...the basics of counterpoint.

How to write horn charts.

it is a language to communicate musical ideas and not a set of rules that limit creativity

(i wish i had learned that earlier, i guess is what i mean. were we looking for unexplored territory?)

Hmm, well I'd like to learn how to form chords, but you need to know scales and intervals for that, too, so is that really just one thing?

Keys, I guess.

@ianuarius yeah, not one thing, but the basics really, and a great place to start.
@plainwhitetoast 100% with you on that one but yeah - what’s the next thing?
@charliecheney did you mean arrange for horns (write out the notes), write lead sheets (just the chords), or sth else?

I’d like to be able to write four part fugues but I guess that’s more practice than theory.

@leepat writing out the charts to hand to a horn section so they can play their parts.

Probably good voice leading. To get away from thinkin in terms of vertical blocks of chords and start thinking in terms of moving lines of notes.

For a beginner I’d say the circle of fifths.

^ What @jonmeta said. "Chord progressions" aren't real, voice leading and cadences are what underlies them.

Edit: that's a thing *I had* to learn, past tense, I guess. But a hypothetical newbie should know it too.

The best spots to break free from it.

The circle of fifths

Modes, how they *all* work and how to recognise them *all*.

Some interesting stuff that everyone's bringing up. I'm not even sure if this is a thing someone could study, but I'd like to learn more about how harmonies, intervals and rhythms and combining them together in different ways create different emotions. Most of the time when I write music I'm just shooting in the dark, and sometimes it's emotionally effective, sometimes it's not. I wish it were possible to be consistent, but maybe that's not possible for anyone, idk.

I know all the basics that matter for popular music (which is all I have an interest in writing), there are a lot of classical and advanced ideas I don't understand, but I don't really care about them too much. It's the stuff I mentioned above that I really wish I could understand better.

So much stuff, but I'd love to start with a better understanding of modes. I'm starting to scratch at the surface of it all.

Yes.

How to recognize what key I'm singing in? Lol. When in doubt, it's something stupid like C# minor, but still.

How the notes on a guitar corresponds to the notes on a piano!

@tawny249 The note you end on, the one that sounds resolved, is generally the key you're in, I've found.

@tawny249 I've always wondered how to do that too. I have a pretty goo range,,and some songs I can sing in more than one key-- it's very confusing. But -- I really should learn more about drum and percussion. It's hard to get a drummer to do what you want when you give them directions like " I want a big "boom" here and then during the chorus the "tstststst
thing..."

MIT open courseware has a counterpoint course IIRC. I’m sure some of the MOOCs have one though you might have to pay for one of those. First step to learning something is to give it a shot I think.

@ianuarius 's comment is dead on target. All the concepts that everyone has mentioned, and probably all the useful ideas that exist in music theory (Western music theory, at any rate) are not "one thing" to learn. Keys, modes, voice leading, etc. are all secondary or tertiary concepts. That is, ideas that require understanding one or several more-basic concepts. And some of these are based on still-more-basic concepts.

I'd say that @plainwhitetoast 's comment is probably the only singular idea in music theory. It does not limit creativity. It is just a language to describe the sounds we make. It's worth knowing. It may never be helpful. (Unlikely, but not impossible.) But it cannot be harmful!

The ethiopian traditional pentatonic scale(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qenet).
It's not (very) usefull, I know. 😄 But the last thing heard about is always the coolest.

For me, I simplify it with a DAW. Kinda makes it relative as opposed to absolute.

To hear modality and know exactly how to solo as a result; like Steve Lukather

...to have Jacob Collier's brain!

hey guys,
I'm looking for 3 good souls to be my guinea pigs and take complimentary music theory lessons from me (with a focus on its practical usefulness for songwriting)...
hit me up if interested!
here's a sneak preview:
https://write.fawm.org/songs/24787

ok, down to 2 good souls (see previous).
perhaps one of you guys @charliecheney @ianuarius @cblack @jonmeta @tawny249 @muz @robertmyers @lute4life ?
someone else you know?
more info here: https://write.fawm.org/forums/1289
cheers!

@leepat Would be great during 5090 or something. Now, whatever I'll learn, I'd just forget. 🤣
I would be really interested in learning about the dominant stuff and all that, you know what I mean? Like Rainbow's Gates of Babylon has a guitar solo section with just bizarre chord progression, with some sort of diminished scale Neapolitan chord logic behind it.

@ianuarius or if you didn't forget it, you'll end up doing 500/90? ;)
let me check out that Rainbow song. my brain hurts from all the terminology you threw in there :)

@leepat Sure, sure!
It starts here around 3:45
https://youtu.be/z03ZRYh4GKY?t=225

last spot for a good soul wanting to whet their theory chops at my expense (see above)?