The term Western Music keeps coming up throughout this course and the lessons we link to.

It can be confusing depending on context, so here's a quick explainer.

When we refer to 'western music' we do NOT mean music associated with 'Westerns' as a genre of literature or film. We aren't talking about cowboys or country music.

We're talking about the musical tradition rooted in European culture. The system of scales, chords, harmony, tonality, intervals, and notation that we teach here developed over centuries in Europe — with roots going back to ancient Greece, evolving through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond.

The term "Western" is an old and imperfect label. It was originally used to distinguish European traditions from everything else, which is a pretty blunt way to carve up the world's music. In reality, there are many rich musical traditions across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and beyond — each with their own systems of melody, rhythm, and structure.

So when we say something like "the major scale is the basis for almost everything in Western music," that's our way of being honest about scope. This course teaches one tradition. It's the tradition that most popular, classical, and jazz music descends from — but it isn't the way music works. It's a way.

One galaxy in a whole universe of music.