The Practice Room: Music Theory Drills
A page that is the exercise rather than an explanation of it. First drill: the note circle — count the semitones between two notes, or name the note a given distance away.
Theory isn’t knowledge, it’s latency. Everyone knows what a minor third is; almost nobody can say what sits a minor third above A♭ without counting. That gap wants a drill, not a paragraph — so this page is the drill. It runs in the browser, keeps nothing, and works on a phone. A section at a time as I find the next thing I’m slow at.
The note circle
Twelve pitch classes on a clock face. Same fact from either end: the distance between two notes, or the note a distance away. Both directions, up and down. Answers grade by pitch, so F♭ passes for E.
The twelve pitch classes as a clock face. Questions run in both directions; enharmonics are accepted, so F♭ passes for E.
Tap ♭ or ♯ before a letter to spell an accidental — it clears itself after each answer. At a
desk the keyboard works: digits for intervals, with - and = for 10 and 11; letters for
notes.
Next
Intervals by name, key signatures, chord spelling. All of them sections here rather than posts of their own.