Interval Numbers
Intervals An interval is the distance between two notes, measured as a number. In Grade One Music Theory (ABRSM and Trinity), sometimes you have to measure given intervals, and sometimes …
Key Signatures
Key When we write music which mostly uses notes from the scale of C major and sounds good finished with a C, we say that the music is “in the …
Major Scales and Scale Degrees
The C Major Scale Listen to this series of eight notes: This is a scale of C major. (A “scale” is any defined series of musical notes.) In the C major scale, …
Tones and Semitones
Semitones (Half Steps) A semitone (or “half step” in the USA) is the smallest distance between two different notes. Let’s use the piano keyboard to look at some examples of …
Tied Notes
Ties In music theory, a tie is a small, curved line which connects two notes of exactly the same pitch. The time values of tied notes are added together to …
Simple Time Signatures
Time Signatures A time signature is a symbol which we write at the beginning of a piece of music to show how many beats there are in one bar. Time …
Dotted Notes
What are Dotted Notes? Notes and rests can have their lengths increased if we add one or more dots. For Grade 1 ABRSM music theory, you only need to understand …
Time Names of Rests
Rest Shapes In music theory, rests are symbols which tell you to stop playing, and how long to stop for. Rests come in different shapes depending on how long they …
Beaming in Groups
To view the note names in US English, hover over the UK terms. Beaming To make music easier to read, we normally group these small notes together in complete beats. …
Time Names of Notes
This page uses UK note names. USA note names are shown in brackets. Note Shapes To show how long notes should be held for, we draw them with different shapes. …