Tag: beginner theory

Articles with entry-level theory. Use for courses on guitar, piano, reading music.

  • What Is a Leading Tone?

    What Is a Leading Tone?

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. In the above video, courtesy of Soundfly’s very popular online course, Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords, NYU and Montclair State University adjunct professor of music technology, Ethan…

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  • Conquering the Sight Singing Challenge

    Conquering the Sight Singing Challenge

    Sight singing: If you are a vocalist, it’s likely you’ve made it your whole career without having to perform this dreaded task. But despite requiring a bit of work to master, being able to transform sheet to sound can make you more marketable, versatile, and easy to work with than the endless number of talented…

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  • The Basics of the Minor Pentatonic Scale for Guitar

    The Basics of the Minor Pentatonic Scale for Guitar

    By Kathy Dickson If you have been a guitarist for any length of time, you’ve no doubt heard about scales and how you need to know them. But let’s face it, the sheer number of scales to learn can be overwhelming. They smack of theory and are boring to play, right? In truth, scales are…

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  • 4 Tips for Technique and Posture on the Piano

    As Oscar Peterson once said, “technique is something you use to make your ideas listenable.” Until you’ve built up a bit of pianistic muscle memory, trying to play with good technique can feel super awkward. If you’ve taken private lessons, you’ve probably rolled your eyes at a few reminders to relax your wrists and play…

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  • 3 Common Broken Chord Patterns to Inspire Beginner Pianists

    3 Common Broken Chord Patterns to Inspire Beginner Pianists

    This video is an excerpt of our free course “Music Theory for Beginner Pianists.” The piano is an astounding instrument. It offers players the opportunity to experiment with a nearly endless range of textures, dynamics, and even timbres. Of course, being faced with all those options can be pretty overwhelming, especially for those who are…

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  • 8 Ways to Improve Your Improvisational Skills Right Now

    8 Ways to Improve Your Improvisational Skills Right Now

    Improvisation is a complex beast to tackle. You can’t go about the process by just “making it up.” If it seems to you like that’s all Miles Davis is doing when he plays, keep in mind that the best improvisers are the ones who manage to create an illusion of effortlessness, but actually put meticulous…

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  • Check Out Our New Creative Music Courses

    Check Out Our New Creative Music Courses

    These days, it seems like anywhere you turn you encounter prophecies of doom about the state of modern music. Label execs with money on their minds see shrinking sales and panic. Tastmakers see hit factories churning out the same songs again and again and decry the end of creative expression. But from our vantage point, we…

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