The Common ToneWhere the Sacred and the Profane Share the Same Cup

Practice

Try an exercise, build fluency, or check your understanding.
Find your chapter, then choose a drill, quiz or activity.

Built one week at a time. This practice section grows alongside the book. Each week a new chapter is released, and a new set of exercises for it is released here at the same time.

Chapter 1.2

Lines and Dots and Blobs

Reading notation

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Place the noteFind six notes in treble and bass clefs.Drill Check your understandingFour questions, with feedback and links to the explanation.Quiz

Chapter 1.3

It’s About Time

Rhythm, meter and the backbeat

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Name the note or restTen symbols to recognise.Drill Fill a barThree challenges in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.Drill Build the backbeatThree patterns to make and hear.Drill Keep the BeatThe 16-question chapter quiz.Quiz

Chapter 1.4

Scaling the Heights

Scales: major, minor, pentatonic and blues

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Build a scaleChoose notes and accidentals, then hear and check the pattern.Drill Change the scaleAlter minor forms, take out the devil, and add the blues note.Drill Hear what changedCompare major and minor scales by ear, identify the changed degree, then reveal the notes.Listening Check your understandingQuestions, feedback and links back to the lesson.Quiz

Chapter 1.5

At the Interval

Intervals: size, quality, consonance and inversion

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Build the intervalStart from a given note, build the interval asked for, then check its sound and its spelling.DrillName the intervalRead twelve written pairs and identify their size and quality.DrillHear the intervalBegin with two choices, then work through four repeatable listening rounds.DrillCheck your understandingTen questions on spelling, inversion, compound intervals and musical tension.Quiz

Chapter 1.6

Measure for Meter

Meter: simple and compound, syncopation, swing, clave and drum beats

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The Beat SlicerSlice the beat into equal parts and hear how simple and compound meter differ.InteractiveThe CrevicesPlace one sound between the big beats and hear syncopation happen.InteractiveClave FlipHear the son clave in 3-2, then flip it to 2-3: the same two sides in the opposite order.InteractiveThree BeatsThree drum beats, built layer by layer: rock and roll, rock, and funk.Interactive

Chapter 1.7

Drones, Pedals and Layers

Texture: how many ideas sound at once, drones and pedals, and the four functional layers

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Keep one bass noteLet the bass follow the chords, or keep one note beneath them. Try C, then G—the dominant—and compare.InteractiveTake one part awaySwitch parts off and on. Hear what disappears—and what each return adds.Interactive

Chapter 1.8

Powerful Chords and More

Power chords: the bare fifth, what distortion does to it, and how a melody supplies the missing third

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What distortion addsHear a fifth and a major triad, clean and distorted, and see what the distortion adds.InteractiveFour chords, one movementChoose four roots and hear them as roots alone, root and fifth, with the octave, or with the fifth below.InteractiveSame fifth, different melodyThe C–G accompaniment stays the same. Hear the third and sixth change as the melody flows.Interactive

Chapter 1.9

Triads and Sus Chords

The four triads and their suspended cousins: how three-note chords are built, named, and addressed with Roman numerals.

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Hear one member moveTwo chords share a root and two sounding notes. Hear both, then choose how the other member changed from First to Second.InteractiveBuild it, change a memberConstruct four triad qualities and two sus chords. Then compare each with a major triad on the same root and hear the member that changes.InteractiveChoose what follows a sus chordKeep C and G in place. Choose a second chord, hear the complete pair, and notice the middle note.InteractiveDiscover sus patternsFollow the middle note through a short pattern while C and G keep their pitches. C major is the reference here: I means C major.Interactive

Not tied to a chapter

Legacy quizzes

Quizzes made before the weekly build began, on topics from later in the book. Try any of them now.

Drills build fluency.Quizzes check understanding.Both give you a way to keep learning.
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