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General knowledge

Music theory fundamentals flashcards

2 decks · 110 cards · built into Willys · free samples below

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Written against: Common-practice fundamentals. Updated 2026-10-10.

What's in it

Every deck follows the course outline, with tags you can study or suspend topic by topic. Open a deck to study its free sample right here.

Learn · 1 deck · 70 cards

Concepts, mechanisms and the questions a course or exam asks about them.

Fundamentals Reading the staff and clefs, rhythm and meter, scales, key signatures and the circle of fifths, intervals, triads and seventh chords, diatonic harmony and cadences, and the Italian terms for dynamics and tempo. 10 free · 70 cards in the app

Practice · 1 deck · 40 questions

Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, with the reasoning.

Practice Questions Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, on clefs, rhythm and meter, scales, key signatures, intervals, chords, Roman numerals, cadences and musical terms. 6 free · 40 questions in the app

Study guide

Topics covered

The decks follow the order of the course outline. Numbers are cards per topic.

  • Staff & Clefs 13
  • Note Values & Rests 9
  • Meter & Time Signatures 9
  • Scales 13
  • Key Signatures 16
  • Intervals 13
  • Triads & Seventh Chords 13
  • Diatonic Harmony & Cadences 12
  • Dynamics & Tempo 6
  • Enharmonics 6

A study plan

  • 5 new cards a day covers everything in a month, leaving the last weeks for review.

Willys schedules reviews for you (FSRS spaced repetition), so the daily number above is only for new cards; reviews of what you have learned come back on their own. Study a topic's cards right after you meet it in class, suspend topics you have not reached yet, and use the app's quiz mode in the final two weeks.

How to get these decks

  1. Install Willys on your iPhone, iPad or Mac — App Store. 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a year.
  2. In Willys, tap Exam Library at the top of your Decks (or Browse Exam Library… under the + button), find the exam on its shelf or by search, tick it and tap Add.
  3. Study. The exam comes in as its own collapsible folder, every card scheduled by FSRS spaced repetition. Nothing you already have is changed.

Every deck is built into Willys

All 2 Music theory fundamentals decks (110 cards), with FSRS spaced repetition, quizzes and mock tests, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a year.

Get the app

In Willys, tap Exam Library at the top of your Decks (or Browse Exam Library… under the + button), find the exam on its shelf or by search, tick it and tap Add.

About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Checked against Open Music Theory (Gotham et al., CC BY-SA 4.0) as a fact-check reference only, and standard music-theory texts (reference only). No text derived from any source; all wording original.
  • Also checked against Andre Mount, Fundamentals, Function, and Form (CC BY-NC 4.0) and Robert Hutchinson, Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom (GNU FDL 1.2 or later), with the Adagio-to-Presto tempo glosses checked against Merriam-Webster and The Oxford Companion to Music (reference only; no text copied).
  • Checked against Open Music Theory (Gotham et al., CC BY-SA 4.0) as a fact-check reference only, and standard music-theory texts (reference only). Every interval, chord spelling, scale and key signature was verified by script.
  • Original questions written for this deck; no official, textbook or question-bank items were copied.

These are independent study notes written for Willys. They are not official exam material, may contain mistakes, and are no substitute for your course, your teacher or the exam owner's own publications. Found an error? Tell us — corrections ship as a new version of the deck.

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