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Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound, a free music course on Tomo

Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound

Like Duolingo, but for Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Pulse and the Path and Building the Emotional Engine. It starts from scratch.

12 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Major the Magpie, the guide who teaches the Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound course
Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound
with Major the Magpie
12
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound

  • Music is organized time
  • Silence is part of music
  • The beat exists without instruments
  • The beat is a common ruler
  • Higher tempo generally correlates with higher physical energy and excitement
  • Rhythm is the varied pattern of sounds (long, short, silent)
  • Tempo is measured by how many beats occur in a minute
  • The beat is the unchanging foundation underneath the rhythm
  • Music is organized time, not just random sound
  • Rhythm is the specific pattern of long and short sounds
  • The beat is the steady, invisible pulse
  • The first beat of a cycle is usually the strongest (the 'downbeat')
  • Tempo is the speed of that pulse, which dictates the song's physical energy level.
  • Accents create a sense of '1, 2, 3, 4' rather than an endless string of '1, 1, 1, 1'
  • Rhythm is the specific pattern of long and short sounds that 'ride' on top of the steady beat.
  • Accents help our brains group beats into repeating cycles.
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound 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.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

The Invisible Heartbeat

If a song had absolutely no moments of silence, what would it be missing?

Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.

Course map

Where Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound takes you

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.

  1. 1

    The Pulse and the Path

    • Rhythm and the Heartbeat
    • Melody and the Musical Alphabet
  2. 2

    Building the Emotional Engine

    • Harmony and the Power of Chords
    • The Roadmap of a Song

2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
Explain Like I'm 5

Music Theory: The Patterns Behind the Sound is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. 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.

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