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https://github.com/vpavlenko/study-music

An "awesome music theory" kinda wiki with books, resources and courses for studying everything about music and sound
https://github.com/vpavlenko/study-music

ableton art classical-music composition ear-training edm electronic-music instrument jazz livecoding microtonality music music-education music-history music-theory musicology piano sound sound-design synth

Last synced: 2 months ago
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An "awesome music theory" kinda wiki with books, resources and courses for studying everything about music and sound

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
Awesome Music Theory [![Awesome](https://cdn.rawgit.com/sindresorhus/awesome/d7305f38d29fed78fa85652e3a63e154dd8e8829/media/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome)

===



Where to start

---






**Play**

1. [Pentatonic sequencer](https://www.maxlaumeister.com/tonematrix/)

2. [Music Mouse 🐭](https://teropa.info/musicmouse/)

3. [The Infinite Drum Machine 🥁](https://experiments.withgoogle.com/ai/drum-machine/view/) or [Groove Pizza](https://apps.musedlab.org/groovepizza/) or [Groove Pizzeria](https://tylerbisson.com/Groove-Pizzeria/)

4. [Chord Player](https://www.onemotion.com/chord-player/) (check out "Melody" and "Explore" tabs) or [aQWERTYon](https://apps.musedlab.org/aqwertyon/)

5. [Touch Pianist 🧙](https://touchpianist.com/)



**Interact**

1. Go through [Ableton's guide on music](https://learningmusic.ableton.com/) and [Ableton's guide on synths](https://learningsynths.ableton.com/)

1. [Bartosz Ciechanowski. Sound](https://ciechanow.ski/sound/)

2. [Chrome Music Lab](https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/)

16. [🤖 AI demos](https://github.com/affige/genmusic_demo_list): [Magenta](https://magenta.tensorflow.org/demos/), [MusicLM](https://google-research.github.io/seanet/musiclm/examples/), [LakhNES](https://chrisdonahue.com/LakhNES/), [Muzic](https://ai-muzic.github.io/), [Jazz Transformer](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-EeV02jvRftdvwWXa0KpoMvyRQaXUJ0W)



**Wander around**

1. See structures of Western music in [**rawl.rocks**](https://rawl.rocks/)

1. Explore [Hooktheory's TheoryTab](https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab): search for your favorite songs and anime openings. 

1. [Ishkur's evolution of electronic music](https://music.ishkur.com/)

12. Press Alt+"scan" at [Every Noise 🌐](https://everynoise.com/)

13. Piano rolls in 12 colors: [Famicom/NES 👾](https://rawl.rocks/browse/Nintendo), [popular music in MIDI](https://rawl.rocks/)

15. [TuttiTempi: Chopin's Funeral March ⚰️](https://tuttitempi.com/#scoreId=U00000578581&from=0.5622&to=0.8122&youtube=1&spotify=0&muziekweb=0)

10. Click "Show Timeline" for patterns similar to octatonic used in jazz solos: [upward](https://dig-that-lick.hfm-weimar.de/similarity_search/search?id=8855&target_layout=&group_by=&task_id=6c3656c4-724b-401a-a69a-4f874adddafc), [downward](https://dig-that-lick.hfm-weimar.de/similarity_search/search?id=8856&target_layout=&group_by=&task_id=dce240ac-68c9-49f4-90f5-636e0ad2d15b)

11. See how form can be visualized in [MusicPlot](https://wlouie1.github.io/MusicPlot/musicplot.html) and in [BriFormer](https://www.brianedwardjarvis.com/MusicTheoryWebApps/BriFormer/briformer.html)



**Watch**

1. How a track emerges:

   - [on the OP-1 🎛️](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu5XB1Y2rHk)

   - [in a studio with live instruments 🎻](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CGBfbB4g0Y)

   - [on a vocal looper 🎤](https://youtu.be/nvIGCMhjkvw?t=39)

   - [in TidalCycles 💻](https://youtu.be/etAZbQtggSQ?t=124)

   - Also, [a Piano Phase jam in TidalCycles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-lcAajQxo)

3. [Ravel's Bolero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p-mwp0nNac)

2. [The Art of Mixing 🎚️](https://youtu.be/TEjOdqZFvhY?t=25)

4. [Nopia 🎹](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivuy9QYLFVY) - a chord-based synthesizer

2. 🍿 Two-chord changes typical for movie soundtracks: [LP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I33UqUhKE10), [H](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LCDlv33y4M), [T6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V1Mfmdt8lA), [S](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfYU1F0pJik), [F and N](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHs3gdouz68)

14. Watch [a gamelan multitrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccHTOepjK_s) and try to [make sense of it](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oKbYpSAcunMTvB-casuFUyiaSuHGJkJhGf5rrvfOPgE/edit), maybe with a help of [a larger multitrack for another piece](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE93bF0dooU)



**Read**

1. [📚 Hooktheory 📚](https://hooktheory.com/affiliate/275-2-3-1.html) - interactive books on pop harmony. A must-read for anyone

1. [Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People](https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/the-whole-enchilada-set.pdf) 

1. Dig into the structure of [Beethoven's sonata #5 movement #1](https://rawl.rocks/f/beethoven_sonate_5_1st), also see what we as a society [**know about it**](parts/beethoven_op10no1mov1.md).

