About Music Theory Etc.

Music Theory Etc. was launched in March, 2023, to help AP Music Theory students prepare for the exam, but it will keep expanding to include all things "music theory-ish", including music theory, sight singing, ear training, music composition and arranging, music technology, and perhaps more.

Give Me Your Suggestions!

I am always looking for ideas to make this site better, so please "suggest-away" - that's not a word of course, but here at Music Theory Etc. I like to do things in the spirit of creativity, just like the common phrase goes, "Theory follows practice". With that in mind, I like to practice/create, then try to theorize on it. (It's not always this neat and tidy.) So, any ideas you can float my way in the music-sphere are welcome! It doesn't matter if you're a scholar, amateur, musician, student, teacher - whatever! In fact, some of the very best ideas have come from students - like Angelina's suggestions to add audio examples to definitions (a work in progress), include graphs of concepts like non-harmonic tones, and many other things. Thanks Angelina!

Who Am I?

If you're interested in who I am, the creater and maintainer of this website, my name if Jeff Anvinson. I have almost six decades of broad experience and education in the music field, including performing, composing, arranging, writing, educating, recording, producing, and more. I've earned two degrees in music (bachelor's in music edcuation and master's in music theory - with graduate classical guitar study) and was fortunate to learn from Pulitzer and Grammy award winners. You can read my (kind of out-of-date - oops!) bio here.

Contributors

I'm very lucky to have contributors to this website, including Angelina, John Allensworth, Spencer Black - and unnamed others who may not want their names shared. You can see music theorist/composer/musician Spencer Black's bio by clicking here and prolific melodist John Allensworth's bio here.)

The Joke's on Us!

By the way, I want to interject some fun into music theory. The formula for that might look like this: F + MT = W, where F is fun, MT is music theory, and W is wow! What this means is that I would love to hear from you with your original jokes. (Make them clean; this is a website for kids too.) If I like them, I'll post them here: Music Humor. If you consent to having your first name listed, please give me permission in your email. Happy music theory joking! (And no, I don't mean that music theory is a joke! Far from it. Music theory is serious and legitimate - but fun - business. It dates back more than a thousand years - an incredible tradition with a huge breadth of knowledge. Let's make our mark on this ever-expanding field, in both serious and jocular ways, shall we?