{"id":19589,"date":"2022-01-01T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=19589"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:08:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:08:42","slug":"unlock-music-theory-15-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlock music theory in 15 minutes (free MIDI files included)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">One of the best aspects of music theory is that there&#8217;s always something new to learn.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this can feel overwhelming at times, which unfortunately causes a good number of people to turn away from music theory\u2014when in reality, knowing even a little bit of theory can go a long way in improving your productions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the video above, we unlock the fundamentals of music theory in just 15 minutes. We start with the absolute basics, identifying the four core elements of music: melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. From there, we dive deeper into each and explore how you can immediately apply the key music theory concepts that exist within them in your music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to experiment in your own DAW with the MIDI files that complement the concepts explored in this video, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"you can download them for free here. (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MIDI.zip\" target=\"_blank\">you can download them for free here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, studying music theory is a lifelong pursuit, so take this as a starting point and don&#8217;t sweat it if you need to rewatch sections or explore further via other resources. Below are a few additional guides on rhythm, melody, and harmony that might be good starting points, and you can also explore even more detailed discussions and tutorial videos on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"our YouTube channel (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/splice\" target=\"_blank\">our YouTube channel<\/a> as well as <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Splice Skills. (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/skills\" target=\"_blank\">Splice Skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a aria-label=\"An introduction to rhythm: Beats, measures, and note values\u2028 (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/an-introduction-to-rhythm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">An introduction to rhythm: Beats, measures, and note values<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a aria-label=\"An introduction to melody: Pitch, scales, and keys (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/an-introduction-to-melody\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">An introduction to melody: Pitch, scales, and keys<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a aria-label=\"An introduction to harmony: Triads, scale degrees, and chord progressions (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/an-introduction-to-harmony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">An introduction to harmony: Triads, scale degrees, and chord progressions<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>What concepts from the video did you find most useful? What sorts of topics would you like to see us explore on the Splice YouTube channel in 2022? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Explore royalty-free sounds from leading artists, producers, and sound designers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/sounds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Join Splice today<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Knowing even just a little bit of music theory can go a long way in improving your productions\u2014in this video, we unlock the fundamentals of theory in just 15 minutes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":19590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1886,1889,1699,1696],"tags":[1638,1633,641],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unlock music theory in 15 minutes (free MIDI files included) - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Knowing even just a little bit of music theory can go a long way\u2014in this video, we unlock the fundamentals of theory in just 15 minutes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unlock music theory in 15 minutes (free MIDI files included) - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Knowing even just a little bit of music theory can go a long way\u2014in this video, we unlock the fundamentals of theory in just 15 minutes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-01T14:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-08T17:08:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Unlock_Music_Theory_BlogPost.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Chen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Chen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Chen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/006da68db2cca36c1730e68e67130d39\"},\"headline\":\"Unlock music theory in 15 minutes (free MIDI files included)\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-01T14:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-08T17:08:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/\"},\"wordCount\":283,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/unlock-music-theory-15-minutes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Unlock_Music_Theory_BlogPost.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"beginner\",\"composition\",\"MIDI\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Free\",\"Free MIDI\",\"Music Theory\",\"Tips &amp; 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