Concepts
The encyclopedia half of Theory Aide: one idea per article, explained in plain English first, with the real analysis engine embedded where seeing it work beats reading about it. Jargon links to the dictionary. New articles accumulate one at a time.
The Math
A note is a number, and consonance is arithmetic. Watch two waves add up into what your ear actually receives.
Pitch and octave
Double any frequency and you land on the same note, higher. Hear the octave melt into one sound, then bend it and hear it argue.
What is a note
A note is a number: how many times per second the air moves. Dial a frequency, watch the wave, and hear it.
The piano roll
Pitch up, time across, length is duration. Live's grid is real notation, and you can already read it.
Organizing time
Hear a rhythm accelerate until it becomes a pitch, then ride the zoom lens from song form all the way down to timbre. It is time slices the whole way.
Intervals
The distance between two notes, counted in semitones, heard as a flavor. Taste seven of them with two live tones.
Triads
Stack two thirds and you have a chord. Build all four flavors and let the real engine name what you're hearing.
The major scale
The step pattern most Western music walks on, climbable from any root. Two two one, two two two one.
Melody
Steps, leaps, and contour: what makes a sequence of notes feel like a line with a shape instead of a list.
Keys
Pick a scale and one note becomes home. Hear the same melody land, then hang one row short, and feel the gravity.
The circle of fifths
Twelve keys arranged so neighbors differ by one note. Click around the wheel and hear how far from home you are.
Voices
A voice is one continuous line, whether or not anyone is singing. Your bass and your lead are already two of them.
Motion types
Parallel, similar, oblique, contrary: every pair of moving voices is doing one of four things, ranked by independence.
Counterpoint
The craft of keeping simultaneous melodies independent, with the actual Counterpoint Checker running live in your browser.