"The Oxford Companion to Music describes three interrelated uses of the term 'music theory.'"
The study of the elements and principles of music, such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and form.
Notes and pitch: Basic elements of music theory, understanding of notes, their values, how they are written, and how they correspond to pitches and frequency.
Scales and keys: An understanding of different scales and how they are used in music composition, as well as the concept of tonality and modality.
Intervals and chords: The distance between two notes, and how different chords are formed based on those intervals.
Rhythm and time signatures: Understanding the different rhythms in music, the concept of time signatures and how they related to meter.
Musical notation: Familiarizing yourself with the written language of music, and memorizing basic music notations and terms like rests, dynamics, and articulations.
Harmony and counterpoint: The relationship between chords and how they can be used to support a melody, along with counterpoint technique which refer to simultaneous melodic lines.
Musical forms: Understanding different types of musical forms such as the binary, ternary, rondo, and sonata.
Modes and keys: Understanding the difference between major and minor keys, and knowing how to identify the seven different modes within major and minor scales.
Musical instruments: Basic knowledge of different musical instruments, their range, and the ways in which music is composed to suite them.
Music history: Learning about different musical periods, styles, and genre throughout history and how it influenced music theory.
Musical Analysis: Analyzing Musical pieces, recognizing musical patterns, and understanding how they create meaning.
Ear Training: Developing the ear to recognize different musical intervals, chords, and scales in real time.
Songwriting: Understanding of musical composition, song structures, and the different elements of songwriting to create emotionally-rich music.
Performance Practice: Knowledge of how to perform music using proper musical phrasing, expression, and interpretative techniques.
Orchestration and Arranging: Understanding of the different orchestration techniques as well as the arranging techniques in music composition.
Basic Music Theory: This type of theory deals with the fundamentals of music notation, rhythm, harmony, scales, and key signatures.
Advanced Music Theory: This type of theory goes beyond the basics and focuses on advanced topics such as counterpoint, orchestration, and form.
Jazz Theory: Jazz theory is a specialized type of music theory that focuses on the unique harmonic and rhythmic structures found in jazz music.
Classical Theory: This type of theory covers the classical music tradition, including the study of sonata form, polyphony, and harmonic theory.
Pop Theory: Pop theory focuses on the analysis and understanding of popular music genres like rock, hip hop, and electronic dance music.
World Music Theory: World music theory examines musical traditions from different cultures and regions around the world, including African, Asian, and Latin American music.
Musicology: Musicology is the academic study of music history, the evolution of music styles, and the cultural contexts in which music is created and performed.
Ethnomusicology: Ethnomusicology is a subfield of musicology that focuses on the study of music in relation to its cultural and social contexts, including traditional and folk music.
Composition Theory: Composition theory is the study of the principles and techniques behind musical composition, including melody, harmony, rhythm, and form.
Music Analysis: Music analysis is the process of breaking down a piece of music into its component parts in order to understand its structure, form, and meaning.
"The first is the 'rudiments', that are needed to understand music notation; the second is learning scholars' views on music from antiquity to the present; the third is a sub-topic of musicology that 'seeks to define processes and general principles in music'."
"The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis 'in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built.'"
"Music theory is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including tuning systems and composition methods among other topics."
"A more inclusive definition could be the consideration of any sonic phenomena, including silence."
"The study of 'music' in the Quadrivium liberal arts university curriculum... was an abstract system of proportions."
"Music theory as a practical discipline encompasses the methods and concepts that composers and other musicians use in creating and performing music."
"The development, preservation, and transmission of music theory in this sense may be found in oral and written music-making traditions, musical instruments, and other artifacts."
"Ancient instruments from prehistoric sites around the world reveal details about the music they produced and potentially something of the musical theory that might have been used by their makers."
"Practical and scholarly traditions overlap, as many practical treatises about music place themselves within a tradition of other treatises, which are cited regularly just as scholarly writing cites earlier research."
"Etymologically, music theory is an act of contemplation of music, from the Greek word θεωρία, meaning a looking at, a viewing; a contemplation, speculation, theory; a sight, a spectacle."
"Music theory, as such, is often concerned with abstract musical aspects such as tuning and tonal systems, scales, consonance and dissonance, and rhythmic relationships."
"There is also a body of theory concerning practical aspects, such as the creation or the performance of music, orchestration, ornamentation, improvisation, and electronic sound production."
"University study, typically to the MA or PhD level, is required to teach as a tenure-track music theorist in a US or Canadian university."
"Methods of analysis include mathematics, graphic analysis, and especially analysis enabled by western music notation."
"Comparative, descriptive, statistical, and other methods are also used."
"Music theory textbooks... often include elements of musical acoustics, considerations of musical notation, and techniques of tonal composition (harmony and counterpoint), among other topics."