Music Theory

Description

In this course, you will learn

• The definition of music.
• The elements of music (rhythm & pitch).
• Division of pitch into melody and harmony.
• Rhythmic notation.
• Understanding relative durations of sound.
• The whole, half, quarter, 8th and 16th notes.
• Why notes are named the way they are.
• Relative durations vs. assigning numerical values.
• The unit of measurement.
• Beat.
• Tempo.
• Meter.
• Distinguishing between rhythm and meter.
• Bar lines and measures.
• Time signatures.
• 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 meters.
• Determining the meter without a time signature.
• Natural division of rhythms.
• Strong and weak pulses.
• Rests.
• Assigning numerical values to rests.
• The whole rest and meter.
• Dotted notes.
• Numerical values of dotted notes.
• History of dotted notes.
• Dotted rhythms.
• The 3:1 ratio in dotted rhythms.
• The tie.
• Ties vs. dotted notes.
• Advantages and disadvantages of notating with ties vs. dots.
• Re-designation of the unit.
• 3/8 and 6/8 meters.
• New numerical values of notes.
• Understand relative durations with regard to a new unit of measurement.
• Strength of pulses.
• Designating the half note as the unit.
• Notating 2/2 meter or “cut” time.
• Numerical values of note durations in 2/2 meter.
• Comparison of 4/4 meter and 2/2 meter.
• Reasons for 2/2 meter.
• Classifying meters.
• Simple meter and compound meter.
• Duple, triple, and quadruple meter.
• Complex meter.
• Artificial divisions of the beat or beats.
• Artificial division of parts of the beat.
• Common types of tuplets.
• Definition of triplets & duplets.
• Identifying triplets & duplets.
• Ratio of triplets & duplets.
• Numerical value of triplets & duplets.
• Artificial divisions in relation to simple and compound meters.
• Sound waves.
• Frequency.
• Indefinite vs. definite pitch.
• Modern vs. ancient definition of pitch.
• Pitch experiments.
• Introduction to the staff.
• How the mind sees number.
• Ledger lines.
• Clefs.
• Movement on the staff (step, skip, repeat).
• The musical alphabet.
• Letter names on the staff.
• The grand staff.
• Direction of note stems (and rationale).
• Introduction to the keyboard.
• Groups of black keys.
• Letter names of keys.
• Correlation of staff to the keyboard.
• Half steps and whole steps.
• Sharps and flats on the keyboard.
• Enharmonic equivalents.
• Enharmonic keyboard notes.
• Reading sharps and flats on the staff.
• Sharps and flats within measures.
• The natural sign.
• The definition of interval.
• Melodic vs. harmonic intervals.
• Identifying intervals on the keyboard.
• Identifying intervals on the staff.
• Ratios and intervals.
• Pythagoras and the monochord.
• Consonance and dissonance.
• Definition and history of the modern scale.
• The major scale.
• Intervals and the major scale.
• Basis of the scale.
• Basis of the whole tone.
• Greek tetrachords.
• Greek semi tone and whole tone.
• Constructing scales on the keyboard.
• Constructing scales on the staff.
• Definition of "key".
• The key signature.
• The circle of 5ths.
• The order of sharps.
• The order of flats.
• How to determine the key from the sharps/flats.
• How to determine how many and which sharps/flats are in a given key.
• Enharmonic keys.
• Interval number vs. interval quality.
• Major, minor and perfect interval qualities.
• Determining an intervals’ number and quality.
• Connection of interval qualities to the major scale.
• Identifying intervals on the staff.
• Augmented and diminished interval qualities.
• How augmented and diminished intervals are formed.
• The double sharp.
• Why the double sharp is necessary.
• The double flat.
• Why the double flat is necessary.
• The tritone.
• Abbreviations for interval qualities.
• Enharmonic intervals.
• Complementary intervals.
• Which qualities, when inverted, become which qualities.
• Simple intervals.
• Compound intervals.
• Reducing compound intervals.
• How to determine the quality of compound intervals.
• Open and close harmony.
• The difference between intervals and chords.
• Major and minor chords.
• Deriving the ratio of the major and minor 3rds using the monochord.
• The Pythagoras experiment and the major chord.
• Block and broken chords.
• Augmented and diminished chords.
• Music’s move from the horizontal to the vertical.
• Mathematical proportions of the major, minor, augmented and diminished triads.
• Understanding the harmonic mean.
• The harmonic mean and the major chord.
• Understanding the arithmetic mean.
• The arithmetic mean and the minor chord.
• The geometric mean and the augmented and diminished chords.
• Relation of chords to the major scale.
• The number of possible triads constructed from the pitches of the major scale.
• Order and quantity of triad qualities formed from the major scale.
• Roots of chords, scales, and keys.
• Comparison of the major and minor scales.
• Tetrachords in minor scales.
• The natural minor scale.
• Constructing natural minor scales on the keyboard & staff.
• The harmonic minor scale.
• The melodic minor scale.
• Ascending vs. descending melodic minor scale.
• Constructing harmonic minor scales on the keyboard & staff.
• Constructing melodic minor scales on the keyboard & staff.
• Relative keys.
• Determining the relative minor.
• Determining the relative major.
• Determining the key of music with shared key signatures.
• Parallel keys.
• Difference between parallel and relative keys.
• Relation of chords to the natural minor scale.
• Order and quantity of triad qualities formed from the natural minor scale.
• Relation of chords to the harmonic minor scale.
• Order and quantity of triad qualities formed from the harmonic minor scale.
• The major scale degrees.
• Naming the scale degree using Roman numerals.
• Naming triads using Roman numerals.
• Benefit to using degree vs. letter name.
• Primary chords and their importance.
• Relationship between chords.
• Chord inversions.
• Root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion.
• Intervals in chord inversions.
• The root rule.
• How to identify chord inversions by name, quality and inversion.
• Voices of a chord.
• Voice leading.
• Inversions and the primary chords.
• Chord progressions.
• Use of inversions to improve transition between chords.
• Introduction to function.
• Function names of the scale degrees.
• Extending the triad.
• Dominant seventh chords.
• Other names and notation of the dominant seventh chord.
• Why the dominant seventh chord is named the way it is.
• Inversion of the dominant seventh chord.
• 3rd inversion.
• Finding the root in a dominant seventh chord.
• How to identify a dominant seventh chord.
• Dominant seventh chords with missing notes.
• Major 7th chords.
• Minor 7th chords.
• Diminished 7th chords.
• Musical punctuation.
• Perfect authentic cadence.
• Imperfect authentic cadence.
• Half cadence.
• Plagal cadence.
• Deceptive cadence.
• Hexatonic scale.
• Whole tone scale.
• Chromatic scale.
• Pentatonic scale.
• Tonal music.
• Tonal centers.
• Polytonal music.
• Atonal music.
• Free atonal.
• Strict atonal.
• Twelve-tone technique.
• Tone rows.
• The ancient Greek modes.
• History of the church modes.
• Modern modes.
• The harmonic series.
• Overtones.
• Fundamental of a pitch.
• Complex vibration of a string.
• What the numbers of the harmonic series express.
• Hearing overtones (and experiment).
• Timbre.
• Nature’s hierarchy of harmonic sound.
• Objective measurement of consonance and dissonance.
• History of consonance and dissonance.
• Tuning pitches.
• Brief history of tuning systems.
• Pythagorean tuning.
• Just intonation.
• Equal temperament.
• Definition of cents.
• Tuning of the modern piano.
• Benefits and shortcomings of the different tuning systems.
• Apps that demonstrate and compare some of the tuning systems.
• Overview of the four main periods of western art music.