Playable Books

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Where to begin

Pick the path that fits what you know. Each step opens a book at the right page, with its examples ready to play. Your progress stays in this browser: a step is done when you have read through its sections, or when you mark it.

Hear it first

New to theory

A first path for readers who can read a little music. Melody, then intervals and chords, then two lines together, then how phrases end. Every step has examples to play.

7 steps
Begin with Introduction →
  1. IntroductionGoetschius · Exercises in Elementary Counterpoint · 5 playable examples

    Goetschius on hearing music as lines, not chords.

  2. The single melodic line, and wider leapsGoetschius · Exercises in Elementary Counterpoint · 23 playable examples

    How one good melody moves: steps, leaps, and where active tones want to go.

  3. Introduction · IntervalsTchaikovsky · Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony · 8 playable examples

    The intervals, named and heard.

  4. Triads of the major scale, and how to connect themTchaikovsky · Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony · 8 playable examples

    Chords built from the scale, and moving smoothly between them.

  5. First species counterpoint: note against noteFux · Gradus ad Parnassum · 20 playable examples

    Two voices, note against note: the oldest lesson in the library.

  6. Chapter IV. The Association Of Two Melodic LinesGoetschius · Exercises in Elementary Counterpoint · 27 playable examples

    Two melodic lines at once, the Goetschius way.

  7. Chapter XXXIV. Cadences (closes)Tchaikovsky · Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony · 3 playable examples

    How phrases end: the cadences.

Counterpoint, from note against note to fugue

Reads music

The classic route through Fux’s five species, into three voices and imitation, and on to the fugue, with Goetschius and Prout alongside.

7 steps
Begin with The opening dialogue of Gradus ad Parnassum →
  1. The opening dialogue of Gradus ad ParnassumFux · Gradus ad Parnassum

    Fux’s opening dialogue: why a student should begin here.

  2. The five species in two voicesFux · Gradus ad Parnassum · 82 playable examples

    Note against note, two against one, four against one, syncopation, florid.

  3. The species in three voicesFux · Gradus ad Parnassum · 69 playable examples

    The same five steps with a third voice.

  4. ImitationFux · Gradus ad Parnassum · 8 playable examples

    Imitation: one voice answering another.

  5. Chapter IVGoetschius · Counterpoint Applied · 53 playable examples

    Goetschius on imitation, with many more examples to play.

  6. Fugue in general, and in two partsFux · Gradus ad Parnassum · 21 playable examples

    What makes a fugue, then a first one in two voices.

  7. Bach’s first two fugues, analysedProut · Analysis of J. S. Bach’s Forty-Eight Fugues · 4 playable examples

    Prout takes apart the C major and C minor fugues from Book I.

Harmony and modulation

Knows the basics

For readers who know scales and triads: chords and how they connect, harmonizing a melody, moving between keys, and Schoenberg’s and Reger’s larger views.

6 steps
Begin with Introduction →
  1. IntroductionRimsky-Korsakov · Practical Manual of Harmony · 9 playable examples

    Rimsky-Korsakov’s ground rules for four-part writing.

  2. Triads and seventh chordsRimsky-Korsakov · Practical Manual of Harmony · 14 playable examples

    The chords of the major and minor keys.

  3. Chapter XVII. The Harmonization of a given melodyTchaikovsky · Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony · 25 playable examples

    Harmonizing a given melody.

  4. Direct and transient modulationTchaikovsky · Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony · 30 playable examples

    Changing key, for good or for a moment.

  5. Consonance and DissonanceSchoenberg · Theory of Harmony

    Schoenberg rethinks consonance and dissonance.

  6. Reger’s method, and modulations from C majorReger · Supplement to the Theory of Modulation · 44 playable examples

    The shortest roads from one key to any other.

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