How to play ornaments on the piano. We take a melody and fill it with the most commonly used ornaments, explaining what all the different signs for musical ornaments are and how each should be played. The lesson covers the Trill, the...

What is Enharmonic equivalent in music? Why is the same note sometimes called A# and sometimes Bb? Why is F sometimes known as E#? Why do we have double sharps and double flats? This music theory lesson explains the matter of...

As we continue our Chords series, today we look at the chords that can be made using the major and minor keys - which are called Diatonic Chords.

Learn all about the Picardy Third and Picardy Cadence, otherwise known as the Tierce de Picarde. The Tierce da Picardie is a musical device often used by composers to provide an optimistic finish to a piece in a minor key. The Tierce da...

Always wanted to compose or improvise a professional accompaniment to a melody on the piano? In this music performance lesson we consider not only how to fit chords to a melody but also how to come up with a really effective...

The famous Dido’s Lament from ‘Dido and Aeneas’ by Henry Purcell. Features of Purcell’s style are unpacked and the word painting & emotional life of the music are explored. A Ground Bass is repeated 11 times, while the melodic line and...

As far back as the 7th Century BC, Chinese music theorists and mathematicians realized that the Octave wasn't quite even. So, for the next 2100 years they tried various things before eventually coming to a conclusion in 1584. Today, we...

What is the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures? Mathematically it appears that 3/4 and 6/8 are two versions of the same thing. On the face of it, there may appear to be little difference between music in 3/4 time or music in...

So far we have only looked at cadences that end back on the tonic. Today we are going to look at a cadence that goes in a completely DIFFERENT direction - the deceptive cadence. Instead of ending on the tonic, this cadence starts on the...

What are major scales? How do we build them? Why should you never use E# Major? Is there a Formula for Major Scales? All this and more today on Two Minute Music Theory! Season 3, Episode 3

I've gotten a lot of questions about Interval Inversions over on Twitter, so I give a run down of inversions on today's Q+A.

Season 1, Episode 8 How do you know what the two numbers at the beginning of a piece of music mean? Are they a fraction? Will any two numbers work? Find out today How To Read Time Signatures on Two Minute Music Theory.

Can you answer these questions about time signatures? This music theory lesson offers a quiz in which you get to decide what the time signature should be in a number of different bars. Sometimes there is more than one solution but how do...

Since I released the Intro to the Harmonic Series video, I've gotten a lot of questions asking what you can do with it. So, I thought we might look at a practical application of it, Writing and Voicing Chords.

Season 1, Episode 9 What are simple, compound and complex meter and how do they work? Can 17/24 exist? Learn how to classify time signatures.

How Bach makes use of multiple suspensions, often overlapping each other, in one of his chorale workings. We also take a look at the choice of harmony, the part writing, dealing with harmonic and melodic minor, plus other features of the...

Music Matters demonstrates "Identifying Consecutive Fifths and Octaves"

Singing tips for music exams and aural tests. Lots of musicians find themselves being asked to sing, even when they don’t consider themselves singers. For example you may be asked to sing in the Aural Tests for a music exam and you may...

In this advanced sight reading video we explore a two part invention from the perspective of how to sight read a more advanced piano piece, the level of sight reading is that required by many music exam boards for diploma exams. You...

This video takes a look at reading time signatures in today's video. It also looks at some of the more common time signatures and go over some examples.

A look at the beauty of Schubert’s melodic writing and how it interacts with his use of harmony and texture. This composer insights lesson takes the opening of Schubert’s Andante from his Piano Sonata in A and explores the melodic design...

Understand the difference between 2/2 and 4/4 time signatures. Mathematically it appears that 2/2 and 4/4 are two versions of the same thing. Musically they are quite distinct because 2/2 contains two minim beats per bar, while 4/4...

How good is your harmony? Are there mistakes that commonly catch you out when writing harmony. This music theory lesson presents a passage of four-part harmony, test your harmony knowledge and try to answer these questions about chords,...

When you look at a rhythm how good are you at identifying the time signature that most appropriately fits it? How do you know if a rhythm should be in 6/8 or in 3/4, especially when the notes in any given bar add up to the same...