In the fall of 2019, I started teaching Fundamentals of Western Music at the New School'south Eugene Lang Higher. It combines the usual Music Theory I content with a broader, more ethnomusicological perspective that brings in various forms of pop, not-Western musics, and (most excitingly for me) the dejection. It'south an existing course, merely I have had broad latitude to remake it. The students demand to know how notation works, what major and pocket-sized keys are, some basic chord progressions, some rhythms, and a few other musical parameters like loudness/dynamics. They need some exposure to the Western catechism, to modernist and contemporary composers, and to some other sounds outside their usual listening habits. And, most importantly, they need to retain that data for hereafter music courses and across.

Tritone resolution

If you lot read this blog, you know that I take a dim view of traditional music theory education, which tends to present the aesthetic preferences of Western European aristocrats of the 18th and 19th centuries as if they're a universally valid and applicative rule arrangement. I don't mind the thought of teaching the classical canon, as long as I can approach it as an indigenous music of a particular fourth dimension and place, not a transcendent or universal one. And so information technology's refreshing that the New Schoolhouse has such a wide and expansive view of how to teach theory.

I was been told to expect that about a 3rd of the students volition be coming in with all-encompassing classical music training and prior study of music theory; a third will be cocky-taught pop musicians similar me; and a tertiary volition have cipher music experience of any kind. The challenge is to have assignments with depression floors and high ceilings, so that half the class isn't overwhelmed or bored at any given moment. I'chiliad open to suggestions every bit I develop this farther. Here'south the syllabus, which I have been updating regularly as I become:

What you will need

Notation

You lot will compose and notate a lot of music for this class. You can write your music past hand if you would like. (If you Google "blank staff newspaper pdf" you will observe many templates that you tin can print out.) Still, you will probably detect it easier to use a notation editor, especially if you are inexperienced. Noteflight and Flat.io are online editors that work like Google Docs, and their free versions are fine for this class. Y'all tin also use more advanced/professional programs similar Dorico, Sibelius or Finale.

Digital audio workstation

Notation programs can export audio, but it normally does not audio very good. You will go more musical-sounding results using a digital audio workstation (DAW.) You can also utilize DAWs to tape and edit sound. If yous have a Mac, you already accept GarageBand, which is fine for grade purposes. Soundtrap and Bandlab are like to GarageBand, but they run entirely in the web browser. I utilize Ableton Live and recommend it. There are many other good DAWs, including Pro Tools, Logic, and FL Studio.

Other useful software

Brazenness is a free audio editor. Information technology's especially useful for converting sound from one format to another.

Spinning vinyl at 5 Pointz

Critical Listening

Resources

Submit at to the lowest degree two questions or comments on this textile: things you did non sympathise, related ideas that occur to you lot, arguments yous disagree with.

  • Listening, hearing, and the infinite loop – Repetition can exist a deep listening aid.
  • Listening as activism: The "Sonic Meditations" of Pauline Oliveros – Experimental music scores that describe the listener'southward country of mind, not the performance.
  • Audio or information technology didn't happen – Sometimes recordings don't sound like what you lot hear.
  • Paulstretch – Use this complimentary software to slow music or audio downwardly extremely for a new kind of deep listening feel.

Projects

  • Sound writing – Choose a concrete location, and describe its soundscape in 500-1000 words. List all of the sound sources you can and describe them in as much detail equally possible. Depict your emotional reactions to these sounds individually and collectively. If you like, review the sounds as if they are a musical piece of work.
  • Cull a vocal or other brusk musical recording. In 500-one thousand words, describe all of the sound sources (instruments, voices, samples, sound effects, etc) in the order they appear. Utilize as much detail as you tin can: what physical surround does the sound occupy? What is its emotional tone? Is it loud or quiet, peaceful or aggressive, close up or far abroad, clear or distorted? If you can identify specific instruments or pieces of equipment, do so, just otherwise simply describe each sound equally best you can.

Groove Pizza - Bembe

Rhythm and Meter

Submit at least two questions or comments on this textile: things you did not understand, related ideas that occur to y'all, arguments you disagree with.

Resources – Function Ane

  • Introduction to time signatures – Nice audio examples.
  • Ableton: Brand beats – Explore the fourth dimension-unit box system.
  • Groove Pizza – Circular rhythm sequencer.
  • Groove challenges with the Groove Pizza – Beatmaking prompts.
  • Seeing classic beats with the Groove Pizza – What it says.
  • Visualizing trap beats with the Groove Pizza – What it says.

