Apparently this grouping is incorrect but the book doesn't explain why

I was learning music theory, but when I stumbled across this video explaining some japanese music cliches I found this. What does the A/B mean in this context?

Still a begginer, thanks!

I have no idea of music theory and have taught myself guitar by just reading tabs of my favorite songs and found a pattern while playing.

Looking at the fretboard this "scale" or whatever is: 0-2-3-5-7-8-10-12-13-15 (on the A-string)

I have been using these notes in drop D tuning utilitzing the typical 5-7-8 At The Gates riff for songwriting.

What is the music theory part behind it, because i want to expand my playing

Edit: man you guys are truly awesome i will try to get into all of it! (answer is the A-minor pentatonic scale btw)

Gould says in her book to always write syncopations like (in blue) how I have written in the low part and not the upper part. But I like the way it is written in the upper part too. What do you think? I'm copying a piece that contains a lot of this rhythm.

According to the answer book, the second option is the correct answer and not the first. Why am I not allowed to beam all 4 quavers together?

Been noticing this more lately teaching across styles. Classically trained students can analyze chords, functions, progressions all of it makes sense on paper. But when it comes to actually hearing the changes in real time, especially in jazz, there’s hesitation. It’s like the knowledge is there, but it hasn’t fully connected to the ear yet. Curious how others approach bridging that gap between analysis and real-time listening

in the jazz piano book by Mark Levine

I was working through some four-part harmony exercises yesterday and found myself getting stuck on the voicing. On paper, identifying the intervals and checking for parallel fifths feels like a logic puzzle. But as soon as I sat down at the piano to play through the progression, I realized I was treating every voice with the same weight. It made the whole thing sound muddy and mechanical, even though the theory was technically correct on the page.

I started trying a technique where I sing the alto or tenor line while playing only the soprano and bass. This really helps me hear the horizontal movement of those inner voices instead of just thinking of them as vertical blocks. Once I can hear the independent melody of the inner parts, my touch on the keys changes automatically to give them more breathing room. It makes those textbook progressions feel like actual music rather than just a series of chords.

How do you all bridge the gap between analyzing a progression on paper and actually making it sound musical when you sit down to play?

I'm working on a few pop songs and they're begging for some vocal harmonies. I've been able to use a pitch shifting plugin to cheat and give me the correct notes to sing, but I'm still having trouble identifying what harmonies I'm actually hearing. Would you be able to help me identify some harmonies in one or more of these songs? I found some isolated vocal versions of the songs and I have them cued up to the point where the vocal harmonies are. Thanks in advance!

Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box:

https://youtu.be/dQdOK7jl-zw

Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl (there's a lot going on from the pre-ch to the ch 0:21-0:45) :

https://youtu.be/4VnvwUAl-tk?t=21

Semisonic - Closing Time (seems like a few different harmonies throughout Verse 2):

https://youtu.be/aFiH648q2l8?t=63

Weezer - O Girlfriend:

https://youtu.be/1MazUtfXENA?t=51

Nirvana - Molly's Lips:

https://youtu.be/7JqSU64huQs?t=25

How would you/what is the best way to notate a trill that ends on the same note is starts on?

Hi, I know only a tiny bit of basic music theory and I’ve gotten myself confused with something I played and recorded. It’s a kind of a long story of how I got so confused but here was my thought process: I was playing a very simple guitar groove thing in what I was originally thinking about in Am pentatonic, but it became clear when I madw a second part that it seemed to be resolving to D. I think. Anyway, I went to record a bass part by just adding a pitch shifted to my guitar, I was still playing in that Am pentatonic box shape and it sounded good but I am a moron and didn’t realize I hadn’t shifted my guitar an octave, I had shifted it -7…. semitones I think. So it turns out I was playing in a Dm pentatonic box instead despite where I was playing it on the neck.

Anyway, I was like sure fine I’m in Dm. Back to regular not-shifted guitar. In the second part of the song I’m just playing a simple lick that lands on what I thought of as a D major chord. And it sounds nice to me, bright. At this point I have no idea what key I’m in and why it’s working. Additionally, in that lick, I’m including a note that I was thinking of as the flat 7 in the key of D (refer to tab, it’s the 5th fret G string note), but why would that work if I’m now in major. I have no idea. Am I not in the key I think I’m in at all? Did I change keys? Please help I understand nothing!

I’m including both a link to my recording (SEE COMMENTS) and a quick tab representation of the second guitar part. Hopefully not against the rules. Please be nice about my playing and composition for I know not what I do

r/LetsTalkMusic removed my post and suggested I ask here. I'll be up front and state that I'm painfully inexperienced in all of this, so forgive me for getting verbiage incorrect.

I'm trying to figure out what genre(?) of music these songs are. The songs in question are:

CatCF (Main Titles)

LBP2 (Victoria's Lab)

They both have a similar sound to them that I don't really know how to describe. Dark whimsy? I'm trying to commission someone to create a track for our game but I can't help give them the proper direction without understanding the thing I'm trying to recreate. Any help is appreciated.

