Knowledge base
music theory
What Is Chromatic Harmony, and How Do Chromatic Chords Add Colour Without Changing the Key?
Chromatic Harmony Explained: Adding Colour Beyond the Major and Minor ScalesDiatonic harmony provides the basic harmonic vocabulary of major and minor keys. It gives chords their familiar functions… read more
What Is the Difference Between Direct Modulation and Sequential Modulation in Music?
Direct and Sequential Modulation: Two Ways to Change Tonal DirectionNot every modulation needs to be smooth or gradual.
Some composers prefer to move directly into a new key, creating a sudden change… read more
What Are Closely Related Keys in Music, and Which Keys Can You Modulate to from C Major?
Closely Related Keys: Choosing Destinations for ModulationWhen composers move from one key to another, they do not always choose a completely unrelated tonal centre.
Many modulations take place… read more
What Is Modulation in Music, and How Does a Composer Establish a New Key?
Modulation Explained: How Music Moves from One Key to AnotherA piece of music does not have to remain in the same key from beginning to end. Composers can move between tonal centres, creating contrast, expanding the… read more
What Is Voice Leading in Music, and How Does It Make Chord Progressions Sound Smooth and Connected?
Voice Leading: How Individual Notes Create Harmonic MovementHarmony describes the relationship between chords. Voice leading describes how the individual notes within those chords move from… read more
What Is a Musical Phrase and How Do Cadences Define Its Beginning and Ending?
Musical Phrases and Cadences: How Harmony Creates Musical StructureA melody can consist of a sequence of individual notes, but music becomes much more meaningful when those notes are organised into phrases.
… read moreWhat Are Plagal, Deceptive and Phrygian Cadences?
Chord Formulas and Musical Examples
Plagal, Deceptive and Phrygian Cadences: Three Alternative Ways to Shape Harmonic MovementNot every musical phrase needs to end with a conventional dominant-to-tonic resolution.
Tonal… read more
What Is the Difference Between Perfect Authentic, Imperfect Authentic and Half Cadences?
Authentic Cadences and Half Cadences: Understanding Harmonic Closure and SuspensionOne of the most important distinctions in tonal harmony is the difference between a musical phrase that feels complete… read more
What Are the Six Main Types of Musical Cadences?
Perfect, Imperfect, Half, Plagal, Deceptive and Phrygian
The Six Main Types of Musical Cadences: A Guide to Harmonic EndingsA musical cadence is much more than a sequence of two chords. It is one of the fundamental ways in which… read more
What Are Seventh Chords?
How to Build Major, Minor, Dominant and Half-Diminished Seventh Chords
Understanding Seventh Chords: Structure, Types and Harmonic FunctionSeventh chords are among the most important building blocks of modern harmony. They extend the familiar three-note… read more