Resources – Function Two

  • The Dandy Cut-Time Shift – Explains the concept of swing, and the difference betwixt 8th-annotation swing and sixteenth-note swing.
  • Click click – Elementary web interactive that demonstrates how clicks fuse into a tone at around 20 Hz.
  • Rhythm/Pitch Duality – Chords are really simply fast polyrhythms.
  • Groove Pizzeria – Explore polyrhythm and polymeter.

Projects

  • Beat transcription – Find a brusque, repeated drum or percussion pattern (4 bars maximum) and transcribe information technology. Y'all can employ standard notation or a time-unit of measurement box system (examples here.)
  • Beatmaking – Using the Groove Pizza or any other hardware or software tool of your option, create a dance crush in four/4, 3/4, six/8, or 12/viii time (on the Groove Pizza, 16 or 12 slices).
  • Odd-meter beatmaking – Using the Groove Pizza or the tool of your pick, create a dance beat in an odd meter (non 4/four, 3/4, 6/eight, or 12/8).
  • Create a short repeated melody using only ii distinct pitches. They tin can be played on the aforementioned instrument, or on two different instruments. I encourage you to utilise pitched percussion like bells, congas, or toms. You lot can use whatever additional unpitched drum sounds you desire. Listen to some agogô bells for inspiration.

Harmonics and Tuning Systems

Submit at least 2 questions or comments on this fabric: things you did non sympathise, related ideas that occur to yous, arguments you disagree with.

Resources – Part One

  • Interactive Harmonics – The first few in the overtone series.
  • Interactive Spectrogram – See the harmonics of your own voice.
  • Why tin't yous tune your guitar? – Because prime numbers don't mutually divide evenly.
  • Simply intonation explained – Skim lightly over the math, but listen closely to the audio examples.
  • Equal temperament vs merely intonation – Mind to side-by-side comparisons.
  • Organ with split blackness keys – Before 12-TET, D-sharp and Due east-flat were unlike pitches, and some historical keyboards had separate black keys to enable you to play both.

Resources – Function Two

  • Omni – Playable scales visualized on a circle.
  • Ableton: Pelog – Indonesian scale using a non-Western tuning system.
  • Ableton: xix-tone equal temperament – Information technology'due south pretty weird.
  • Scale Workshop – Explore various tuning systems from the QWERTY keyboard.

Projects

  • Spectral music – Create a curt slice of music on a unmarried pitch that only changes the overtones/timbre. Use the spectrogram to assist you.
  • Beyond 12-TET – Create a short piece of music using whatever tuning system other than twelve-tone equal temperament. Apply any of the interactive tools listed to a higher place, the Wilsonic app, or Audiokit Synth One.

Diatonic Scales and Keys

Submit at least two questions or comments on this textile: things you did non understand, related ideas that occur to you, arguments yous disagree with.

Resources – Part One

  • The aQWERTYon – Play scales and chords on your QWERTY keyboard.
  • Ableton: Edifice major scales – What it says.
  • Ableton: Building minor scales – Natural minor just.

Resources – Part Two

  • Musictheory.net: Intervals – What it says.
  • Interval song chart – Song examples for all the intervals.
  • "Exist Worry, Don't Happy" – Hear Bobby McFerrin'south "Don't Worry, Exist Happy" digitally transposed into a minor primal.
  • "Vader's Redemption" – Hear the Purple March in major.

Projects

  • Twelve major keys – Pick a short, familiar major-fundamental melody (or write your own) and notate, sequence or record it in all twelve keys.
  • Twelve minor keys – Pick a short, familiar minor-key tune (or write your own) and notate, sequence or record it in all twelve keys.

Blues tonality

Modes and Blues Scales

Submit at least two questions or comments on this material: things you did not understand, related ideas that occur to y'all, arguments you disagree with.

Resource – Part Ane

  • Scales and emotions – A guide to some commonly used Western scales and the moods they conventionally imply.
  • Ableton: Modes – Diatonic modes presented both every bit relative and parallel.
  • Scales, keys and modes on the circle of fifths – Writing scales on the circumvolve of fifths can assistance you encounter their relationships more clearly.
  • Scale necklaces and symmetry – Some other way to visualize the diatonic modes.

