The Tonal Center

The Tonal Center is an interactive website for composers and music theorists that explains and demonstrates some of the key concepts of timbre, includes chords, scales, rhythms and modulations. Most of the music examples are illustrated with a midi file - just click on the relevant link to listen. Although it provides the basics, this site is a fun site to learn music theory without being monotonous or boring. You will always have access to knowledge in a new way.

This site is one of the best sites to learn music theory. It should be of use to any composer looking to expand his or her knowledge of tonal and scalic resources beyond what is found in most conventional music theory publications and with the music theorist, it will provide a valuable source of information and ideas that can be used for further exploration. The theoretical style and some of the concepts they introduce are quite novel, used to present the complexities of music in a logical and coherent way. The web page can only be viewed perfectly using Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4 or Internet Explorer 3 or 4. With earlier versions of these programs, the web page is fully readable, but a format number will be incorrect. Both of these browsers are free and can be downloaded from Netscape and Microsoft. The Tonal Center is best viewed if you have Verdana and Georgia fonts installed on your system - these fonts are available for both Apple Macintosh and Windows and can be downloaded for free from Microsoft.

Website: http://www.tonalcentre.org/