Music theory is very important if you are going to create music, or if you just want to pass band class.
Music theory is like science, which is the study of laws. Music theory is more or less the study of the laws of music(wait, is music and science related? Who knows? Go ask your science teacher. 
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Here I am going to cover the basics of music theory.
I had to rewrite this whole thing because the draft didn’t save…
1. Music Staff
This is a diagram of the music staff, which is the basis of all music:
2. Terms
Bracket
A bracket is a curved line that separates instruments into parts. For example, one bracket might incase all the instruments in the percussion section, another encases the woodwinds, brass, etc.
Treble Clef
The treble clef is usually associated with the higher notes and played on the right hand.
Bass Clef
Similar to the treble clef, this clef is associated with the lower notes and is usually played by the left hand
Time Signature
The time signature defines the length of the beats/pulses in a bar lasts. For example, the time signature 4/4 would last 4 beats, with each beat being a quarter note. A time signature of 3/2 would last 3 pulses, with each pulse being a half note. If the top number of a time signature is a multiple of 3, then it will be called a, “pulse”, and anything else is considered a “beat”.
Bar
A bar is a time in a piece where music is played, and the length is determined by the time signature.
Barline
A barline separates 2 bars
Space
A space is located between 2 lines.
Line
A line is located in between 2 spaces.
3 Note Name
This is a diagram of the note names.
Notes will ascend and descend up and down the scale, repeating itself. For example, in this diagram, the highest note is the C on the 4th space on the treble clef. The next note would be a D, then and E, and so on. This also applies to the bass clef(but descending instead of ascending).
4 Information That You Must Know
Before you continue this tutorial, these are essential things you must know:
Each note in a scale has a different name assigned to it. For example, the tonic is the first note of the scale, and the leading ti=one is the seventh note of the scale.
You would also see vocabulary such as “half steps”, and “whole steps”. A half step is an immediate note after or before a note, and a whole step is double that, for example:
A Key Signature is something that identifies whether a specific note is a sharp or a flat if it is on a certain line or space on the music staff:
The notes encased in the pink box is the notes affected by the key signature, as you can see with the red lines, the notes are aligned with the key signature. In this case, an A Major scale, the sharps are in the places of C E and F, so those notes will be affected by the time signature and will become sharps.
5. Scales
Next, I will be showing you a scale:
This specific scale is called the “C Major” scale. The tonic note would be a C. A major scale is made by having the tonic note ascend like the following:
- Tonic to Supertonic → Whole Step
- Supertonic to Mediant → Whole Step
- Mediant to Subdominant → Whole Step
- Subdominant to Dominant → Half Step
- Dominant to Submediant → Whole step
- Submediant to Leading Tone → Whole Step
- Leading Tone to Tonic → Half Step
This is what a C Major scale would sound like.
Now, every major scale has a relative minor scale. To find the relative minor scale, you lower the tonic note my 3 half steps with the key signature staying the same:
And then this will be the minor scale(A Minor):
This is what it would sound like:
This is how you would make any minor scale:
- Tonic to Supertonic → Whole Step
- Supertonic to Mediant → Whole Step
- Mediant to Subdominant → Half Step
- Subdominant to Dominant → Whole Step
- Dominant to Submediant → Whole step
- Submediant to Leading Tone → Half Step
- Leading Tone to Tonic → Whole Step
6. Chords
Chords are the basis of all music, they are just notes that are stacked upon each other, creating harmony. All music is made out of chords, it’s what gives the music its pattern and feeling. Without them, you will have a hard time creating and learning music.
There are different types of chords, with each one giving out its own feeling. You can alter that feeling by placing a different chord before or after it. Here are the sounds and diagrams of some of the basic chords, the treble clef will be the root chord(the first inversion, this will be explained later), while the bass clef will be the root note, meaning it will contain the base note of the chord:
Here are what they sound respective (in order, like in the diagram):
7. Chord Inversions
Inversions for chords are basically raising the bottommost note and putting it to the top, in this diagram, each inversion will be labelled:
This is what it would sound like:
8. What Chords Sound Good Together?
As I’ve said before, chords have their own feeling, for example, a minor chord would portray a “sad” feeling while a major chord will have a “happy” feeling. But, what if we mix different chords up? You get a totally different feeling and message. Here are some examples of some chords that work well together:
Minor Minor 7th Chord and Major Triad:
This combination of chords gives a more “happy” feeling, like dancing and having fun this is giving me some Mario vibes for some reason?.
Augmented Triad and Diminished 7th Chord:
These are 2 chords that are used so scarcely in music, because they are relatively hard to implement, but are really good for sounds that are distorted, for example, for a horror game or for suspense, can even be used to create intense music!
Sus triad and Major Triad:
This is by far the best sounding chords that fit together so nicely in my opinion, it is kind of a “relief” combination of chords.
There are much much more combinations that you can make, for example, dominant 7th chord and major triad, just experiment with chords and you might find one that is revolutionary.
9. Chord Progressions
Chord progressions are chords that are played next to each other, every sone has its own progression. Progressions are measured with roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.), with lowercase letters signifying minor chords and major ones are with uppercase letters for example:
And this is what it would sound like:
There are many different chord progressions out there. This chord progression shown above is one of the most used and nicest sounding chord progression, and it’s probably the best chord progression to start with when making music. This is because it is relatively easy to harmonize with these chords, and it usually turns out pretty nicely.
9. Extra
If you don’t fully understand this tutorial, here’s a more in-depth video that will help you:
If you have any questions about this, then feel free to reply to this thread. If there are things I got wrong, please reply or PM me(private messaging would be preferred) and tell me what I did wrong and I will be fixing this topic.
Thank you and I hope you learned something new today! 
