PMTNM Reader's Digest

March 2026 · From the Archive Past Issues →

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The Weeks to Finally Go Deep on Theory

Interactive Tool Editorial Pick

The stretch between winter break and spring recitals is the calmest water on the teaching calendar, and it is the best window all year to shore up the theory that gets skipped when performance season heats up. MusicTheory.net is the backbone I lean on for it: self-paced lessons that walk from basic notation to real harmonic thinking, with visual aids and immediate feedback so a student can work between lessons and actually know when they have it right. It carries a beginner and a conservatory-bound senior equally well, and it costs nothing.

Featured Resource MusicTheory.net →

Free, self-paced theory lessons and ear-training exercises with visual aids and instant feedback.

Assign one lesson-and-exercise set a week as homework and spend the first five minutes of the next lesson reviewing only what they missed. You cover more ground than a whole lesson of chalk-talk, and they arrive already warmed up.

Editor's Picks