Popular music theory · a book, a lab, and essays
Music Theory with a Hearth
Music theory that takes your music seriously. A book about popular music, published here one chapter a week — free to read, with drills, quizzes and a companion essay alongside.
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The book
The Sound and the Theory
Signifying Something
Douglas Gwynn Smith
A book published by The Common Tone.
Start reading at 1.1The whole book, as it arrives
Thirty-four chapters in four units, one each Sunday at 6 PM Pacific. Every title is here from the start; they light up as they arrive. 5 are out now. About the book →
Unit IFundamentals
- 1.1Pop Music, Huh?
- 1.2Lines and Dots and Blobs
- 1.3It’s About Time
- 1.4Scaling the Heights
- 1.5At the Interval
- 1.6Measure for MeterSunday 11 October · 6 PM Pacific
- 1.7Drones, Pedals and Layers
- 1.8Powerful Chords and More
- 1.9Triads and Sus Chords
Unit IIDiatonic Practices
- 2.1The Rhythm Section and Stream Leading
- 2.2Harmony
- 2.3Primary Chords and the Dual Paradigms
- 2.4Melody and Phrasing
- 2.5Weak Beat Non-chord Tones
- 2.6Strong Beat Non-chord Tones
- 2.7Chord Schemata
- 2.8Modes
- 2.9Basic Blues
Unit IIIChromatic Practices
- 3.1Secondary Dominance
- 3.2Diminished 7th Chords
- 3.3Extended Chords
- 3.4Modal Mixture
- 3.5Chromatic Mediants and Line Clichés
- 3.6Parallel Pentatonicism
- 3.7Advanced Blues
Unit IVAdvanced Concepts
- 4.1Echoes of El Andalus
- 4.2Altered Dominants
- 4.3Aug 6th Chords and Tritone Substitution
- 4.4Enharmonic Diminished 7th Chords
- 4.5Advanced Modulation
- 4.6Equal Division of the Octave
- 4.7Advanced Rhythm and Meter
- 4.8Advanced Form
- 4.9Omnibus Progressions
What’s here
PracticeOpen
Drills, quizzes, listening
Try what each chapter teaches, with feedback as you go.Go to Practice →The labOpen