How Music Works
Move beyond isolated notes and basic scales to understand the inner machinery of songs. Learn how voice leading propels harmony forward, how rhythm locks into a groove, and how arrangement transforms simple progressions into compelling musical experiences.
Like Duolingo, but for How Music Works. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
22 levels across 4 sections, about 44 minutes end to end, roughly 9 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Harmonic Motion and Resolution, Melody and the Rhythmic Pocket, Arrangement and Texture, and Modal Colors and Tonality. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Music Works
- Retaining common tones between chords minimizes unnecessary voice movement
- Moving remaining voices by half or whole steps avoids jarring, jumpy leaps
- Smooth voice leading prioritizes individual melodic continuity over parallel jumping
- The tritone inside a dominant seventh chord sits between scale degrees 4 and 7
- The leading tone (7) possesses strong acoustic pull to resolve upward to 1
- The fourth degree (4) naturally collapses downward into the major third (3)
- A deceptive cadence swaps the expected tonic I chord for a submediant vi chord
- Because the vi chord shares notes with the tonic, it delays closure rather than finalizing it
- Subverting the ear's expectation of home sustains tension and drives the phrase forward
- Preparation introduces the note as a consonant harmony in the preceding chord
- Suspension holds that same pitch over as the harmony changes, creating sudden dissonance
- Resolution steps the held note downward into a consonant tone of the new chord
- A pedal point holds or repeats a single bass tone beneath shifting chord changes
- Alternating consonance and intense dissonance against the held bass heightens tension
- Tying harmonies to one foundation grounds the passage's underlying tonal center
- A secondary dominant is the major or dominant chord built a fifth above your target chord
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Music Works the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When moving notes that aren't shared between chords, what kind of motion usually sounds the smoothest?
Get it right to open this lesson and 21 more in the app.
Where How Music Works takes you
- 1
Harmonic Motion and Resolution
- Voice Leading and Cadential Pull
- Chromaticism and Borrowed Harmony
- 2
Melody and the Rhythmic Pocket
- Melodic Shape and Phrasing
- Rhythm, Pulse, and Dynamic Groove
- 3
Arrangement and Texture
- Orchestrating the Frequency Spectrum
- Architectural Form and Contrast
- 4
Modal Colors and Tonality
- Modal Flavors and Harmonic Identity
4 sections · 7 units · 22 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Music Works is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Music on Tomo
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How Melody and Harmony Work
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Fretboard Fluency for Guitar
Break out of beginner chord boxes and static strumming. Build fretboard-wide navigation, expressive touch, and harmonically rich rhythm and lead playing.
Harmonic Function: Pop, J-Pop, and K-Pop
Explore how chords pull, push, and color musical keys across contemporary music. Learn how functional harmony, modal interchange, and voice leading create tension and release, then unpack the distinct chord palettes of Western radio, J-pop, and K-pop.
Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound
Ever wonder why certain notes make you feel sad or why a chorus gets stuck in your head? Learn to decode the invisible architecture of your favorite songs.
Writing Music with Guitar and Drums
Turn the sounds in your head into real songs by locking guitar riffs to drum grooves. Master mental rhythm notation, craft functional chord progressions, and score full rhythm charts.
Start How Music Works today.
Download Tomo, search How Music Works, and play your first lesson in under a minute.