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Bruce Taggart

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Getting Started With Music Theory

Michigan State University

About this Course

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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.

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Shareable Certificate

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Beginner Level

Approx. 13 hours to complete

English

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Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Beginner Level

Approx. 13 hours to complete

English

Could your company benefit from training employees on in-demand skills?

Try Coursera for Business

Instructor

Instructor rating

4.66/5 (182 Ratings)

Bruce Taggart

Offered by

Michigan State University

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 150 years.

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Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating92%(5,893 ratings)

Week

Week 1

3 hours to complete

Basic Materials: Overview, Tonality, Notation

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.

3 hours to complete

9 videos (Total 58 min), 1 reading, 4 quizzes

Week

Week 2

4 hours to complete

Scales, Keys, and Intervals

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).

4 hours to complete

12 videos (Total 81 min), 3 readings, 4 quizzes

12 videos

Half Steps, Whole Steps, and the Diatonic Set7m

Major Scales7m

Key Signatures6m

Sharp Key Signatures4m

Flat Key Signatures And The Circle of Fifths4m

Minor Scales7m

Relative Minor6m

Forms Of Minor Scales9m

Generic Intervals6m

Interval Quality and Diatonic Intervals6m

More Diatonic Intervals7m

Chromatic Intervals and Inversion5m

3 readings

Rhythm and Meter

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,

2 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 50 min), 2 readings, 2 quizzes

Week

Week 4

3 hours to complete

Chords, Triads, and Harmony

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.

3 hours to complete

8 videos (Total 56 min), 3 readings, 3 quizzes

Reviews

4.5

256 reviews

5 stars
69.37%
4 stars
19.23%
3 stars
4.13%
2 stars
3.41%
1 star
3.84%

TOP REVIEWS FROM GETTING STARTED WITH MUSIC THEORY

by SJSep 5, 2020

Nicely taught by the teacher. Excellent for Beginners. But since most, if not all, of the things were new for me, it took time to digest and practice those.

by MZMay 8, 2020

Good course with really good and clear explanations but you really need to learn fast the concepts to continue with each module.

by FHMay 21, 2017

Excellent information but I think that this course needs more visual examples, when the instructor is talking, the presentation does not move and He give examples but they don´t follow graphically.

by MAJun 5, 2017

I had some knowledge of basic music theory, but it really helps me to understand it deeper from different aspect. Please fix the week 4 question error. I flagged.

View all reviews

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Getting Started With Music Theory

Getting Started With Music Theory

About this Course