Listen and understand

Hear what's really going on in a sound, and the musical ideas that organise it: pitch, rhythm, harmony and form.

Sound and listening

Hear what a change really does before deciding which sound, effect or mix choice serves the music.

  1. SoundWhat a sound wave is, and why pitch and loudness are stranger than they look
  2. Timbre and harmonicsWhy a piano and a violin playing the same note sound different
  3. Seeing soundWaveforms, spectrums and spectrograms, and what each one hides
  4. Level and loudnessDecibels, peaks, RMS and LUFS, and why louder can seem better
  5. Digital audioSample rate, bit depth and what happens when sound becomes numbers
  6. Listening and comparingHow to tell whether a change is really better

Music theory and musical ideas

Develop a musical idea through rhythm, harmony, melody and contrast, with no staff reading required.

  1. Pitch and intervalsThe distance between two notes, and why some distances feel stable
  2. Rhythm, meter and groovePulse, subdivision, swing, and why a grid alone doesn't groove
  3. Scales, modes and tonal centersWhy the same notes can feel like a different home
  4. ChordsHow stacking intervals builds triads, sevenths and colour tones
  5. Chords and voicingSame notes, different feelings: how spacing and order change a chord
  6. Progressions and harmonic movementCadences, borrowed chords and modulation, and how harmony creates motion
  7. Melody and motifsContour, repetition and variation, and why some tunes stick
  8. Bass lines and counterlinesHow a second line supports a phrase without copying it
  9. Form and arrangementTurning a loop into a piece with sections, contrast and energy
  10. Ear trainingHearing intervals, chords and rhythm without looking
  11. Tuning systemsEqual temperament, just intonation, gamelan and beyond
  12. Music as dataDistributions, transitions and what a model keeps or throws away
  13. Chord and key recognitionHearing harmony in a recording, and why the answer is often two answers