Final Post

The Last Post in Len’s Current Music Blog


(entry for 2/7/2025)


We’ve come to the end of this current series. By popular request, Len will soon launch a music blog aimed at beginners, or at musicians with no exposure to music theory who want to learn about why music works the way it does. (The current series of posts was aimed at people who already had some exposure to music notation, theory, and harmony, to correct some myth-conceptions running around out there.)

Summaries are often useful things, so here’s a summary of what we covered in this series:

1. In the first six posts, we talked about where traditional music notation came from, including its method of showing pitch and rhythm, and how all of the current features of notation grew out of a concept developed by a monk named Guido. In particular, we talked about how clefs define pitch, and why a clef without a staff is like a kettle without a stove.

2. In the next two posts, we discussed why and how the Italian language came to dominate musical instructions and suggestions, and what some of the most common Italian comments in written music mean.

3. The next three posts (numbers 9-11) we talked about how rhythm is currently shown, and how various descriptive terms including Metronome Markings help tempo indications be more precise.

4. The next five entries (12-16) are about intervals, triads, four-note chords, and other aspects of music that control our concept of harmony. We learn what ‘inversions’ are, and how they affect what we hear.

5. The next entry (number 17) takes a quick detour into the idea of Counterpoint, which affects harmony but is really a separate topic.

6. The next three posts (18-20) are about two important people who shared the last name of Bach, and who were extremely influential in the way that harmony developed.

7. The next two (21-22) are about the notion of Rules in music, and why even though the concept is erroneous, it can sometimes be useful.

8. Posts 23-26 cover the idea of ‘keys,’ an understanding of what we mean when we say ‘relative major’ or ‘relative minor,’ some discussion about the three varieties of ‘minor,’ and how all of this is affected by the notion of ‘accidentals.’

9. Finally we come in posts 27 & 28 to the most important ideas in the series: The Series of Partials.’ (Everything till now was just leading up to this, but was immportant in getting to the point where this part would make some sense.) ‘Partials’ defines why we hear the way we do, why keys relate to each other the way they do, and why the study of harmony has to be organized the way it is.




10. Another quick detour (post 29: How the Seventh Partial got ignored in Western Music, and why that matters to our understanding of harmony).

11. Returning from the detour, we come back from Sevenths to the discussion of all the Partials again, and why that leads to a ‘hierarchy’ of intervals that help us define what harmony is all about. (Post 30.)

12. The second-most important concept in this series: The Circle of 5ths, which will govern everything else we go over in these topics. (Post 31.)


13. Posts 32-35 apply the ‘facts of musical life’ that we have learned in post 31, and introduce a concept often omitted in studies about theory or harmony— the Wedge, and how to use it. Ending with how to apply it usefully in minor keys, a point most treatises ignore.

14. And post 36 is this summary, the Final Post.

If you have questions about music not answered in these posts, feel free to write to me at legendkeeper21 ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com (translate that into normal email address form first, of course), and I will reply as soon as I am able. Also, if you have specific suggestions for the “beginners’” series, you can reach me at that same address.

At the very bottom of this post, the next to last line contains a link to my official Index to all the posts in this series, with a brief description of what each post contains. If you’ve enjoyed this group of essays on music theory and history, I hope you’ll ‘bookmark’ that link and come back again and again to visit your favorite episodes in the saga of Harmony.

Check back in the index from time to time to see if there is an announcement (yet) regarding the next series, and when it’s scheduled to start.


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copyright ©2025, LegendKeeper LLC


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To see an index of all of Len’s Music Blog posts, please click HERE.

To see an index of his Memory Blog posts, you can click HERE.






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