Free Online Music Theory Lessons, Flashcards, and Resources
Music-Theory-Practice.com (MTP) is a music theory resource website that provides free online music theory education through flashcards, articles, and lessons. MTP apps cover topics ranging from basic music theory for the complete beginner, such note flashcards, to advance concepts for music graduate students, from interval quizzes, to articles on 12-tone matrices and combinatorial hexachords.
Browse through the resources below or cicking a button to filter the selection:
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Learn Bass Clef Notes
Learn to read bass clef music notes with this never-ending bass-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.
Quiz Beginner -
Learn Treble Clef Notes
Learn to read treble clef music notes with this never-ending treble-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.
Quiz Beginner -
Learn Alto Clef Notes
Learn to read alto clef music notes with this never-ending alto-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.
Quiz Beginner -
Learn Tenor Clef Notes
Learn to read tenor clef music notes with this never-ending tenor-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.
Quiz Beginner -
Learn Treble and Bass clef Notes
Practice reading treble and bass clef with this never-ending treble-clef and bass-clef flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.
Quiz Beginner -
Learn Alto and Tenor clef Notes
Practice reading in alto and tenor clef with this never-ending alto-clef and tenor-clef flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed
Quiz Beginner -
Key Signature Flashcards
Learn key signatures with our free key signature flashcards. These flashcards track the keys you missed so you can be key signature master in no time! You can customize the flashcards by choose from treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs and choose major, minor, or random keys.
Quiz Beginner -
The Order of Flats
Learn the order of flats (and sharps!), how they relate to key signatures, and methods of memorization.
Article/Resource Beginner -
The Order of Sharps
Learn the order of sharps (and flats!), how they relate to key signatures, and methods of memorization.
Article/Resource Beginner -
Learn to Transpose to Concert Pitch
Learn to transpose to concert pitch from various transposing instruments with this interactive and never-ending music theory quiz and Lesson.
Quiz Intermediate -
Learn to Transpose to Transposing Instruments
Learn to transpose from concert pitch to various transposing instruments, such as the French horn, the alto saxophone, and Bb trumpet with this interactive and never-ending music theory quiz and lesson.
Quiz Intermediate -
Secondary Dominant Flashcards
Learn the secondary dominants for all major and minor keys. Use these flashcards, lesson, and quiz to instantly know the V chord of any chord in any key (well, except for those pesky diminished chords!). If you get good at these, try the chord/scale degree and interval flashcards.
Quiz Intermediate -
Random 12-Row and Matrix Generator
Free 12-tone row and matrix generator. Hover/Tap the matrix to see each row or column notated on a treble-clef staff.
Article/Resource Advanced -
How to Invert a Melody
Invert any musical phrase with this melodic inversion calculator. Insert the phrase in integer notation, click 'invert' and/or 'notate' and your phrase will be returned in integer and staff notation.
Melodic Inversion
Article/Resource Advanced -
All-Combinatorial Hexachords
An interactive look at all-combinatorial hexachords, with a particular focus on what Milton Babbit termed the 'second-order' hexachord. Hexachordal combinatoriality is a feature of only six hexachords and was explored by many post-tonal composers.
Article/Resource Advanced -
Interval Vector Calculator
Learn how to calculate interval vectors. Also included is an interval class vector calculator that graphs, notates, and lists every interval in a collection.
Article/Resource Advanced
"Music Note" Flashcards
Flashcards for every clef! Use these "music note flashcards" to brush up on clefs you rarely read, to help learn a new clef, or as a fun and family-friendly game for your students. The notes are randomly generated, and there's an option to include or exclude double sharps or flats. The bottom of each page lists the notes you got wrong, and what notes you mistook them for. Watch a video tutorial of the flashcards on YouTube.
Key Signature
Learn key signatures like the back of your hand!
Transposition
If you've ever needed to practice learning how to transpose then these are the flashcards for you. Choose from two options: 1) transposing from other keys to concert-pitch or 2) from concert pitch to other keys.
Secondary Dominants
The best way to get fast at recalling secondary dominants! Also helpful for jazz improvisors that are learning to memorize tunes in multiple keys (i.e. "... and then bars four - eight are a ii-V7-I to the IV."). Try them out!
Post-Tonal Theory
Post-Tonal Theory! If you know, you know! These are just introductory bits and pieces of post-tonal theory. If you'd like to dig into it more, check out this book: Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory .
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Free Solfege Flashcards
Learn Movable-Do Solfege with these free and never-ending flashcards display randomly pitches and key-centers. Respond by clicking on the appropriate solfege button below.
