Articles
Plain answers to the questions people ask about reading, naming and finding notes — each one ending in an exercise.
The Greek Modes: One Scale, Seven Homes
Dorian, phrygian, lydian and the rest are not seven scales to memorise — they are one collection of notes with a different note treated as home. What each one sounds like, and why the note you start on is the whole story.
Can You Develop Perfect Pitch as an Adult?
Almost certainly not — and it is not the skill you are missing. What perfect pitch is, why the adult training claims do not hold up, what it would cost you if you had it, and the ability worth training instead.
Do Re Mi or C D E? Three Ways to Name the Same Notes
Letter names, fixed-do solfège and the German H — where each is used, why they all name the same twelve notes, why none is more correct, and how to choose the one this site shows you.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Music Theory?
There is no number, and this article says why instead of inventing one — what changes over weeks, months and years, and the two habits that decide how fast any of it arrives.
How to Read Sheet Music: Where to Start
Where to begin with sheet music — pitch before rhythm, one clef, a few anchor notes, and short daily doses that turn counting into reading.
Major vs Minor: One Note Apart
The whole difference is the middle note of the chord, one semitone. Why that is all it takes, why the happy-and-sad labels are a convention rather than a rule, and how the same two words apply to scales and keys.
How to Memorize the Fretboard, One String at a Time
Why a fretboard chart does not stick and what does — one string at a time, the two E strings, the 5th, 7th and 12th frets as landmarks, and the octave shape that fills in the rest.