About Music Theory Center
A free music theory course and reference, built on one idea: you should hear a thing before it has a name.
How the course is built
- You hear it before it has a name.
- Every section opens with a sound and a question, not a definition; the term arrives third. Any note, chord or interval named mid-sentence is a button that plays it.
- No instrument is the default.
- Chapters draw no instrument of their own — you pick piano, guitar, bass or ukulele once, and every example on the site is redrawn on it.
- Reading music is optional.
- Notation is chapter 4, and it is a prerequisite of no other chapter.
- Ear training is part of the course, not a separate app.
- It starts at chapter 6, and from there every chapter has something to identify by ear.
- A wrong answer explains itself.
- Every option in every check carries its own explanation: what you probably heard, what it was, and the difference. Retrying is unlimited.
- No score, no streak, no account, no subscription.
- The only thing stored is which chapters you have opened, in your own browser.
- Claims are typed.
- Every statement is marked as a fact, a naming convention, a stylistic tendency or a written constraint — and tendencies and constraints always state whose music they describe.
What's here
19 chapters in five parts, from first principles to advanced harmony, plus a playable page for every interval, chord, scale and progression. The interface and the course are both available in English, French and Spanish.
Sources, prerequisites and corrections
Real recordings are cited throughout the course, each with a note on where in the track to listen. Prerequisites are shown on every chapter and enforced on none. No time estimates are published anywhere; the portion signal is the section count.