This course is a brief introduction to the elements of music theory for those with little or no music theory experience. We will explore pitch, rhythm, meter, notation, scales, keys, key signatures, meter signatures, triads, seventh chords, and basic harmony. If you listen to music or play music by ear, and you want to know more about how music is organized and notated, this course is for you.
By the end of the course, you should know all major and minor keys, how to read and write in treble and bass clef using standard meters and rhythmic values, and how to notate and harmonize a simple melody. This course can serve as a stand-alone basic music theory course, or it can be a springboard to more advanced theory and composition courses.
Your instructor is Bruce Taggart, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Michigan State University, in the College of Music, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate music theory since 1996.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this module, you should be able to: (1) discuss the elements of music, (2) explain the difference between tonal and atonal music, (3) sing the tonic in tonal music, (4) identify the fundamental and partials of a note, (5) explain the difference between chord and harmony, (6) explain the five-line staff, (7) read and write notes using treble and bass clefs, and (8) identify rhythmic values in notation. You should be able to (9) distinguish between pitch and pitch class, (10) describe octaves and how to label pitches based on octave placement, (11) identify and write accidentals and find them on the piano keyboard, (12) and define equal temperament (the artificial scale used on the modern piano) and tell how it differs from other tuning systems.
Notation III: Measures and Measure Numbers•4 minutes
Notation IV: Notation In Action•7 minutes
1 reading•Total 10 minutes
Notation Reading•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
Tonality and Acoustics Practice Quiz•30 minutes
Notation Practice Quiz•30 minutes
Tonality, Harmony, Acoustics•30 minutes
Pitch and Rhythm Notation•30 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 20 minutes
Why Music? What Music? My Music.•10 minutes
Music Notation and Me•10 minutes
Scales, Keys, and Intervals
Module 2•4 hours to complete
Module details
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this module, you should be able to (1) describe the diatonic set and understand how it is used to create major and minor scales, (2) sing major and minor using solfeggio (solfege) syllables, (3) explain the difference between natural, harmonic, and melodic minor, (4) spell major and minor scales starting on any note using accidentals in treble and bass clef, and (5) spell parallel and relative major and minor scales. You should also be able to (6) identify and spell by size and quality diatonic intervals (within a key) and chromatic intervals (outside a key).
Half Steps, Whole Steps, and the Diatonic Set•8 minutes
Major Scales•7 minutes
Key Signatures•6 minutes
Sharp Key Signatures•5 minutes
Flat Key Signatures And The Circle of Fifths•4 minutes
Minor Scales•8 minutes
Relative Minor•6 minutes
Forms Of Minor Scales•10 minutes
Generic Intervals•7 minutes
Interval Quality and Diatonic Intervals•7 minutes
More Diatonic Intervals•8 minutes
Chromatic Intervals and Inversion•6 minutes
3 readings•Total 30 minutes
More On Minor•10 minutes
Key Signature Practice•10 minutes
More On Intervals•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 120 minutes
Diatonic Set, Major, Minor: Practice Quiz•30 minutes
Intervals Practice Quiz•30 minutes
Diatonic Set, Major, Minor•30 minutes
Intervals Quiz•30 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 20 minutes
Sad Minor?•10 minutes
My Favorite Intervals!•10 minutes
Rhythm and Meter
Module 3•2 hours to complete
Module details
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this module, you should be able to (1) read and write all possible rhythmic values, including dotted notes and ties, (2) understand how many notes fit within a measure in various meters, (3) determine meter signatures based on note grouping, and note grouping based on meter signatures, (4) define the types of musical accent and how they create a sense of meter, (5) distinguish between duple and triple meters in notation and by sound, and (6) describe and identify metrical syncopation. You should be able to (7) write melodies on the treble, bass, and grand staves using correct meter signatures, note values, rhythmic grouping, stem direction and beaming, and key signatures and accidentals,
Rhythm and Meter II: Subdivisions of the Beat•8 minutes
Meter III: Simple and Compound Meters•10 minutes
Metric Notation In Practice•10 minutes
Metric Notation: Tuplets•6 minutes
Syncopation•9 minutes
2 readings•Total 20 minutes
More About Meter and Meter Signatures•10 minutes
More On Tuplets•10 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
Rhythm and Meter•30 minutes
Meter, Tuplets, Syncopation•30 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Fascinating Rhythm•10 minutes
Chords, Triads, and Harmony
Module 4•3 hours to complete
Module details
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this module, you should be able to (1) identify and spell major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads in root position and inversions, and (2) identify and spell major, minor, dominant, half-diminished, and fully diminished seventh chords in root position and inversions. You should also be able to (3) use Roman numeral labels to identify diatonic triads within a key, (4) write triads within a key when given Roman numerals, and (5) spell chords when given pop/jazz chord symbols.
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J
JG
4·
Reviewed on Jan 13, 2018
This course had everything I needed. I learned a lot although some parts were hard to follow. I am better at playing things by ear. I know when to be in key and when things are out of tune.
D
DK
5·
Reviewed on Aug 2, 2020
I've found this course a very straightforward and helpful way to learn the basics of music theory. Prof. Taggart explains the material in a straightforward way.
D
DP
5·
Reviewed on May 6, 2017
A great course to understand Music in a technical way. Has not just helped me understand the concepts but also has inspired me to learn an instrument and apply the concepts.
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