Medford musician Emily O’Brien is offering a series of five online Sunday workshops titled “Practical Music Theory: Nuts and Bolts for Everyday Musicians.” O’Brien, who specializes in playing the record, will go over common nuts and bolts topics that will help you learn your music faster and sight read more easily, recognize how your part fits into the context of an ensemble piece, and gain a more detailed understanding of music you hear.

Today’s session is on musical chords and arpeggios. Learn how to identify common chords and practice ways of hearing and recognizing them, even if your instrument can only play one note at a time. You’ll also work on arpeggios (which are, after all, just broken chords) and practice hearing the whole chord when playing it only one note at a time. Besides being great technical exercises, getting common chords under your fingers is important preparation for reading from a lead sheet or improvising harmonies.

Cost is $18 for this workshop; the full series of five workshops may be purchased for $80. Register on O’Brien’s website: https://www.emilysdomain.org/Recorderland/online-workshops/