17. Visualizations: [**classical**](parts/classical_visualizations.md), [**jazz harmony**](parts/jazz_harmony_visualizations.md), [**jazz solos**](parts/jazz_solo_visualizations.md), [**rock**](parts/rock_visualizations.md)



**Sing**

1. [Arabic maqamat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN7E1pc8Y2Y&list=PLcfDkfaWrWRRcgUawWPz4bdL0Co17rphx)

2. [Indonesian gamelan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99GFmJmiwZA)



**Лекции**

- [🎥 Есть мои видеолекции](https://t.me/keetezh/1055)



Western music languages

---






Music languages can be divided into a number of families. Historically, the most dominant and influencial one is Western family of languages. Its languages share some common traits:

- 12 equal temperament

- major-minor tonality, limited modes (dorian/mixolydian) with limited harmonic schemata (shuttles)

- homophony: melody over chords, chords give a separate narrative, chords reuse schemata (functional harmony, cadences, progressions), chords shape a voice-leading space for melody and bass

- chords as stacked thirds

- any of the 12 notes can be a tonic

- after two repetitions of any idea there should be a contrasting idea

- mostly 4/4 and 3/4

- verbatim recital of scores by musicians, limited improvisation, expression in micropauses and velocity arcs, but not in extensive idiosyncratic ornamentations



The languages are (roughly speaking):

- [**Rock**](parts/rock.md) - probably worth exploring the first, as it's the simplest and pretty popular. It makes sense to start here and expand into other Western languages later on - as they share a lot of concepts. Rock here is an umbrella term for pop, soul/RnB, blues rock, folk rock, alternative, punk, prog, and heavy metal. [**Advanced**](parts/advanced_rock.md)

- [**Classical**](parts/classical.md) - the biggest chapter here, as it's the main focus of research and teaching until recently (despite its unpopularity according to [streaming stats](https://headphonesaddict.com/music-genre-statistics/) and [**decolonization ideas**](parts/decolonization.md). Subtopics: [**pre-classical**](parts/pre_classical.md), [**advanced**](parts/classical_advanced.md), [**Bach chorales**](parts/bach_chorales.md)

- [**Jazz**](parts/jazz.md). Subtopics: [**harmony**](parts/jazz_harmony.md), [**lego**](parts/lego.md), [**solo**](parts/jazz_solo.md)

- [**Groove/blues**](parts/groove.md) - funk, R&B

- [**Barbershop**](parts/barbershop.md)

- [**Movies (neo-Riemannian)**](parts/movies.md)

- [**Video games**](parts/vgm.md)

- [**EDM**](parts/edm.md)

- Other genres like country, gospel, contemporary worship music, rap

- Western regional traditions (eg. [Latin](https://www.halleonard.com/menu/562/latin), flamenco?)



Somewhat related to that are church chants: Gregorian, Byzantine, Armenian, [Znamenny](https://files.tandav.me/orthodox-midi/rawl.html)



Non-Western music languages

---



Non-Western music languages are different families. As they were developed all over the globe, they don't share many common features.



The gradient of families is (roughly speaking):

- [**Balkan languages**](parts/balkan.md) - rooted in maqam (scales like hijaz and rhythms like 7/8, 9/8), shaped by 12 equal temperament and Western harmonization strategies

- [**Maqam languages**](parts/maqam_languages.md) - microtonal scales, monophony and heterophony

- [**Indian music**](parts/indian.md)

- [**Gamelan**](parts/gamelan.md), [**piphat**](parts/piphat.md) and other gong chime languages

- many other traditions: [**Chinese**](parts/chinese.md), [**Kyrgyz komuz**](parts/kyrgyz.md),  [**Georgian polyphonic singing**](parts/georgian.md), [**Japanese**](parts/japanese.md), [**Amazonian**](parts/amazonian.md) etc etc



[**Broad overview on non-Western languages**](parts/non_western_languages.md)



Topics

---






- [**Research**](parts/research.md)

   - [MusoRepo: a Directory of Resources for Computational Musicology](https://fourscoreandmore.org/musoRepo/) - curated by Mark Gotham

   - [**corpus studies**](parts/corpus.md)

   - [**expressive performance**](parts/expressive.md)

   - [**interactive harmonic analysis**](parts/harmonic_analysis.md)

- [**Composition, orchestration, conducting**](parts/composition.md)

- [**Visualizations and notation**](parts/visualizations.md)

- [**Maps of genres**](parts/maps_of_genres.md)

- [**Listening guides**](parts/listening_guides.md) - how to enjoy classical music without a deep commitment to learn theory

- [**Ear training**](parts/ear_training.md)

- [**Piano**](parts/piano.md), [**guitar**](parts/guitar.md)

- [**Rhythm**](parts/rhythm.md)

- [**Topics, tropes, meaning**](parts/meaning.md)

- [**Pseudoscience**](parts/pseudoscience.md)

- [**Improvisation**](parts/improvisation.md)

- [**Sociology**](parts/sociology.md)

- [**Psychology**](parts/psychology.md)

- [**YouTube, podcasts and lists of resources**](parts/youtube_and_podcasts.md)



Topics on electronic music

---






- [**Sound design**](parts/sound_design.md)

- [**Digital composition**](parts/digital_composition.md)

- [**Neural networks**](parts/nn.md), [**🔥 tokenization**](research/nns.md)

- [**🔥 Transcription**](parts/transcription.md)

- [**Mixing**](parts/mixing.md)

- [**Microtonal music**](parts/microtonal.md)

- [**Notable instruments**](parts/instruments.md)

- [Institute of Sonology: One-Year Course](http://sonology.org/one-year-course-admission/)



Contacts

---



I post updates and other rant on music theory on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/vitalypavlenko) (in English) and on [Telegram](https://t.me/keetezh) (in Russian)



I'm always happy to chat about visualisation-aided music education and research popularisation. Also, I constantly feel severely deprived of communication with the real academic theoretic community, so drop me a line ;)



Also, if you're in the UK, and especially in London, drop me a line and let's grab coffee.