Music Theory Guides
Practical, hands-on articles on identifying chords, reading notation, and learning with MIDI.
Music Theory Learning Guide: From Chords to Analysis
Not sure where to begin? Start here. A roadmap that ties the four core skills — identifying chords, notation, functional analysis, and the app — in order.
Seventh Chords: 5 Types, Half vs Fully Diminished
Seventh chords explained: major, dominant, minor, half-diminished and fully diminished, with a chart, a 4-step method and the one-note difference.
Borrowed Chords: Modal Interchange and Chords Outside the Key
Borrowed chords explained: modal interchange, ♭III, iv, ♭VI and ♭VII from the parallel minor, how they differ from secondary dominants, worked examples.
How to Find the Key of a Song From Its Chords
How to find the key of a song from its chords: collect the notes, find the scale, then use the dominant chord and the final cadence to pick major or minor.
Chord Inversions: How to Identify, Write and Hear Them
Chord inversions explained: find the bass note, write C/E or I6, label 6/4, V6/5, V4/3 and V4/2, use the cadential 6/4, and learn to hear inversions by ear.
Voice Leading Rules: Parallel Fifths and Octaves Explained
Voice leading rules for four-part harmony: parallel and hidden fifths and octaves, leading-tone and seventh resolution, and how to check your own exercises.
Music School Audition Preparation: How to Train Your Ear at Home
Candidates rarely fail on their instrument — they fail on aural skills and theory. Ear training that measures the note you sing, plus intervals, sight-singing and harmony, practised alone at home.
How to Write Notation From a MIDI Keyboard: A Practical Guide
Connect the keyboard by USB or Bluetooth, turn the notes you play into live grand-staff notation, and get the enharmonic spelling right.
What Is Functional Harmony? Roman Numerals and Chord Function
Roman numerals, tonic-subdominant-dominant functions, and how to find a chord's role in a key step by step. Understand chords instead of memorizing them.
How to Use Michord: A Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide
Install, sign in, connect a MIDI keyboard, and see every chord you play as live grand-staff notation, chord symbols, and functional analysis.
How to Identify Piano Chords: Name Any Chord You Play
Find the root, name the chord, spot inversions, and use functional analysis to place a chord in its key. A step-by-step method plus the real-time approach.