Solfeggio: the basics

The course “Solfeggio: the basics”: theory and exercises. Lessons: 23.

Basics of music notation

Read and write notes, feel the beat and hear your first intervals.

• Notes on the staff
• Note values, rhythm and first intervals

Clefs and registers

Reading notes in both clefs and finding them across the whole keyboard.

• The treble clef and ledger lines
• The bass clef
• The grand staff and octaves

Semitones and accidentals

Raising and lowering notes: semitones, whole tones and the signs that change them.

• Semitones and whole tones
• Sharps, flats and naturals
• Enharmonics and double accidentals

Meter and rhythm

Beats, bars and time signatures, rests, dots, ties and shorter note values.

• Beat and meter
• Rests and dotted notes
• Ties and sixteenth notes

The major scale and key signatures

Build the major scale from any note and read its key signature.

• The major scale formula
• Key signatures: sharps
• Key signatures: flats and the circle of fifths

The minor scale

The three forms of the minor scale and how minor keys relate to major ones.

• Natural minor and relative keys
• Harmonic and melodic minor
• Parallel keys

Simple intervals

Name any interval within an octave by its number and its quality.

• Counting intervals
• Major, minor and perfect intervals
• Consonance and dissonance

Triads

The four kinds of triad and the triads that grow on the degrees of a key.

• Major and minor triads
• Diminished and augmented triads
• Triads in a key