Musical theory path

Hi Renato, one of my lockdown projects was writing software that solves this exact problem for students. It shows any chord exactly as it is used in a piece of music, as well as non-harmonic tones and chord progressions. It’s called Interactive Scores, and it even has pop-up, on-demand video lessons on each chord.

It’s part of another platform, though, which I consider complementary rather than competitive to tonebase, so feel free to get in touch if you’re interested and I can share the details privately. I’m not on this forum to pitch anything, but by chance I did create the exact tool that solves your exact problem. It’s a common one among piano learners and my own students inspired me to create it. Hope this helps.

Hello Albert,

I am interested. Could you please give me some more information on this topic. Many thanks.

Peter

Hi Peter, would be happy to. Maybe someone from tonebase could comment here if it’s alright with them? Again, I’m here to learn myself and to contribute to the community wherever I can. I’m not here for any kind of self-promotion, though for this particular question I did develop a solution which I think offers a unique resource for music students.

Albert, I will try to contact them regarding our interest.  I'll keep in touch.

Renato, here is where I would start if I were you: Rather than what you are doing, which seems to be trying to identify specific pitches by ear (which is really not so much theory as it is trying to develop pitch memory, a/k/a 'perfect pitch' ), you should start by trying to recognize the sound of chord patterns.

Start with a scale. Any one will do. Most people would use C as their base because it's the easiest and only uses white notes. Learn the 3 note triads that are built on each step of the scale, using only the scale notes to build them. .  For example, with the C scale, the triad based on C (which is Step I of the C scale)  would be the notes C-E-G, and so on up the scale. The triad for step 2 would be D, F and A.  And so on. The most important chords out of this series in defining a key are those formed on the 1st, 4th and 5th steps (by convention we use Roman numerals for them -- I, IV, V).  Congratulations, you've just learned the Tonic (I), Subdominant (IV) and Dominant (V) chords in the key of C.  Using letter names these chords are C Major, F Major and G Major, respectively.

Play those for awhile and get familiar with the sound. Especially note how the dominant (V) pulls you back home to the Tonic (I).  THEN, go through this whole process with a second scale/key, let's say the F major scale.  Figure out the I, IV, and V chords in the key of F using the preceding process, and play them multiple times, and note the similarities in the sound of the progressions, to when you were  playing them in the key of C.  For example note how the dominant V chord ( which is a C major chord when you are in the key of F) 'pulls you home' to the Tonic (F major).  Although the pitches are different, the feel of going from Dominant to Tonic, for example, in each key is the same.

If you go through that process, you'll start to hear how chords relate to each other within a key and in different keys.  You will be on your way to learning theory, and why it matters.  There are a million books out there on this subject.  I've also seen many internet posts of people saying you don't need to learn any theory in order to play the piano.  I suppose that's true but you won't understand what you're doing unless you put in the hard work to learn your theory.  You're already sensing that and that's why you're reaching out to try to understand it. 

Why don't you give the above a try and report back to us how you did with it.   Good luck. 

Hello I’m interested to your interactive scores as well! Could you please introduce more details? Thanks!