5 Best Free Music Theory Software for Windows

Here is a list of best free music theory software for Windows. These are the free software for beginners which help you learn music theory. You can learn about the basic principles of music theory which include notes, keys, staff, time signatures, measure and bar lines, and other music notations. You also get to solve various exercises to assess your understanding of music. These exercises include aural training, key signature identification, chords identification, intervals identification, interval construction, etc.

One of these software is also suitable for learning instruments like guitar, bass, banjo, etc. Also, with this software, you can find out music keys, notes that build a chord, notes that build a scale, etc.

My favorite Music Theory Software for Windows:

LenMus is my favorite as it is a featured music theory software. It contains a lot of music reading lessons and multiple exercises to brush up your musical understanding. I also liked Guitar and Bass as it is good for people who want to learn guitar, bass, and other instruments. It also comes with a lot of useful tools which you can checkout in the article.

You may also like some best free Music Making Software for Beginners, Music Notation Software, and Lyrics Writing Software for Windows.

LenMus

LenMus is a free open source music theory software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is a nice software to learn the fundamentals of music theory. It provides Music Reading Level 1 and 2 books which you can explore to learn about staff, clef, note symbol, measures and bar lines, time signatures, leger lines, syncopation, etc. It contains notes on music harmony to let you understand music scales, intervals, and cadences. It also lets you play examples of various sounds with respect to a particular music element. It comes with some sample LenMus files with composed music scores which you can open and play.

To evaluate your understanding of music, it provides various exercises which are as follows:

• You get exercises for aural training like intervals’ comparison, intervals’ identification, notes’ identification, scales’ identification, tonality identification, and cadences’ identification.
• It lets you practice theory through exercises of key signature’s identification, intervals’ identification, interval’s construction, chords’ identification, etc.
• It provides Clefs reading exercise too.

To enhance your music theory reading experience, you get zoom in/out, fit page width, fit page full, etc. options. Some sound related options are also provided in it such as Run Midi Wizard, Metronome On, Test Sound, All sounds off, Do count off, etc. It has a multitab interface, so you can open and read multiple documents at a time. It provides a print feature to take a print out of a document.

Overall, it is one of the best music theory software that you can get for free.

Guitar and Bass

Guitar and Bass is a nice free music theory software. It is specially designed to learn instruments like guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, etc.

You get various music theory exercises in it based on notes, intervals, scales, etc. It also provides exercises on ear training such as chord recognition, fretboard notes with guitar, scales, keys, etc. From its References menu, you can find tools like Chord Builder (displays notes forming a chord), Scale Builder (shows notes forming a scale), Scale Analyzer (shows distance between notes forming a scale), etc. Additionally, it contains tools including Tuner, Metronome, Jam band, and Chord Finder. Using this software, you can also find out music key with respect to chords. To know how, check this article. A Tab Editor tool to view, modify, and play tablature files (TAB, TXT) is also present in it.

All in all, it is a good software for music enthusiasts to learn music theory. Also, according to your requirements, it lets you setup audio input options and some other options including instrument, tuning, sounds, scales/chords, etc. Due to its multitab interface, it lets you open and work on multiple tools at a time.

EarMaster

EarMaster is another music theory software for Windows. Although it’s a commercial software, it also comes with a free edition which lets you learn some fundamentals of music theory.

From its interface, you can select training mode as Beginner’s Course. In this training mode, you get basic music introduction as well as you get to read about musical pitch, pulse/beat, and pitch notation. These lessons are given with respective examples. It provides an online link to its database to learn about different musical elements in deep.

This software contains some interval and chord identification exercises that you can solve. You can record your answers through microphone and then see whether you are right or wrong. To solve exercises, you can adjust some settings like tempo, upper instrument, lower instrument, note articulation, silent input, tone naming, etc. It also shows results and statistics for the exercises you took part in.

This music theory software is good for understanding few basics of music. As per your requirements, you can also set some program options such as vocal range, notation settings, transposing instrument, keyboard settings, etc.

Note: In its pro version which is paid, you get a lot of music lessons including general workshops, RCM voice, Jazz workshops, etc.

Jalmus

Jalmus is yet another free music theory software for Windows. It provides a dedicated Lessons menu to learn music theory. This menu contains lessons for understanding musical symbols and placement of notes over stave. It offers an interactive learning environment with piano keys to use as input. Basic lessons on notes, intervals, tonality, rhythm, etc. can be studied in it. It also contains violin and sax lessons.

To test your understanding of music, it provides various exercises. These exercises include note reading, rhythm reading, and score reading. For each of these exercises, you can customize preferences like game mode (normal, line, learning), clef, notes, time signature, metronome, etc. You can also setup some MIDI options and interface language.

All in all, it is a very basic music theory software which is suitable for novice users.

Play Keyboard (Note Reading)

Play Keyboard (Note Reading) is one more music theory software for Windows. It contains lessons to read and understand different aspects of music. You can start with knowing the very basic i.e. your keyboard. This lesson contains information on keys, finger numbers, names of keys, and quarter notes and half notes. Other music lessons provided in it include time signature and rests, playing your first melody, playing with chords, new notes, eight notes, etc. It provides sample sounds with respect to the lesson you are reading.