 videos in full for free, this i promise is the quickest way to learn music theory sir.

 

that track was a massive hit, same as don't laugh by wink which is equally simple.
simple/fun doesn't mean bad, come on we should all know this by now

 

Guys, I took guitar lessons several years ago, but after one year my teacher died (heart attack). And now I am trying to compose a little and work with sequencers, but feeling like I need to know the theory of music for better understanding. I want to get one of these but already have a synth (with no pads) and don't know if I should replace my Yamaha with one of those controllers

 

Last edited: Oct 23, 2019

Hello
I'm happy to assist you from here friend.

Which separate language would you like to do more with?

Tonal music language ( subdominant, dominant and tonic)
Language is based in tension and release consinance and dissonance based in a tonal center point.)

Modal music language ( based on unity ,and vertical sound )

Atonal language ( equality of the 12 notes , using the notes like drums )

 

Yo this is sweet! Thank you


Edit: I just realized this post is 5 years old smh

 

lolz old thread

just get a book from libgen and work through it, there are no shortcuts
there are anti-shortcuts aka time-wasters though, like most theory videos on YT

 

Check out this wonderful youtube channel from a lovely American music teacher called Karen Ramirez. She has an incredible way of explaining music theory in the most simplest of terms . Wonderful for a beginner and even a seasoned musician could learn something from her
https://www.youtube.com/c/KarenRamirez91200

 

Every University in the world has a theory fundamentals class that teaches what you are asking for with degree qualified tutors. They're generally not that expensive and you also get to ask questions with a human present. If any video is not a fully qualified and certified expert then it's not certified. If you found fundamentals useful, the Professors will often point you to other classes in what you also asked up to advanced ear training, solfege and more advanced theory as you get through it systematically. Qualified people won't throw you in the deep end straight away, they'll make sure you understood what came before so they know what they will pass to you next won't bamboozle you.
It also depends on whether you want to do it that way of course. As for which is better, that or online, opinions will always vary.
If you can get one-on-one fundamentals training with someone who is qualified that is even better and faster. It also depends if you want it for free or not.
You get what you pay for.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 17, 2021

Learn the fundamentals of Harmony:
Intervals
Chord construction, all types of triads, four part harmony, arpeggios etc
Later, Scale construction

Learn basic tools:
Chords, types and shapes, inversions,
first CAGED, then Barre chords, then get a sheet of 7th chords so you can apply them to jazz standards and the like..
5 Pentatonic Scales + blues note (feat. major and minor pentatonic blues scales)
7 Modes of the Major Scale

Know it inside out,
Practice and apply it in all possible ways/contexts etc..

Then:
Keep refining your Chords skills and knowledge..

Later get into:
Melodic and Harmonic Minor modes
Diminished Scales and Wholetone/Hexatonic scale

Get into:
All possible music styles:
Bluess, Jazz and Fusion (Bossanova, Latin, Funk, Rock), Funk, Reggae, Rock, Metal, Folk, World, Manouche, Balkan, Flamenco..

In any case just "learn, think, practice, sleep" ad infinitum..

If you learn everything in this list, and still don't understand a thing,
you're not doing it right.. lol

IOW make sure you get a complete understanding of every little part and concept before you move to the next,
there's not one single way of thinkin about harmony, but eventually you will form your own..
maybe you could be more of a note spelling guy, or a tetra-chords guy, or an intervals type guy, etc

All approaches are valid as long as you know and follow the rules,
some could be more practical or easy to interiorize than other tho,
in that sense I recommend going with Intervals.

And that's pretty much it, on a Basic/generic level..
beyond that it's more of a personal journey which will depend on whats your goals/motivations and interests,
which instruments you play, the music styles you prefer, and so on and forth..

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2021

as much as i think 95 percent of his stuff is him being utter pretentious busy works beats did a great couple of videos and release a nice free music theory book explaining how to write cords and melody's in a daw sense.

 

First of all & most important: If you play by ear - learn recognizing what you hear. Define what you hear. Find the rules that the harmonies (almost) always follow. They are there each time you listen to a song.
The stuff you asked for is just the names & terms of all this. Major / minor, modes, scales & their inherent rules, cadenzas, counterpoint etc. - in itself just pretty unmusical stuff (if you solely focus on the designations, actually).
So it would be quite important to link the learning of terms with the sounds you already heard.
Ear training AND learning the names of these intervals, chords, scales is the key first step I think.

Being quick & effective? Easy, if you have the chance to focus on this for ~two weeks.

Just my 2¢

 

There is no real suggestion for quickly and effectively learning music theory.

Do you really want to learn music theory? Then be ready to invest your time. Furthermore, it is not only about learning, but also practicing. It takes time.

Never fall for Youtube BS like Music Theory in 10 minutes.

Learning counterpoint has dramatically improved my composition and keyboard playing skills.

 

Last edited: Oct 22, 2025

As someone who has an upper-intermediate knowledge of music theory, I can also tell that I've never used the Circle of Fifths.

 

Musicians Institute(MI) Harmony and Theory or Berklee Press Theory book 1 are excellent books. MI also has a decent book on eartraining.

 

You can learn music theory for a long time. Basically you will learn a lot of rules about what note you can play after any other note, so that it will sound ok. Finally you will end up at the realization that you can play any note after any other note. It really depends on the note after these notes, if it will sound good or bad.