Frequently Asked Questions

What this site is, where its numbers come from, and how it fits the rest of the network.

Questions and answers

What does Theory Warrior cover?
The core music-theory reference: the twelve notes, thirteen simple intervals, twenty-four scale types, the seven modes, twenty-four keys, sixty-two chord types on every root, and the famous chord progressions — plus the harmony guides (functional harmony, cadences, voice leading, borrowed chords, secondary dominants, the ii–V–I, substitution, and modulation), an interactive circle of fifths, and a set of in-browser tools.
Where should I start?
Depends on where you're standing. Brand new: read notes, then intervals, then scales and keys, in that order — each builds on the last. Already play and want to understand what you're playing: start with functional harmony and follow its links. Writing songs: go straight to the progression library and raid it.
Do I need to read music notation?
No. Every page states its facts in note names, semitone distances, and formulas — the "C major is C–E–G" register, not staff notation. Notation is a way of writing music down; the concepts here are what the notation writes down, and they stand on their own.
Is this a guitar site?
No — Theory Warrior is deliberately instrument-neutral. Concepts are explained with notes, formulas, and intervals, because a chord or a key is the same object no matter what plays it. When you want to see a concept on a real instrument, the "play it" panels door out to the network's instrument sites, like String Warrior for fretted instruments.
Where does the data come from?
Every table is generated from the Warrior Network's shared, CI-tested theory data layer — the same formulas the instrument sites use to voice chords and scales. The harmony guides' musical examples are checked against that layer in CI too, so a printed chord spelling can't quietly drift from the data. If a formula changed, every site would change together.
Why is everything spelled with sharps? Where's Bb?
The reference pages use one canonical spelling per pitch — the sharp one — so that every chord and key lives at exactly one URL (A# and Bb are the same sound). Where proper flat spelling matters to the theory, the pages say so: the borrowed chords guide, for example, spells its examples with the conventional flats and notes the equivalence. The transposer outputs sharp or flat spellings, your choice.
What's coming next?
Keyboard "play it" panels alongside the fretted ones, and more harmony guides beyond the launch eight as the section grows toward a full course.