Resource – Role Two

  • Blues tonality – Explore the alternate harmonic universe of the dejection.
  • Music for practicing scales – Long modal tunes at relaxed tempi.
  • Guitar Dashboard – Every scale in every key on the guitar fretboard.

Projects

  • Random modes – You will be given a manner and key. Compose a curt melody using that way.
  • Blues – Write a 12-bar blues tune. Suggestion: repeat the same 4-bar phrase iii times.

Melody

Resources – Office One

  • Deconstructing the bassline in Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" – Going in depth with a funk classic.
  • Groove is in the Heart – Another funk classic.
  • Ableton: "Tour de France" – Experiment with a Kraftwerk melody in the browser.
  • Ableton: "Expert Life" – Experiment with a techno bassline in the browser.
  • Ableton: Play with melodies – Pianoforte whorl with various scales in all 12 keys plus crush sequencer.

Resources – Part Two

  • Bach's Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 – Prelude – Hear how Bach uses a single melody line to imply a full chord progression.
  • Can drums play a melody? – Max Roach idea of the drum kit equally a melodic instrument, and who could argue with him?

Projects

  • Melodic Adaptation – Have an existing melody and adapt it into a new one by keeping the rhythms the aforementioned but changing all of the pitches. Be sure to tell me what melody you adapted.
  • Rhythmic Accommodation – Accept an existing tune and adapt it into a new ane by keeping the pitches the same only changing all of the rhythms. Be sure to tell me what melody yous adjusted.
  • Call and Response – Create a brusk melody that includes a series of call phrases answered by response phrases.
  • Narrow Range – Create a curt melody where all of the notes lie inside the span of a modest third (for example, between C and E-flat.)
  • Angularity – Create a curt tune where every interval between i notation and the side by side is larger than a fifth (for example, from C to G.)

Counterpoint

Resources – Role One

  • The contemporary musician's guide to counterpoint – Don't worry about all of the terminology, merely heed closely to the audio examples.
  • Nokia fugue – It'south easier to hear counterpoint when the theme is a familiar one.
  • "Life on Mars" and "My Way" – Many songs share the same chord progression, and if you sing them simultaneously, it can audio pretty absurd.

Resources – Part Two

  • Bach's Crab Canon on a Möbius strip – A crab canon is its own accessory backwards. Math!
  • Paul McCartney based "Blackbird" on Bach – Specifically, on his Bourrée in E modest.
  • Dave's JS Bach MIDI page – The complete works of Bach in MIDI format.
  • Bach Google Doodle – Enter a melody and accept the computer automatically generate a four-phonation chorale.
  • Béla Bartók – "Two Major Pentachords" – The left paw part is in F-abrupt major, the right paw part is in C major.

Projects

  • Robot counterpoint – Use the Bach Google Doodle to generate counterpoint for the melody of your choice. You lot tin can etch an original melody, or enter an existing one. It may take yous several tries to generate a satisfying outcome.

Chords

Resources – Part One

  • Chord dictionary – A guide to triads, seventh chords, and some of the more than commonly used extended chords.
  • Chord calculator – Displays many kinds of chords on the staff.
  • Interactive Arpeggios – Play major and pocket-size arpeggios around the circle of fifths.
  • Making chords from scales – Learn how to construct chords by stacking thirds within various scales.
  • Ableton: Diatonic triads – Take the quiz.

Resources – Part Two

  • Ableton: Inversions – Accept the quiz.
  • Ableton: Voicings – Hear the effect of changing the society of notes in a chord.
  • Ableton: Seventh chords – Cmaj7 and Cmin7 only.
  • Learning pocket-sized fundamental harmony from the Bach Chaconne – Compare the chords y'all can make from natural vs harmonic minor.

Projects

  • Fill up in the chords – Yous will be given a tune, a bassline, and a calibration. Add chords comprised just of the notes in the scale. For a more than advanced challenge, use non-calibration notes in your chords too.
  • Harmonize a melody – You lot volition exist given a short melody and a scale. Create a bassline and chords using only the notes in the calibration.

Chord Progressions

Resources – Role One

  • Chordchord – Generate iv-chord loops and export them as MIDI.
  • Learn diatonic harmony from a classic breakbeat – What it says.
  • Ableton: I-Five-vi-IV – Experiment with the Axis progression.
  • The happiest chord progression ever – What it says.
  • The Ballsy Online Orchestra – Cull chords, an epic orchestra plays them.

