Master Music Theory: Notes, Scales, Chords and Rhythm in 100 Flashcards

Music theory has a reputation for being dry, but most of it is just vocabulary: a few hundred precise terms that describe what your ears already hear. Once those terms are automatic, reading a score, analysing a chord progression or following a rehearsal becomes much easier. The Music Theory: Notes, Scales, Chords & Rhythm deck on Flip It (deck code NG1369, 100 cards) is built exactly for that job: it turns the core definitions into flashcards you can drill in ten-minute sessions.

What the 100 cards cover

The deck is organised around the building blocks of Western music, with a short detour into history and non-Western traditions. You'll master:

• Pitch and intervals: pitch, pitch class, unison, octave, semitone, whole tone, consonance vs. dissonance, concert A at 440 Hz, middle C at ~261.6 Hz
• Scales and keys: chromatic, major, natural/harmonic/melodic minor, pentatonic, octatonic, key signature, transposition, circle of fifths
• Tuning systems: equal temperament, Pythagorean tuning, just intonation
• Rhythm and meter: rhythm, meter, time signature, tempo, syncopation, polyrhythm
• Harmony and chords: triad, the four triad qualities, seventh chord, dominant seventh, chord inversion, root, arpeggio, chord progression, cadence, figured bass, lead sheet, jazz tensions
• Texture and counterpoint: monophonic, biphonic, homophonic, polyphonic, counterpoint, canon
• Dynamics and articulation: piano, forte, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, sforzando, fortepiano, crescendo, diminuendo, hairpins, staccato, staccatissimo, legato, tenuto, marcato, portato
• Notation and history: neumes, plainchant, solmization, Guido d'Arezzo, mensural notation, Franco of Cologne, the quadrivium, Boethius, Pythagoras, the Natya Shastra, Chinese pitch theory (the numbers twelve, five and eight, the Yellow Bell)

Sample cards from the deck

Two study tips specific to this deck

1. Drill the dynamics and articulation cards at a keyboard. About twenty cards are Italian performance markings (sforzando, tenuto, marcato, portato…). Definitions alone blur together; playing a single note each way while you flip the card links the word to a physical gesture. Do the same for the four triad qualities: play C major, C minor, C augmented, C diminished in a row before reviewing.

2. Learn the interval and scale cards as a chain, not as isolated facts. Semitone → whole tone → chromatic scale (12 semitones) → major scale (7 notes, a fixed pattern of whole and half steps) → pentatonic (5) → octatonic (8, alternating). Reciting that chain once before a session makes the individual cards almost self-evident, and the same trick works for the texture cards (mono → bi → homo → polyphonic).

A short plan

Three sessions: (1) pitch, intervals, scales and keys; (2) rhythm, chords, harmony and texture; (3) dynamics, articulation, notation and history, then a mixed review of the cards Flip It flags as weak.

Log in at flip-it.app, search the library for NG1369 or Music Theory: Notes, Scales, Chords & Rhythm, and start the first session. New to spaced repetition? Read how to learn with flashcards first.