Quiz Intermediate -
Jamey Abersold's Scale Syllabus
Jamey Abersold's Famous Scale Syllabus -- now interactive and transposable to all 12 keys! Pick a key from the buttons at the top to see what scales go with what chords.
Resource Intermediate Jazz -
ii V7 I Flashcards
Memorize the most important progression in jazz! Use this free, interactive, and never-ending ii V7 I flashcard game to help learn and memorize the most important jazz chord progression. Once you’ve mastered these, try the iii-VI7-ii-V7 I flashcards.
Quiz Intermediate Jazz -
iii VI7 ii V7 I Flashcards
Memorize one of the most important progression in jazz! Use this free, interactive, and never-ending iii VI7 ii V7 I flashcard game to help learn and memorize one of the most important jazz chord progressions. Try this game only after you’ve mastered the ii V I flashcards. 36251, three six two five one.
Quiz Intermediate Jazz -
Chord / Scale Degree Flashcards
Use these free chord/scale degree flashcards to become faster at playing, understanding, and recognizing any kind of chord and scale degree extension. Great for jazz musicians. Make sure to also try the associated V / V7 and secondary dominant flashcard game.
Quiz Intermediate Jazz -
Associated V7 chord Chord / Scale Degree Flashcards
Use these free chord/scale degree flashcards to become faster at playing, understanding, and recognizing any kind of chord and scale degree extension from a perfect fifth away! Perfect for jazz musicians looking to include basic chord substitutions.
Quiz Intermediate Jazz -
Tritone Substitution Flashcards
Get faster at recognizing, playing, and substituting tritone subs! These free flashcards show a basic ii-V7-I and you click on the button with the correct tritone sub. It keeps track of your score and incorrect answers. Try it out!
Quiz Intermediate Jazz -
Random Chord Progression Generator
This free web app generates random chord progressions - great for composition and improvisation. Progressions can consist of just roots, major chords only, completely random chords, and more.
Article/Resource Intermediate Jazz -
Interval Identification Flashcard Game
Practice interval identification with these free, randomly generated, and never ending interval flashcards!
Quiz Intermediate -
Ascending Intervals Lesson and Quiz
Use this music theory lesson and quiz to hone your skills at determining ascending intervals, and yes, enharmonics matter! If this gets too easy, try the descending interval quiz, too
Quiz Intermediate -
Descending Intervals Lesson and Quiz
Use this music theory lesson and quiz to hone your skills at determining descending intervals, and yes, enharmonics matter! Try the ascending interval quiz, too.
Quiz Intermediate -
Seventh Chord Identification
Seventh Chord Identification! Free, online, and never-ending flashcards to practice identifying and recognizing seventh chords! Uses 10 chord qualities: maj7, maj7#5, 7, 7#5, minMaj7, min7, min7b5, dim7, 7sus4, maj7sus4
Quiz Intermediate -
Mode Identification Quiz
Learn the seven musical modes of the major scale: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. Use this music theory lesson on modes, quiz, and chart to understand modes in music.
Quiz Intermediate -
Mode Calculator
A webapp that 1) lists all the relative modes of a key signature, and 2) notates the mode. Use this app to find any ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, and locrian mode of any key.
Intermediate Article/Resource -
Learn and Understand Modes through Roy G. Biv!
A fun and entertaining article on the musical modes and how to understand the theory behind them. This lesson uses Roy G. Biv to illustrate the theory of modes from relative and parallel perspectives. You'll finally understand ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, and locrian! Once you've read this, try your hand at the modes quiz and flashcard game.
Intermediate Article/Resource -
Online Music Theory Courses
A selection of music theory classes and courses from Berklee, Coursera, Alison, and Skillshare and others. -
Best Music Theory Books
A selection of some of the best music theory books.
Solfege
Movable-do solfege can be hard to master, but I've found it to be the best way to quickly and clearly communicate melodic and harmonic concepts.
Jazz Theory
The best free jazz theory (that's free jazz-theory, not free-jazz theory) games/apps/flahcards on the net. Each flashcard game keeps track of your score and details which ones you got wrong (and the incorrect answers that you chose).
Intervals
These are harder than you might think! The questions are posed as "word-problems" (i.e., no staff or sound). Enharmonics count here, so don't press "C" when it's actually "B#!" Doubly diminished and doubly augmented intervals are included!
Chords
Modes
Modes seem to come up a lot in music-theory facebook groups, and I'm not too sure why. But, I created mode flashcards, mode calculator, and a tutorial on understanding the modes because of it. Enjoy!
