Minor 9....so solemn.

Make a schedule be persistent meditate before studying it 

There's always a debate on this case but as the author of Sonid of course I'd say yes. Although probably it does depend on multiple factors, so maybe we can refine the question with some context.

If you want to play pieces from your teacher and have no questions whatsoever, just keep doing that.

But, if you want to play with others, say a solo or write a chord progression, music theory becomes quite vital to not get stuck with the most basic stuff (which of course can be fine in its simplicity).

What do you want to achieve with your playing/instrument?

It depends:

E and F flat sound the same ( they have the same pitch ) but theoretically they are not the same note. You will (almost) never find them in the same chord or scale.

The reason why E and F are only a semitone between (no black key) is harder to answer for me and has to do with how music evolved over the centuries. In other parts of the world other divisions of notes are more common. We’ve sent an interesting video from Jacob Collier in out newsletter last week.

First of all, well done to have come this far in Sonid!

Answering chord progression questions by ear can be very challenging at first.

To play progressions by ear first try to determine the key, ie major or minor, and where the progression ends so that you have a reference to the tonic. Knowing the key will make sure you use the right degrees in it. (for instance knowing G major key has G Am Bm C D Em F#mb5 and hearing an E in the bass would assume the chord is Em)

After that listen to the bass notes of the the progressions. When you've found those you can combine your theoretical knowledge about the key and your hearing into the right chord progression.

When advancing further with hearing progressions alternative chords might be used and you will need to be better at hearing which chord is on the bass note. For instance, the third degree in C major might be replaced by E7 (instead of the Em which is normally on the third degree of C major). Although in Sonid this is very limited for now, more lessons about progressions will come later.

You can find them on our website on the blog page.