Resource – Part 2

  • Ableton: "Mommy, What'southward A Record" – Using parallelism to make non-diatonic progressions.
  • The saddest chord progression always – What it says.
  • What key is "Sweetness Habitation Alabama" in? – Adam Neely explains the ultra-important concept of dual tonicity. Cites me!
  • Philip Tagg's Everyday Tonality – Harmony works differently in loop-based music.
  • The harmonica explains all of Western music – This deceptively simple instrument contains inside information technology a lot of complicated racial politics.

Projects

  • All twelve keys – Choose or compose a 4-bar chord progression and write it out in all twelve keys using annotation or chord symbols.
  • Major chord progression – You volition exist given a major key. Create a 4 bar loop in that fundamental, with one chord per bar.
  • Minor chord progression – You volition be given a small key. Create a four bar loop in that central, with one chord per bar.
  • Modal chord progression – You lot will exist given a style and a key. Create a four bar loop in that mode and cardinal, with one chord per bar.

Chameleon - circular bass

Notation

Resource – Part One

  • Noteflight – An online notation editor; like Google Docs for music.
  • Flat.io – Another online annotation editor.
  • Samuel Halligan'south Pop-Upward Piano – Max For Alive device showing MIDI notes on the staff and their scale functions in real time.
  • Teaching note values – Using circles and fractions.
  • How do key signatures work? – Using circles and arrows.
  • Musictheory.net: Fundamental signatures – Interactive explanation.
  • Musictheory.cyberspace: Key signature quiz – What it says.
  • List of musical symbols – Wikipedia actually is the best resource for this.
  • Tibetan Musical Note is Beautiful – Yes information technology is.

Projects

  • Accidentals and key signatures – You will be given a short melody in a major primal. Write it using accidentals, then decide the fundamental and write it using the appropriate key signature.

Dynamics and Loudness

Resources

  • Online loudness meter – Click the gear icon and change the standard to Book for decibel readings.
  • Music dynamic levels – Compares decibels to dynamics.
  • These go to eleven – It's one louder.
  • Instruction dynamics and loudness – Perceptual vs actual loudness in recorded music.

Projects

  • Environmental dynamics – Cull two locations, ane indoor and one outdoor. I recommend using your bedchamber and the street outside your building. For each location, write a list of all the sound sources you can hear in decreasing order of loudness. Also write the peak and average decibel levels of each location.
  • Get in loud – Take a tune typically played quietly (e.g., a lullaby) and play information technology every bit loudly as possible.
  • Brand it repose – Take a tune typically played loudly (e.g., a punk tune or the terminate of a Beethoven symphony) and play it as quietly as possible.

Form and Structure

Resource

  • The Shape of Song – Visualizing repetition in music using arc diagrams.
  • Visualizing song structures – Using Ableton Live to color-code song forms.
  • How does jazz piece of work? – Walking you through "Someday My Prince Will Come" by Miles Davis.
  • Musical Structures – European classical forms and structures with audio examples.
  • Gerubach – YouTube videos of Bach works with scrolling scores and links to movements/sections.
  • Anna Meredith: Dynamic Sketches – Composer/producer talks through her runway visualization system.

Projects

  • Song structure analysis – Choose a song and analyze its structure. List the sections of the song: Intro, Poesy, Chorus, Breakdown, Bridge, Drop, Lift, etc. For each department, give its length in measures and its outset time. You can also create a visualization of the structure using a tool like Canva.

Going Further

Resource

  • The Music Theory Song – If you lot looked upward all the references in this song, you would learn a lot of Western tonal theory.
  • "Happy Altogether" in the style of x classical composers – What it says.
  • Greta Thunberg'southward 'How Dare You' Speech communication – Gear up to music by Megan Washington and Robert Davidson.
  • 12 Tones – The inimitable Vi Hart explains how 12-tone serialism works. Long, but well worth it.

Projects

  • Be the critic – Choose a work, performance, or album. In 1000-2000 words, write a review in the style of your favorite critic, publication or weblog.
  • Music Theory Online article response – Choose a paper from this open-access online music theory periodical. In 1500-2500 words, explicate information technology in apparently language to the best of your ability. If you lot do not sympathize aspects of it or disagree with any conclusions, delight say so.