Free Online Music Theory Lessons, Flashcards, and Resources
Music-Theory-Practice.com (MTP) is a music theory resource website that provides free online music theory education through flashcards, articles, and lessons. MTP apps cover topics ranging from basic music theory for the complete beginner, such note flashcards, to advance concepts for music graduate students, from interval quizzes, to articles on 12-tone matrices and combinatorial hexachords.
Browse through the resources below or cicking a button to filter the selection:
"Music Note" Flashcards
Flashcards for every clef! Use these "music note flashcards" to brush up on clefs you rarely read, to help learn a new clef, or as a fun and family-friendly game for your students. The notes are randomly generated, and there's an option to include or exclude double sharps or flats. The bottom of each page lists the notes you got wrong, and what notes you mistook them for. Watch a video tutorial of the flashcards on YouTube.
Learn Bass Clef Notes
Learn to read bass clef music notes with this never-ending bass-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.Quiz Beginner
Learn Treble Clef Notes
Learn to read treble clef music notes with this never-ending treble-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.Quiz Beginner
Learn Alto Clef Notes
Learn to read alto clef music notes with this never-ending alto-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.Quiz Beginner
Learn Tenor Clef Notes
Learn to read tenor clef music notes with this never-ending tenor-clef-note flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.Quiz Beginner
Learn Treble and Bass clef Notes
Practice reading treble and bass clef with this never-ending treble-clef and bass-clef flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missed.Quiz Beginner
Learn Alto and Tenor clef Notes
Practice reading in alto and tenor clef with this never-ending alto-clef and tenor-clef flashcard quiz and lesson. Choose your difficulty level by including double sharps and double flats and track which ones you missedQuiz Beginner
Key Signature
Learn key signatures like the back of your hand!
Key Signature Flashcards
Learn key signatures with our free key signature flashcards. These flashcards track the keys you missed so you can be key signature master in no time! You can customize the flashcards by choose from treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs and choose major, minor, or random keys.Quiz Beginner
The Order of Flats
Learn the order of flats (and sharps!), how they relate to key signatures, and methods of memorization.Article/Resource Beginner
The Order of Sharps
Learn the order of sharps (and flats!), how they relate to key signatures, and methods of memorization.Article/Resource Beginner
Transposition
If you've ever needed to practice learning how to transpose then these are the flashcards for you. Choose from two options: 1) transposing from other keys to concert-pitch or 2) from concert pitch to other keys.
Learn to Transpose to Concert Pitch
Learn to transpose to concert pitch from various transposing instruments with this interactive and never-ending music theory quiz and Lesson.Quiz Intermediate
Learn to Transpose to Transposing Instruments
Learn to transpose from concert pitch to various transposing instruments, such as the French horn, the alto saxophone, and Bb trumpet with this interactive and never-ending music theory quiz and lesson.Quiz Intermediate
Secondary Dominants
The best way to get fast at recalling secondary dominants! Also helpful for jazz improvisors that are learning to memorize tunes in multiple keys (i.e. "... and then bars four - eight are a ii-V7-I to the IV."). Try them out!
Secondary Dominant Flashcards
Learn the secondary dominants for all major and minor keys. Use these flashcards, lesson, and quiz to instantly know the V chord of any chord in any key (well, except for those pesky diminished chords!). If you get good at these, try the chord/scale degree and interval flashcards.Quiz Intermediate
Post-Tonal Theory
Post-Tonal Theory! If you know, you know! These are just introductory bits and pieces of post-tonal theory. If you'd like to dig into it more, check out this book: Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory .
Random 12-Row and Matrix Generator
Free 12-tone row and matrix generator. Hover/Tap the matrix to see each row or column notated on a treble-clef staff.Article/Resource Advanced
How to Invert a Melody
Invert any musical phrase with this melodic inversion calculator. Insert the phrase in integer notation, click 'invert' and/or 'notate' and your phrase will be returned in integer and staff notation.Melodic Inversion
Article/Resource Advanced
All-Combinatorial Hexachords
An interactive look at all-combinatorial hexachords, with a particular focus on what Milton Babbit termed the 'second-order' hexachord. Hexachordal combinatoriality is a feature of only six hexachords and was explored by many post-tonal composers.Article/Resource Advanced
Interval Vector Calculator
Learn how to calculate interval vectors. Also included is an interval class vector calculator that graphs, notates, and lists every interval in a collection.Article/Resource Advanced
Solfege
Movable-do solfege can be hard to master, but I've found it to be the best way to quickly and clearly communicate melodic and harmonic concepts.
