Music Theory · Graded music examinations, secondary and senior secondary music courses and undergraduate music degrees.
Learn Music Theory with a visual teacher
Ask "Why does a dominant chord want to resolve to the tonic?" and a 1:1 AI teacher plans the lesson, explains it out loud while it visualizes each step, and checks you got it, in 26 languages.
The subject
What is Music Theory?
Music Theory is the study of how music is built: pitch, rhythm, scales, intervals, chords, keys, harmony, form and notation. Studying it means learning to read and write music, recognise intervals and chords by ear and by eye, analyse harmony and structure in real pieces, and understand why certain progressions sound tense or resolved. It supports performance, composition and graded music exams, and it rewards practice with a trained ear and a clear page.
Where it is studied: Graded music examinations, secondary and senior secondary music courses and undergraduate music degrees.
Why pictures
Why Music Theory is taught visually
Music theory lives on the page and the keyboard: a staff with the notes placed, a keyboard diagram with the scale marked, the circle of fifths, a chord stacked as thirds, a form map of a sonata. Marking semitones on a drawn keyboard explains why a scale sounds major.
The tutor draws the picture as it speaks, one idea at a time, and answers your doubt on the same picture when you interrupt.
Topics
What Music Theory covers, topic by topic
- Reading sheet music
- Major and minor scales
- Chords and progressions
- Raga and tala in Hindustani music
- Carnatic swaras
- Rhythm and time signatures
- The circle of fifths
- Bach and counterpoint
- Beethoven's symphonies
- How sound waves make notes
- Harmony and intervals
- Jazz improvisation
- Basic guitar chords
- Piano fingering
- Music production and mixing
- Tabla basics
- A short history of Western music
- Song structure
- Ear training
- The orchestra
- Qawwali and Sufi music
- Composing for film
- Notation and the staff
- Rhythm and metre
- Scales and keys
- Intervals
- Chords and triads
- Harmony and progressions
- Cadences
- Musical form
- Counterpoint
A starting point, not a limit: name any topic in Music Theory and the tutor plans it.
Exams and curricula
Music Theory for every exam
- ABRSM
- Trinity
- GCSE Music
- A-levels
- IB Music
- AP Music Theory
Each lesson is pitched to the curriculum you follow, and you can upload past papers so the practice matches the exam.
Ask it anything
Questions learners ask in Music Theory
- How do I work out the key of a piece from its key signature?
- What is the difference between a major and a minor seventh?
- Why is parallel fifths considered a mistake in harmony exercises?
Questions
Asked, Answered
Can an AI visual teacher explain music theory without a piano?
Yes. It draws the staff and a keyboard diagram, places each note and marks the intervals as it explains aloud. You can interrupt and ask why a note is sharp in that key, and it shows you on the same keyboard.
Can it help with harmony exercises and analysis?
Upload a photo of the score or your exercise and the tutor labels chords, identifies cadences and explains why a progression works or breaks a rule. Ask for a different explanation if a rule still seems arbitrary.
Is it useful for graded theory exams?
Ask it to teach the topics on your grade's syllabus and upload past papers for explanation. Test Lab offers AI-made tests on intervals, keys and chords, and each lesson ends with a checkpoint question to confirm the idea has stuck.
Last updated
Music Theory, Starting now.
Any topic in the subject, at your level, in your language. The Free plan needs no card.