musictheory.net

What musictheory.net is

musictheory.net is a free music theory site for learners and for the teachers who assign them practice. It describes itself as "Introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, exercises, ear trainers, and calculators", and its FAQ says "all content on the site is available free of charge and without ads." The site runs on app sales instead: two paid iOS apps, Theory Lessons and Tenuto, carry the same lessons and exercises offline, and the lessons page asks anyone the lessons help to "please purchase our apps to support the site." The company behind it is musictheory.net, LLC, and its copyright line runs from 2000 to 2025.

The product has three parts: animated lessons that explain one concept each, exercises that drill it, and calculators for working things out. A teacher can turn any exercise into homework with a permanent link and collect a signed, verifiable progress report afterward, and much of the FAQ is written for teachers using the site that way.

The lessons

The lessons page lists 39 animated lessons in eight groups, starting from the staff and ending at intermediate harmony:

• The basics: the staff, treble and bass clefs and ledger lines; note duration; measures and time signatures; rests; dots and ties; half steps, whole steps and accidentals
• Rhythm and meter: simple and compound meter, and odd meter
• Scales and key signatures: the major scale, the three types of minor scale, scale degree names, key signatures and a method for calculating them
• Intervals: generic and specific intervals, writing intervals with a three-step process, and inversion
• Chords: the four types of triads, triad inversion, the five types of seventh chords, three more seventh chords used in popular music and jazz, and seventh chord inversion
• Diatonic chords: diatonic triads and seventh chords, Roman numeral analysis of both, composing with minor scales, voicing chords and an analysis of O Canada
• Chord progressions: nonharmonic tones, phrases and cadences, circle progressions, common progressions, first and second inversion triads, and an analysis of Auld Lang Syne
• Neapolitan chords: building and using them, with an analysis of measures 49-51 of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

Each lesson is a short animated sequence with audio examples. The FAQ names the software instruments behind the sound: free piano samples such as the Salamander Grand Piano, woodwind and brass from Samplemodeling, and bowed strings from Embertone, played at a single dynamic with a gentle vibrato. Translations exist only for the older, pre-2010 lessons, which stay available on the Classic Edition at classic.musictheory.net along with a Brass Trainer.

Exercises, ear training and tools

The exercises are where most of the practice happens. Tenuto's page counts 24 exercises and six calculators, and the FAQ refers to note identification, note construction, interval, scale degree, pitch-class and ear training exercises. By default an exercise never ends; it keeps generating questions until the learner stops. Customizations narrow it down. The FAQ walks through three of them: Key Signatures adds a key signature to the staff, Accidentals adds sharps, flats or naturals beside the note, and Note Filter limits questions to an allowed set of notes, so a student can drill only the diatonic notes of C, F and G major. Challenge Mode adds a time or question limit and stops a student from skipping questions.

On a computer the exercises take keyboard shortcuts: letters A to G for note names, number keys for intervals and scale degrees, Shift + R to reveal an answer, Shift + N for a new question and Space to replay an ear training question. The calculators compute intervals, chords, scales and more.

The FAQ says the site and apps aim to be accessible through WAI-ARIA and VoiceOver, and that site navigation, lesson text and ear training exercises should work with screen readers.

Homework and verification for teachers

Teachers set homework through the Exercise Customizer, listed under "For Teachers" on the exercises page. As the teacher changes an exercise's settings, the web address updates, and that address is permanent: it can go into a course management system, onto a school website or straight into an email to students. Customized exercises do not expire. Any lesson, exercise or tool can also be embedded in another site with an HTML frame at least 600 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall.

To prove the work, the student opens the Progress Report, signs it and gets a Verification Code. The FAQ says the code contains everything needed to recreate the report: "the exercise name, settings, signature, elapsed time, and score." The teacher enters it in the Code Checker tool to see the original report. Once signed, the signature cannot change until the score is reset, which stops a student from making copies of one report for friends, and the codes are built to resist forgery.

Privacy is handled by design. The FAQ says verification codes are created in the student's browser and are not transmitted or stored on the company's servers, so a lost code cannot be looked up, and it recommends that students sign with initials or another identifier rather than their name.

The apps

Theory Lessons puts all 39 lessons on iPhone and iPad, each "presented in its original, animated version", with portrait orientation showing a broader view of the lesson and landscape a larger view of the current slide. Tenuto carries the 24 exercises and six calculators with a touch interface. Both work without an internet connection; Tenuto's page pictures practice on a bus or a beach, with the progress report sent to the teacher once back near Wi-Fi. A student given a web exercise as homework can open it in Tenuto from Safari, complete it there and email or print an official progress report. The apps need iOS 15.8 or later, and they are sold through the App Store.

Requirements

The web version runs in a current browser. For the 2024-2025 school year the FAQ lists Safari 15.4 or later, Chrome 100 or later, Edge 100 or later and Firefox 115 or later, and says outdated browsers are retired each summer, a practice that started in 2016. Schools on older machines can use the archived 2018, 2017, 2015 and 2012 editions. Audio depends on WebAssembly and the Web Audio API, and Flash is not needed.

Who it suits

musictheory.net suits two kinds of user. Music teachers get a free set of drills they can assign by link and check by code, which makes it easy to use for homework in a theory class or alongside private instrument lessons. Self-taught musicians and students preparing for theory work get a clear path from reading the staff to Neapolitan chords, plus ear training, at no cost and without ads.

It teaches theory and ear training rather than an instrument, through lessons and drills rather than a live teacher. Learners who want an instructor or a structured course with a credential will need something alongside it, and the offline apps are for Apple devices only.