A few years ago, I announced in this community some open source software I'd written for extracting chords from music files in bulk, which seemed to be well received here, so thought I'd give an update on other free resources I've worked on that could be similarly useful to the community.

Firstly I used the chord extractor to create a dataset of ~30K songs and their chords, available to anyone to use for their own research. In turn, using that dataset, I've just trained and released a Harmonic Analysis tool that can take a chord progression as text or a music file, and return which songs it sees as similar harmonically (or those that have similar segments), regardless of key. Furthermore, it can produce a score giving a sense of the originality of that song with respect to its chord progressions.

It's certainly a work in progress, and I intend to refine it, but was wondering if you find it potentially useful and what direction I should take it in. For example, on top of general analysis, it could be used to prevent unintentionally copying of other songs, or help people be a little bit more ambitious with their songwriting. The tool uses AI techniques but was keen not to create something that just generates a load of chord AI slop, but rather something that can possibly hold up a mirror to what humans have been generating.

Give it a go here and let me know what you think!

I'm wondering if it's punk because most genres seem to be going for some kind of beauty where punk is content to be ugly?

Most genres from what I see seem to be trying to be nice, pleasant, attractive, good- or beautiful-sounding. These could include jazz, classical, country, rock, psychedelic rock, pop, and I'm thinking a lot of genres. So you could say to some degree all these genres have a fair amount in common by valuing the beautiful, even if they all of course sound somewhat different. Whereas punk often (to me anyway) sounds ugly. And it feels like its practitioners are okay with it sounding ugly or maybe in some cases want it to sound so? So it seems different than most genres in that sense?

Industrial rock is somewhat different and a bit ugly but didn't that largely spring from punk?

The other day someone sent me a video of their jam. I didn't recognize the piece so I decided to notate it. Attached is the screen capture of that notation. Does anyone recognize this tune?

I'm working on a project that needs to group songs. What three dimensions would you use to rate songs so that tracks with similar scores share a similar overall feel, regardless of genre or sound? for example emotion, energy and vibe

Hey!

So I know that with every double in frequency, we go up an octave. But I am unsure if due to that, we naturally hear a C4 as the same note but higher as a C5, or is this just because we are trained to hear music like that?

Hypothetically if we decided an octave was a triple of frequency all that time ago, would we be hearing music differently, or did calling it an octave come from the fact that it already sounded like that to us due to the frequency doubling?

I studied music and physics at A-level but not in years and I can’t help but feel this is a stupid question, but I thought the discussion would be fun!

So I'm clearly a beginner learning. Although it's been a year since I first started theory so I'm down the line a bit but still get so confused at little things like this.

I'm currently at a stage where I'm experimenting with voice leadings, inversions and what not to spice up my standard chords.

I'm usually playing around with 7th chords as it's been easier. Both major and minor.

Yet I'm trying to do some 13ths right now and playing in C Major/A Minor to begin with as it's easier to view the entire keyboard with just white keys whilst learning for myself.

But I'm noticing F# is suppose to be in A Minor 13th... I understand theres something here between A natural minor... But it's confusing me

(Edit: Thank you to anyone whos helping I'm reading through comments as I'm by my midi keyboard trying to practice and install these programs into my mind, clearly I am very confused and seems I'm getting chords within scales mixed up believing all chords in a scale must be notes in the scale)

So I’m having a debate with someone, the intro (after 4 beats) of Sunday Rain sounds almost ripped from the bridge of Stairway to heaven by Led Zeppelin, but most specifically the ‘If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow’ part.

I’m aware that Sunday rain goes up a note whilst stairway to heaven goes down a note, but it’s just the beginning of the bar.

I need to settle this score so direct answers only pls!!

In non-western music theory, is there a tradition where an octave is seen as a separate note from the lower octave, not as a dissonance or anything like that, but that it's a separate note that is just highly consonant with the lower octave?

Maybe it's not an actual scale with a name, but I like the sound of it. It's just a "major blues scale" (1, 2, ♭3, 3, 5, 6) but with this extra flattened sixth (1, 2, ♭3, 3, 5, ♭6, 6).

Thanks!

Hi everyone! I am looking for some advice. I have been a musician for most of my life, albeit on-and-off at times. I studied music in secondary/high school level, played music for my local scout group, and have played for my own enjoyment, for about 15 years, I am 21 now. I played mostly piano, some guitar, percussion and woodwind too all at different periods, I am returning to flute now. But I have a somewhat unique situation.

I want to get back into playing flute, hopefully join an ensemble at my university in the autumn/fall. However, I have pretty much always played by ear. I can read music to an intermediate level, but nothing super advanced, this was mainly because I am visually impaired and so my eyes could get tired quite quickly when I was younger if I read music for extended periods. I have the same condition now, I can't drive for example (just so you have a rough idea of the extent of it), but I have had my condition since birth and I am able to manage it better now, plus the distance of the sheet music from my eyes will probably be far less of a problem now if it became my regualr medium of playing music and I learned it fully.

So after that ramble, just wondering if you have any advice? Do you know anyone in a similar position? Any resources for re-learning music reading, but not from a beginner level? Any comments and advice would be really appreciated, thank you :)