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For years I’ve been teaching Music Theory in the college classroom. These classes I’m making for Slam Academy use the same syllabus I’ve used in my college classes for years, at a fraction of the cost. I believe anyone can learn Music Theory – and cost shouldn’t be a barrier.
Recently I was named as a semifinalist for the Grammy Foundation’s Music Educator of the Year award because of my in-person university classes. Now I’m taking those classes to Udemy in an online format in order to reach more students and give them the joy of Music Theory.
My approach to music theory is to minimize the memorization. Most of these concepts you can learn by just understanding why chords behave in certain ways. Once you understand those concepts, you can find any scale, key, or chord that exists. Even invent your own.
This class is a Comprehensive class – it will have many parts, going through my entire annual curriculum.
This class is Part 3: Minor Keys, The Circle of Fifths, and Compound Meters.
Throughout this class, I’ll be providing you with many worksheets for you to practice the concepts on. If you get stuck, you can review the videos or post a question, and I’ll back to it as fast as possible. Also in this class, I have several complete analysis projects that we will complete together – just like in my college classes.
What will I learn in this Course?
- My approach to Music Theory
- Tools you will need to learn Music Theory quickly and efficiently
- Key Signatures
- Diatonic Chord Progressions
- Tendency Chords
- Using the Circle of Fifths for Songwriting and Composition
- Borrowing from Closely Related Keys
- Scale Degree Names
- Tendency Tones
- Compound Meters
- Compound Meter Signatures
- Reading and Writing Compound Meters
- Triplets, dubplets, and Quadruplets
- Finding Minor keys by alternations to Major
- Patterns in Minor keys
- Relative Minor keys
- Parallel Minor keys
- Minor keys in the Circle of Fifths
- Using Minor Keys for Songwriting and Composition
- Diatonic Chord Progressions in Minor
- The V Chord and Minor and the Leading Tone Problem
- Harmonic Minor Scales
- Melodic Minor Scales
- …and much, much more!
About the Instructor
J. Anthony Allen is an Ableton Certified Trainer, and a PhD in Music Composition and master of Electronic Sounds. His music has been heard internationally in film, radio, video games, and industrial sound, as well as the concert hall and theater.
He currently is an adjunct professor of composition at the University of St. Thomas, and is the CEO and co-founder of Slam Academy in Minneapolis.
Praise for classes by J. Anthony Allen
“Without a doubt the best explanation and east of use that one can get. It leaves you enough room to go explore. The classes go by quick, so you can be on your way at being proficient. What are you wait for!”
“Amazing – Seriously Loved It! I took all his courses and have to say I’m so happy! Learnt loads! Jason is an awesome teacher!”
“I have never had any formal training in music at all. Trying to learn all the notes and how everything translated was a serious challenge. After going through this class, Dr. J has totally brought down the barriers. The content was very useful and was easy to grasp for me.”
“I like these courses because you can get up and running quickly without having to spend hours of time wading through TMI (too much information!). Jason hits the high points but shows you what you need to know. Thanks!”
“I’ve watched many other videos on scales and chords before, however, this one has been the best. I now understand minor scales and chords and even how to analyze songs. It really gave me the confidence to start producing music because I feel like I have some structure and guidelines to follow. AWESOME!”
“Clear and Informative – Jason has a clear uncluttered style (with the important dashes of humor) of presentation that is focused on the important key aspects of this course. Recommended for those starting out!”
“Dr. Allen does it again with his music theory series. This course really opened up everything I learned from the 1st section, and now I understand more about the composition side of things for music. I highly highly recommend this course to anyone!!! Really opened my eyes to many things I wasn’t aware of.”
“The Best Teacher Ever, who makes you understand the ins & outs of Music Theory by all means without giving what you don’t want to know.”
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Welcome & Overview
Review
The Circle of Fifths
Scale Degree Names
The Scale Degree Names
We’ve used the term “tonic” before – now we will learn the rest of the terms.
Compound Meters
Triplets, Duplets, and Quadruplets
Minor Keys
Minor Keys and the Circle of Fifths
Minor Keys and the Circle of Fifths
Back to the Circle of Fifths – this time we will add Minor Keys!