# Simple Music Theory for Beginners - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/simple-music-theory-for-beginners/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Music & Audio · Quick win · Rated 7 /10 # Simple Music Theory for Beginners Updated September 2026 Mike And Matty · Doctors, YouTubers, Music Producers Beginner · 47 min A doctor-musician strips music theory to the handful of ideas that actually appear in popular songs, in under an hour. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fsimple-music-theory-for-beginners%2F863895596) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. Simple Music Theory for Beginners does exactly what its title promises: it compresses the material of a semester-long intro class into 47 minutes, aimed squarely at someone who has never touched a scale diagram. The teacher, a music producer with a music school background, builds the course as a single continuous arc rather than a grab bag of topics, and that structure is its biggest strength. ## A Logical Build, Not a Topic Dump The course opens with the physics of pitch (vibration speed determines how high or low a note sounds) before naming the twelve notes in an octave and defining half-steps and whole-steps. Everything after that is built on those two intervals. Scales get their formula (whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half), relative minors are derived as the sixth degree of any major scale, triads are stacked from scale degrees, and chord progressions are just numbered patterns like a 1-4-5-1 or a 2-5-1 played in sequence. Each lesson visibly reuses the vocabulary from the one before it, so a beginner who does the recommended pauses to practice on a keyboard should never feel like new terminology appears out of nowhere. The chord section is where the course earns its keep. Instead of asking students to memorize which chords are major or minor in every key, it teaches the pattern once (four semitones then three for major, three then four for minor) and shows that the same major-minor-minor-major-major-minor-diminished sequence repeats in every key. That single insight, more than any individual scale or chord, is what lets a beginner transpose ideas instead of memorizing them one key at a time. ## Where It Thins Out The back half moves faster and gets shallower. Inversions are demonstrated clearly enough (move the bottom note of a triad up an octave to reshape the chord's voicing), but the melody lesson leans on vague advice like keeping melodies simple and building tension before release, without a repeatable process for writing one. Rhythm is covered only in 4/4 time, with other time signatures explicitly waved off as too advanced, and diminished chords are skipped outright. These omissions are consistent with the course's stated scope, but they mean a student who finishes it still cannot read notation, has no ear-training practice, and has only a surface-level grip on melody writing. The single class project, building a chord progression and eventually inverting it with an optional melody, gives the material somewhere to land, and the accompanying workbook is used consistently across lessons rather than as an afterthought. There is no notation instruction and no ear training, so the whole course lives in the world of numbered scale degrees and keyboard shapes rather than sheet music. For a true beginner with access to a keyboard, this is an efficient, well-sequenced 47 minutes that will make chord charts and scale diagrams intelligible for the first time. It is not a substitute for a fuller theory course, and it will feel thin to anyone who already knows what a triad is. The standout The relative minor shortcut, drop three half-steps (or move to the sixth degree) from any major root to instantly unlock its minor scale, doubles a beginner's usable vocabulary for free. ## What you will learn - · Identify notes, half-steps, whole-steps, and octaves on a piano keyboard - · Build any major scale using the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half formula and find its relative minor - · Construct triads by degree and recognize which are major, minor, or diminished - · Assemble chord progressions using Roman numeral degrees (like a I-IV-V-I or ii-V-I) - · Invert chords to smooth voice leading and separate frequency ranges in a mix - · Count rhythm in 4/4 using whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes Best for: A total beginner with a keyboard who wants the minimum viable theory to start writing songs, not to pass a conservatory exam. Skip it if: Anyone who has already taken a semester of theory, plays guitar or another non-keyboard instrument primarily, or wants ear training and sight-reading. Engaging Teacher Clarity of Instruction Organization of Lessons Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fsimple-music-theory-for-beginners%2F863895596)