The training plan

The staff, treble and bass clefs, ledger lines, sharps and flats, and key signatures.

7 days · Beginner

Beat, note values, time signatures, dots, ties, rests and counting a bar.

6 days · Beginner

Half steps, whole steps and the major scale: the pattern behind almost everything.

6 days · Beginner

Name and build every interval, by counting, by sight and by song.

7 days · Beginner

Learn the circle of fifths in a week, about ten minutes a day.

7 days · Beginner

Spell notes correctly: one letter per note, E♯ and C♭, double sharps and flats, and enharmonic keys.

5 days · Beginner

Know every note on the neck: the open strings, the 5th-fret rule, the dots, sharps and flats and octave shapes.

5 days · Beginner

Recognise the distance between two notes by sound, with songs as memory hooks.

6 days · Beginner

Build major, minor, diminished and augmented chords, and flip them upside down.

6 days · Beginner

Read and write chord names: C, Cm, C7, Cmaj7, Dm7♭5, slash chords like C/E, and power chords.

5 days · Beginner

Read a chord diagram, name any shape, and understand open chords, barre chords and seventh chords.

5 days · Beginner

Read two, three and four notes stacked on the staff: intervals, triads, inversions and seventh chords.

5 days · Beginner

Natural, harmonic and melodic minor, and how minor keys relate to major.

6 days · Beginner

Which chords belong in a key, what the Roman numerals mean, and how to find the key of a song.

7 days · Beginner

How chords move: the classic progressions, cadences, minor progressions and playing them in any key.

6 days · Beginner

The five-note scales, the blue note, the twelve-bar blues, and how to play over it.

6 days · Beginner

Tell major from minor, spot diminished and augmented, hear sevenths, and follow a progression by ear.

5 days · Beginner

Add the seventh: dominant, major, minor, half-diminished and diminished sevenths, and where they live in a key.

7 days · Intermediate

Sus2, sus4, add9, sixth and ninth chords: what they are and when to use them.

6 days · Intermediate

Connect chords smoothly: common tones, smallest steps, inversions and motion between voices.

5 days · Intermediate

Move any song to a new key, by half steps, by numerals and with a capo.

6 days · Intermediate

Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locrian: what they are, how they sound and how to spell them.

7 days · Intermediate

How melodies work: phrases and cadences, chord tones and non-chord tones, and the shape of a whole song.

5 days · Intermediate

Turn the theory into songs: pick a key, build a loop, write a melody over it, shape verse and chorus, and change the mood.

6 days · Intermediate

Two lines at once: how melodies move against each other, which intervals sit well, and what to avoid.

5 days · Intermediate

Compound time (6/8, 9/8, 12/8), syncopation, triplets and swing, and odd meters like 5/4 and 7/8.

5 days · Intermediate

Frequency and pitch, the overtone series, compound intervals, equal temperament and consonance.

5 days · Intermediate

The ii–V–I, minor ii–V–i, guide tones, extensions and turnarounds: the grammar of jazz chords.

7 days · Advanced

Chords from outside the key: ♭VII, iv, ♭VI and the secondary dominants like V7/ii.

7 days · Advanced

Change key smoothly: related keys, pivot chords, the dominant approach and direct key changes.

5 days · Advanced

Stack thirds past the seventh: 9ths, 11ths and 13ths, and altered dominants like 7♭9, 7♯9, 7♯11 and 7alt.

6 days · Advanced

Dorian over m7, Mixolydian over 7, altered over 7alt: which scale fits which chord.

5 days · Advanced