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Theory & Forms

Keys, scales, harmony, rhythm and the forms that organise a piece.

Theory & Forms

Keys and scales: the map behind the notes

Major and minor, tonality and why a key is a home rather than a limit.

Theory & Forms

Rhythm and metre: pulse, beat and bar

How a steady pulse turns into metre, and how syncopation plays against it.

Theory & Forms

Harmony basics: chords, cadences and tension

How chords support a melody and how a cadence tells you a phrase has closed.

Theory & Forms

Sonata form: exposition, development, recapitulation

The three-part shape behind countless first movements, described in plain terms.

How to use this portal. Pick a composer or a single work, listen once without reading, then come back to the guide and listen again. Music rewards the second hearing far more than the first, and the vocabulary you pick up here is meant to make that second hearing sharper.