Overview

Welcome to Music Theory Level 1: Part Three

Minor Keys, The Circle of Fifths, and Compound Meters

This course introduces you to minor keys, the circle of fifths, and compound meters. The course provides you with many worksheets to practice the concepts as well as several complete analysis projects. This course forms part of the complete Music Theory Fundamentals Guide.

This is a class designed for the average person who is ready to dive into music! Whether you are a beginning musician, an active musician, or an aspiring musician - this class is perfect for you.

For years I've been teaching Music Theory in the college classroom. My approach to music theory is to minimize the memorization. Most of these concepts you can learn by just understanding why chords behave in certain ways. Once you understand those concepts, you can find any scale, key, or chord that exists. Even invent your own. If you've tried to learn music theory before, or if you are just starting out - this series of courses is the perfect fit.

In Part 3: Minor Keys, The Circle of Fifths, and Compound Meters, we will cover:

My approach to Music Theory
Tools you will need to learn Music Theory quickly and efficiently
Key Signatures
Diatonic Chord Progressions
Tendency Chords
Using the Circle of Fifths for Songwriting and Composition
Borrowing from Closely Related Keys
Scale Degree Names
Tendency Tones
Compound Meters
Compound Meter Signatures
Reading and Writing Compound Meters
Triplets, dubplets, and Quadruplets
Finding Minor keys by alternations to Major
Patterns in Minor keys
Relative Minor keys
Parallel Minor keys
Minor keys in the Circle of Fifths
Using Minor Keys for Songwriting and Composition
Diatonic Chord Progressions in Minor
The V Chord and Minor and the Leading Tone Problem
Harmonic Minor Scales
Melodic Minor Scales

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Praise for Courses by Jason Allen:

⇢ "It seems like every little detail is being covered in an extremely simple fashion. The learning process becomes relaxed and allows the complex concepts to get absorbed easily. My only regret is not taking this course earlier." - M. Shah

⇢ "Great for everyone without any knowledge so far. I bought all three parts... It's the best investment in leveling up my skills so far.." - Z. Palce

⇢ "Excellent explanations! No more or less than what is needed." - A. Tóth

⇢ "VERY COOL. I've waiting for years to see a good video course, now I don't have to wait anymore. Thank You!" - Jeffrey Koury

⇢ "I am learning LOTS! And I really like having the worksheets!" - A. Deichsel

⇢ "The basics explained very clearly - loads of really useful tips!" - J. Pook

⇢ "Jason is really quick and great with questions, always a great resource for an online class!" M. Smith

Syllabus

Getting Started

Before we jump in, let's learn a little bit about how we are going to learn. There are a few free tools I like to use that will help you learn music theory.

Minor Keys and the Circle of Fifths

Now that we know the basics of minor keys, we should see them in context of the Circle of Fifths.

Compound Meters

We've look at reading meters before, but now things are going to get a little more complicated.

The Circle of Fifths

You might have seen this diagram hanging on a wall somewhere - but it is hugely useful.

Diatonic Chord Progressions in Minor

If we want to write songs or compose using minor keys, we need to know the diatonic chord progressions in minor.

Minor Scale Variations: Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales

So far we've mostly been working with the "Natural Minor" scale. There are 2 other version of the minor scale that we need to know.

Triplets, Duplets, and Quadruplets

One more rhythmic thing to tackle in this section: Triples and Duplets.

Review

A short section of review - making sure we have some key concepts down before we add to them.

Scale Degree Names

At this point, we should start identifying scale degrees by a more proper name. Especially since their proper names tell us a bit about how they function.