DrawSomething account and new contest

As of today, I have created a DrawSomething Account (sulliadm) and I wanting to take on some people at the game. I am considering a contest where if you can beat me 3 times in a row at the game I will advertise whatever blog, or youtube channel you want for a month until the next month's contest. So, shoot me a challenge on there and let's get drawing!

Video of the Month - Contest Results Preface!

This is the new series I will start up by picking a viewer submitted video of them playing an instrument and post it to here! Contest will be updated every 1st Friday of the month (after today) and the winner will get to have his or her video shared on my Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and on here! This month I picked the video from other cellist, and as those you are on my twitter know I am a big fan of Star Wars! So this month's video is ThePianoGuys "Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel". Hope everyone enjoys, and don't forget to find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Episode 4: Defining the Signatures

Hello, and welcome back to this week's episode on Sulliadm's Music Theory Blog! This week's lesson is explaining the two signatures: Time and Key signatures.


First, we will start with the key signature. The Key Signature of music is what we use to tell  what sharps or flats should be used in the piece. For example, we can have 2 sharps in the key of D, or the key of F has 1 flat. The way to know what key we are in is by learning The Order of Sharps and The Order of Flats. The Order of Sharps are F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#, and the easiest way to remember the keys is to go up a half step from the sharp. Using my example above, the key of D uses 2 sharps: F# and C#. Another common key to use is G, and it has one sharp: F#. In order to find the Order of flats, it is simply reversing that order. They are Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, and Fb. The way to remember the keys here is to go back one letter in the line. So, using the example above, the key of F has only one flat, Bb. The key of Eb major has 3 flats: Bb, Eb and Ab.

Now, we will discuss time signatures. The Time Signature is the division of music that divides the number of beats by what note value gets the beat. As previously stated, every note can be subdivided. A quarter note can be split into 2 eighth notes, and similarly two quarter notes can be combined into a half note. Now the time signature tells you how many of what note can go within a measure. Commonly used time signatures are 4/4, 3/4. and 6/8. To simplify that, 4/4 time means there are four notes in a measure and the quarter note gets the beat. 6/8 means there are 6 notes in each measure while the eighth note gets the beat. There are unusual time signatures as well, such as 5/8, 7/4, and 2.5/4. Those are very rare to come by however it is just as simple to understand how to count.

How to Better My Site?

I was wanting people to let me know how can I make my blog better. If you think you have an idea, comment it below, or follow the links I've posted around the page to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or more classically shoot me an email! However for every comment you make, I would like for you to forward my homepage URL to at least 15 people. Make it into a chain message, or a chain text message... It doesn't matter but just get the word about my page to as many people as you can! I want to continue doing this blog, and expand into a music critique sight as well but I need more views in order for me to take away from my busy schedule (heading off to college in a few months!) and make these post every week or so. So don't be afraid to make a comment on my page, just spread the word! Please!

Episode 3: Treble and Bass Clef

Hello everyone,

Today's lesson is on the different clefs, which are Treble Clef and Bass Clef. Treble clef or G clef as it is more commonly called, is the clef that is commonly used today within music. Many instruments use it, such as violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, xylophone, and guitar. There are times where lower instruments, such as cello, bass and trombone, must read this cleft as well but this isn't always true. Those instruments, and many others, use the Bass clef, or F clef as it is more commonly called, to read music naturally. There are more than simply these two clef, but in order to keep everything simple for the lesson we will stick to learning just these two today.

The reason for why treble clef is called G clef is because the loop on the clef is the note G and is the G above middle C. The lowest note on the picture above is middle C, and in this case, the picture is a C major scale. As discussed in the last episode, there are intervals between notes and a Scale is a series of these intervals. C major is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, or interval wise, where W is a whole step and H is half step, is W-W-H-W-W-W-H. This interval pattern will work on all major scales, for example G major is G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G, or F major would be F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F. You can keep experimenting with any notes on the keyboard to find the scales.

Now, this is the Bass clef, also called an F clef. The reason it is called the F clef, like the G clef, is it circles around the note F. However, the same is not true about middle C, the top of the scale is considered middle C. This is also a C major scale, only an octave lower than the one shown before. An Octave is a set of notes that are played with two different places on the staff than the same one. For example, there is an octave jump from the low C to the high C in the picture above. Similarly, there is an octave jump from the lower C on the treble clef than the higher one. Also note the pattern for the scale is the same as with the treble clef, this being a C major scale.

I will expand of each staff specifically in a few days. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to subscribe and follow me on Twitter or Facebook for more information and suggestions for future ideas, like mini video series and contest!

Now on Facebook!

Hello again! Just a quick reminder that I am in fact on Twitter (@sulliadm) and on Youtube (www.youtube.com/sulli00700), but along with that, I am on Google+ and now on Facebook! Along with that, if you have any questions, comments, statements or any feedback at all and none of those seem to works, hit me with an email! I want to answer all of your questions you have to offer about theory or anything about music in general!

Episode 2: Sharps and Flats

Hello, and welcome back to my blog! The first thing we need to discuss is intervals. An Interval is the distance between two notes. In most cases on a piano, the space between any two white keys or between any two black keys is considered a whole step. Let's take this piano for instance...

Look to the left and you see there is a black key between each white key EXCEPT between B-C and E-F. Those spaces between white keys with a black key in between them are called Whole Steps. The spaces in which there isn't a key in between them, for example B-C or E-F are called Half Steps.

Now, you may be wondering what are the black keys are called. They are called Accidentals. They are listed as a Sharp (#) or Flat (b). If you need to, you can also make the note a Natural but we will discuss that later. All white keys are considered naturals, for example the C's are read as "C Natural", but when you hit the key between C and D, you have a C sharp (C#) and enharmonically a D flat (Db). Enharmonics are notes that are read in different ways. A good way to practice that is going up the octave (from left to right) make everything sharp (C, C#, D, D#, E, etc.) until you get to the next C. Then go back down and say everything with flats (C, B, Bb, A, Ab, G, etc.)