HARMONIC WHEEL
The new instrument of musicians

As in every art, the practice of Music requires some creative skills as well as a good sense of aesthetics and proportion. Moreover, in most cases it requires a good interpretative talent. And finally, it requires a technical, even mathematical, knowledge, which deals with intervals, scales, keys, chords, arpeggios, etc., all of which confers the music a distinctive character with respect to the rest of the arts.

The study of this technical part usually takes several years and, frequently, it is not learnt in an orderly and unified way. On the contrary, it is viewed as a set of independent subjects, without any logical relationship among them. Questions such as “the order of sharps and flats” or “the particular whole and half step succession in a Major scale” are learnt by heart and only in a few cases the reason is understood. On the other hand, many concepts in Music Theory and Harmony that are perfectly understood in the C Major key, are not so obvious when dealing with key signatures having 5 or 6 accidentals.

With the objective of sorting out all those technical contents, as well as to facilitate the use of key signatures with an arbitrary number of accidentals, some easy-to-use abacuses or “wheels” have been designed, which contain a large quantity of detailed musical information. They consist of two rotating discs, being one cardboard and the other plastic. As they are based on the most fundamental musical concepts, their application field covers the different musical styles: classical music, modern music, jazz, latin music, etc. Moreover, in order to use them, you need not know how to read music.

All of them have been presented in several Conservatories and Musical Societies, as well as in specialized music stores, and have been greatly appreciated. Next, the main characteristics of each of them are summarized.

MUSICAL ABACUS Levels: Beginner & Intermediate Contents: The 12 Major Keys and the 12 minor Keys, along with their Key Signatures The 12 Major Scales and the 12 minor Scales (natural, harmonic and melodic) Division of the Scales in Tetrachords Intervals The 3 Main Chords in each Key and their Arpeggios Harmonics Order of Sharps and Flats Applications: Music Theory and Harmony

HARMONIC WHEEL Levels: Intermediate & Advanced Contents: Intervals Chords and Arpeggios Map of the Keys: Cycle of Fifths, Relative and Parallel Keys Chord Finder: Chords associated to any Major or minor Scale (natural, harmonic or melodic)   Applications: Music Theory, Harmony, Analysis and Composition

IMPROCHART – Improvisation Chart Levels: Intermediate & Advanced Contents: Scale Finder: Available Scales for improvising on each Chord Types of Scales included: Major, minor (natural, harmonic and melodic), diminished, Whole Tone, Pentatonic, Blues and Bebop Tensions that each Scale introduces in the considered Chord   Applications: Improvisation and Composition

Every Abacus or Wheel comes with instructions, complementary documentation and a practical protective case. Additionally, this Web page is the main source of information for all these designs and is regularly updated.