Two Innovations in Teaching Music Theory
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The Music Theory Advantage^TM is the fastest
and most effective way to learn how to:

• Name the note that is any interval from a Perfect 1st to a Perfect 8th above or below any given note. This includes the interval types of diminished, minor, Major, Augmented and Perfect. You will also learn how to name compound intervals above or below any given note.

• Spell all triad chords and five common types of seventh chords for any root. After learning to spell intervals you will also be able to easily spell any chord for any root once you memorize (or read) the chord type's interval structure.

• Spell the scales for all major and minor keys

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The music pieces in the video are from a series of learning exercises I created to
teach myself how to write music and are a couple of my first attempts to compose. Learning
to compose has been the most enjoyable part of my music theory studies, which I began in my 40's.

I created two methods, which will enable you to achieve the above tasks. The first method is an interval calculator that eliminates the need to memorize the hundreds of interval spellings required to be competent at working with musical intervals. Just memorize one seven note interval structure. Then learn a few simple rules. This gives you a very effective musical interval calculator that will enable you to spell all the intervals above or below any note. This method makes it possible for a student to spell a series of musical intervals as quickly and easily as they can count numbers. Not only do you learn to spell musical intervals, but you can develop more skill at spelling musical intervals with less time and effort than with any other method.

The second method is designed to make it very easy to memorize musical key signatures. This means you will know what notes are sharp or flat in every musical key. This knowledge is what you need to be able to spell the diatonic scales for all the musical keys. This method works by remembering a series of easy to learn images that decode into the number of sharps or flats. Numbers are difficult to remember, but images are very easy to remember. So, instead of remembering numbers of sharps or flats, you remember images. Both methods have been tested down to seven years of age with remarkable success. For example, in one half hour lesson, a seven year old with no prior music instruction was able to recite all the Major keys from memory. He was also able to correctly answer all questions of the type, "If a Major key has X number of sharps/flats, name those sharps/flats in the order they appear in the key signature." This was done with only thirty minutes of verbal instruction.

Although both methods work amazingly well with young students, such students do require supervision from a knowledgeable parent or music teacher. The ability to retain what you learn with both methods are excellent. It is easy to make the skills you develop in this course last for the rest of your musical life.

If you wish, you can skip the introduction and check out the course now.

Begin the Music Theory Advantage Course of Study!

Skip to the Scales Portion of the Course

Introduction

Why Learn to Spell Intervals?

Learning to spell musical intervals is a critical skill that lets you make the most of your ear training, and is fundamental to working with differences of pitch in music composition. Any student of music theory, who can quickly and easily spell musical intervals, has gained a powerful advantage in their study of music theory. This course makes it not only possible, but practical for music students to be able to spell musical intervals as easily as they can name adjacent numbers.

With this free online music theory course, you will learn to do the above tasks in your mind without the need for external reference. Not only will you learn how to do what is described above, but you will develop more skill and speed in these tasks with less time and work than with any other method. This free online course assumes that you have a working knowledge of basic concepts such as note, pitch, scale, key, interval, chord and their relationships to one another.

This course is excellent for beginners to the study of music theory, as remediation for first year college music majors, and is great for anyone of any skill level who is deficient in the music theory skills of spelling intervals and chords.

The Music Theory Advantage^TM Advanced Course Description (TL;DR)

The full course, which begins with a link at the bottom of this page, spells out the process in detail. However, the principles underlying this course are so simple that they can be quickly laid out for those who have a more thorough understanding of music theory. If you really know your music theory, but just need to improve your ability to spell intervals, or are a music teacher wanting to quickly evaluate the course, read the advanced course description. It is a quick, but highly condensed read. However, if you are unsure of your knowledge of music theory, or if you read the advanced version and it does not make sense, you should read the rest of the introductory material on this page and follow the link at the bottom to take the full course. The full course contains much more detailed descriptions of the process, illustrations and practice exercises.

The First Innovation: The Making of an Effective
Mental Musical Interval Calculator

While developing mathematics and music courses that have been used in public schools all over the United States, I realized that musical intervals and natural numbers are structurally identical. Furthermore, musical intervals function as numbers in the twelve tone equal temperament system relative to the manipulation and measurement of pitch differences in the creation and interpretation of music. This means that skill development priorities that have been proven necessary for learning mathematics will also be useful for music theory. This free online course is based on the idea of transferring the skill development priorities of basic mathematics to the study of music theory. You may read more about the development of this idea as well as a detailed illustration of the structural commonality of musical intervals and natural numbers here. In mathematics, you would never teach multiplication without first teaching a student how to count. Yet in music this is done all the time. The musical analogue to counting is the ability to spell intervals, which is usually either not learned or put off until later in musical studies. The reason is that counting numbers has a very obvious and linear progression that is easy to memorize. Musical intervals, in contrast to numbers, do not have as obvious a pathway to the memorization of all the interval spellings. The inability to spell musical intervals is a developmental deficit that significantly inhibits the progress of the student of music theory. Spelling intervals is as fundamental to pitch difference in music theory as counting is to mathematics. Thus, if one can accelerate skill development in interval spelling so that it is as easy as counting, it will have a very positive effect on the study of music theory.

