Music Theory Flashcards

How to use it

1. Start from a starter stack, or tick exactly the items you want under each topic.
2. Pick your roots. Intervals, chords and scales make one card per root, so 2 chords in 12 roots is 24 cards. The count above the buttons updates as you go.
3. Press Study to go through the cards on screen, Print to make paper cards, or Copy link to share the stack.

Sharing a stack with students

Build the stack once, press Copy link, and paste the link into an email, a class page or an assignment. Students open it and get the same cards, with no sign-in. You can mix topics in one link, such as this week's key signatures with the triads in those keys.

The tool doesn't report results back to you. If you need to check the work, have students bring the printed cards or quiz them in the lesson. Bookmark a link if you want to keep a stack for yourself. Changing the selection changes the link, so a link you already sent stays as it was.

Studying the cards

Tap the card or press Space to flip it. Press Got it or the right arrow if you knew it, and Again or the left arrow if you didn't. Shuffle mixes the cards you have left, which helps once you start recognizing the order.

What spaced review means

Spaced review means seeing a card again after a gap, not right away. You have to pull the answer up from memory, not just read it again while it's still fresh. Full spaced review systems schedule cards over days or weeks. This tool does a simple version inside one sitting: an Again card comes back after four other cards, and it keeps coming back until you mark it Got it. To space your review over days, come back to the same link tomorrow.

Printing

Print makes 8 cards on each US Letter page: a page of fronts, then a page of backs. The back columns are reversed so each answer lands behind its question. In the print dialog, choose double-sided, flip on the long edge, and 100% scale (not “fit to page”), then cut along the dashed lines. Print one test sheet first, because printers differ in how closely the two sides line up. On a single-sided printer, print the odd pages, turn the stack over and feed it back in, then print the even pages.

Why key signatures come in that order

Sharps always appear as F C G D A E B, and flats as B E A D G C F, which is the same list backward. Each list is a chain of perfect 5ths. It comes from the keys themselves.

Start on C major, which has no sharps or flats, and build a new major scale a 5th higher, on G. One note has to change to keep the major scale pattern: the 7th note, F, becomes F#. Go up another 5th to D, and you keep F# and add C#. Each step keeps every sharp so far and adds one more, and each new sharp is a 5th above the last. Going down by 5ths from C works the same way with flats: F major adds Bb, Bb major adds Eb, and so on.

Three quick ways to read a signature follow from this:

• Sharps: the major key is a half step above the last sharp. With F# C# G#, the key is A major.
• Flats: the major key is the second-to-last flat. With Bb Eb Ab, the key is Eb major. One flat is the case to memorize: F major.
• Relative minor: three half steps below the major key, with the same signature. C major and A minor share theirs.

The positions on the staff are a convention as well. On a treble staff, the sharps zigzag starting from the top line, F, and the cards draw them where printed music puts them.

How the answers are worked out

Note names are computed by the same spelling code as the Chord Workstation and the Scale Explorer, not typed in by hand. Letters matter: a major 3rd above Eb is G, and a minor 3rd above C is Eb, not D#. Seven-note scales use each letter once, even when that means a name like E# or Cb. Pentatonic and blues scales don't have one note per letter, so they use plain names. Fretboard cards give both names for a black-key note, because the right one depends on the key.

Frequently asked questions