Music Theory

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A place to discuss and answer questions about music theory. All instruments are welcome, no question is stupid!

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Practicing vs. learning stuff by heart (feddit.de)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi folks, I wanted to ask you something I have been dealing with for as long as I have learned music theory: when is the point that you simply learn stuff by heart?

For example: I could not imagine writing out all keys in order to learn which notes a contained in them. But I learned all notes in all diatonic 7th chords by simply using flashcards. How am I to „practices“ my way into knowing what notes makes up a Dminor7?

Whats your experience with that? Where do you draw the line?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the Piano i go from what i know and transpose the chord, until eventually it is just in my head. For the chords in major minor it is pretty straight forward. a major chord has the large third, as major has the half tone step between 3-4 and 7-8. the minor chord is half a tone lowet on the third because 2-3 and 5-6 are the half steps in minor. Since the fifth is identical in both, the 7 accord is one whole tone below the base tone. In case of the 7maj it is just a half step lower.

So a Dmin7 is D, F, A, C

A D7 is D, F#, A, C

On the piano it is easiest though, because you can see the ladder and transposing just needs to mov the fingers up or down a bit.

[–] MiddleWeigh 2 points 1 year ago

+1 for piano to learn theory on. Really helped me map out what was even going on.