To meet this new agenda of skill development, I had to equalize the task by making it about as easy to spell intervals as it is to learn to count. To do this, I created a new tool. The first step in creating this tool was to use an obvious simple structure that was easy to memorize, just like the single digit order is easy to memorize. This structure, which I call the Cycle of Thirds, is the bases of the new tool. The tool functions as a mental musical interval calculator. The mental musical interval calculator is why this course is the fastest and most effective way to learn interval spelling. It is also a very fast method to learn chord spelling. It is easy to spell all chords for any root just by knowing the interval structure of the chord when you first learn how to spell musical intervals. The methods in this course were tested down to seven years of age. Even a first year elementary school instrument student, who takes this course of study with the help of a knowledgeable parent or music teacher and follows through with the recommended practice, will be more competent at spelling intervals and chords by the end of their first year of study than many musically accomplished high school graduates entering the first year of their college music major. This course of study is designed to develop more essential skill in less time and with less work than any other method. With this course, anyone can quickly and easily learn how to spell musical intervals.

The Music Theory Advantage^TM significantly raises the bar of expectation when it comes to spelling intervals. Traditionally, if a high school music theory student is asked "What is a perfect fifth above C?", and in response to that question they spend a few seconds in thought to answer "G," the student is considered to be doing well. However, if you asked a high school student what number comes after five and they hesitated for a few seconds before answering six, you would be rightly concerned about their progress in mathematics. This course transfers the expectations of the skill development priorities of basic mathematics to music theory. Because spelling intervals is as fundamental to pitch difference in music theory as counting is to number differences in mathematics, all music theory students be able to spell all musical intervals as easily as math students can say that six comes after five or four comes before five. I have heard from college professors that say as many as half of college freshmen entering a music major are deficient in basic skills such as interval spelling. The problem with this is that music theory students should be able to spell intervals right at the beginning of their music theory studies. For the first time, this is possible for all students (even first year elementary school instrument students). It is the goal of this course for students to learn how to spell intervals so well that they can answer interval questions such as "Name a series of six perfect fifths above C." with the answer "G, D, A, E, B, F#" as easily as you can count from one to seven. With the musical interval calculator you will learn in this course, this is a realistic expectation. It will also be a lot faster and easier to develop such skill than you would imagine. If you used memorization to learn the interval spellings, there are hundreds of interval spellings to memorize. With The Music Theory Advantage^TM, you will not have to memorize all the intervals because you will carry a musical interval calculator around with you in your head.

The Second Innovation: A very simple way
to learn musical keys and scale spelling

Knowing the musical keys is fundamental to working with western music. This portion of The Music Theory Advantage^TM course is a method that makes it very easy to memorize the key signatures. It is the fastest and most effective method to learn the musical keys. Better yet, the retention of the information with this method is tremendous. You will be able to quickly learn to name what notes are sharp or flat in any musical key and be able to remember this information. This, of course, means that you will easily be able to spell all the scales for all the musical keys. This method uses very simple images which are related in unusual ways. The images are very easy to remember. Once you know the relationships between the images, you can use them to know what notes are sharp or flat in every key. This method turned out to be more effective than I though possible. The basic methods I used to construct this imaged based memory system came from the book, "How to Remember Anything" by Dean Vaughn. My speed record for teaching someone to spell all the Major scales is twenty minutes (verbal instruction).  You can jump to the scales portion of the course here, or see the course index link at the top of the page. If you are interested in learning the spelling of scales first, you can learn the spelling of the Major scales right away. However, the spelling of the natural minor scales uses the information of the relative major key to derive the scale information. You must know how to find a minor 3rd above or below any note before trying to use this course to spell the natural minor scales. If you do not know how to find minor 3rds, then take first three steps of this course, which teach you how to do that. After step three, you can skip to the scales portion if you wish.

How to Use this Course

In order to achieve excellence you must master each step before moving on to the next step. This course builds on itself. If you move ahead before you are ready, you will undermine your success. If I tell you to memorize something, memorize it thoroughly! If a particular lesson requires you to be able to do something, practice until you do it quickly and easily. Master each lesson before proceeding to the next lesson. If you follow this style of learning, you will be very, very pleased with the results. Your goal is to be able to spell all intervals above or below any note as quickly and as easily as you can name adjacent numbers and to be able to easily spell the scales for the musical keys. When taking the exercises, write down your answers on paper and check them on the answer chart pages.

Begin the Music Theory Advantage Course of Study!

Skip to the Scales Portion of the Course