Free Solfege Flashcards
Learn Movable-Do Solfege with these free and never-ending flashcards display randomly pitches and key-centers. Respond by clicking on the appropriate solfege button below.Quiz Intermediate
Jazz Theory
The best free jazz theory (that's free jazz-theory, not free-jazz theory) games/apps/flahcards on the net. Each flashcard game keeps track of your score and details which ones you got wrong (and the incorrect answers that you chose).
Jamey Abersold's Scale Syllabus
Jamey Abersold's Famous Scale Syllabus -- now interactive and transposable to all 12 keys! Pick a key from the buttons at the top to see what scales go with what chords.Resource Intermediate Jazz
ii V7 I Flashcards
Memorize the most important progression in jazz! Use this free, interactive, and never-ending ii V7 I flashcard game to help learn and memorize the most important jazz chord progression. Once you’ve mastered these, try the iii-VI7-ii-V7 I flashcards.Quiz Intermediate Jazz
iii VI7 ii V7 I Flashcards
Memorize one of the most important progression in jazz! Use this free, interactive, and never-ending iii VI7 ii V7 I flashcard game to help learn and memorize one of the most important jazz chord progressions. Try this game only after you’ve mastered the ii V I flashcards. 36251, three six two five one.Quiz Intermediate Jazz
Chord / Scale Degree Flashcards
Use these free chord/scale degree flashcards to become faster at playing, understanding, and recognizing any kind of chord and scale degree extension. Great for jazz musicians. Make sure to also try the associated V / V7 and secondary dominant flashcard game.Quiz Intermediate Jazz
Associated V7 chord Chord / Scale Degree Flashcards
Use these free chord/scale degree flashcards to become faster at playing, understanding, and recognizing any kind of chord and scale degree extension from a perfect fifth away! Perfect for jazz musicians looking to include basic chord substitutions.Quiz Intermediate Jazz
Tritone Substitution Flashcards
Get faster at recognizing, playing, and substituting tritone subs! These free flashcards show a basic ii-V7-I and you click on the button with the correct tritone sub. It keeps track of your score and incorrect answers. Try it out!Quiz Intermediate Jazz
Random Chord Progression Generator
This free web app generates random chord progressions - great for composition and improvisation. Progressions can consist of just roots, major chords only, completely random chords, and more.Article/Resource Intermediate Jazz
Intervals
These are harder than you might think! The questions are posed as "word-problems" (i.e., no staff or sound). Enharmonics count here, so don't press "C" when it's actually "B#!" Doubly diminished and doubly augmented intervals are included!
Interval Identification Flashcard Game
Practice interval identification with these free, randomly generated, and never ending interval flashcards!Quiz Intermediate
Ascending Intervals Lesson and Quiz
Use this music theory lesson and quiz to hone your skills at determining ascending intervals, and yes, enharmonics matter! If this gets too easy, try the descending interval quiz, tooQuiz Intermediate
Descending Intervals Lesson and Quiz
Use this music theory lesson and quiz to hone your skills at determining descending intervals, and yes, enharmonics matter! Try the ascending interval quiz, too.Quiz Intermediate
Chords
Seventh Chord Identification
Seventh Chord Identification! Free, online, and never-ending flashcards to practice identifying and recognizing seventh chords! Uses 10 chord qualities: maj7, maj7#5, 7, 7#5, minMaj7, min7, min7b5, dim7, 7sus4, maj7sus4Quiz Intermediate
Modes
Modes seem to come up a lot in music-theory facebook groups, and I'm not too sure why. But, I created mode flashcards, mode calculator, and a tutorial on understanding the modes because of it. Enjoy!
Mode Identification Quiz
Learn the seven musical modes of the major scale: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. Use this music theory lesson on modes, quiz, and chart to understand modes in music.Quiz Intermediate
Mode Calculator
A webapp that 1) lists all the relative modes of a key signature, and 2) notates the mode. Use this app to find any ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, and locrian mode of any key.Intermediate Article/Resource
Learn and Understand Modes through Roy G. Biv!
A fun and entertaining article on the musical modes and how to understand the theory behind them. This lesson uses Roy G. Biv to illustrate the theory of modes from relative and parallel perspectives. You'll finally understand ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, and locrian! Once you've read this, try your hand at the modes quiz and flashcard game.Intermediate Article/Resource
Other
Online Music Theory Courses
A selection of music theory classes and courses from Berklee, Coursera, Alison, and Skillshare and others.Best Music Theory Books
A selection of some of the best music theory books.