If we want to do some music history/appreciation type stuff, I am happy to
do that. I think the official college term for that kind of stuff now is
survey of western music or introduction to western music. I was thinking
it might also be interesting to do something on the history of the wind
band or the evolution of wind instruments.
mike
On Fri, Apr 3, 2020 at 1:27 PM Michael Bell <mikekb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All that looks good, Warren. If you want to lead, I can run the Zoom
session and monitor the chat for questions.
mike
On Fri, Apr 3, 2020 at 12:51 PM Warren Gill <mymaestro@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
When I did the music theory class in 2016, this was the outline for the
first three weeks. Originally, I was going to skip the "notation primer",
figuring that, hey, we all read music, right? It turned out to be the 1st
or 2nd most engaging session of the course... The other engaging part was
about transposing instruments, towards the end of the course.
Here the plans I used for the 1st three weeks, with links to the posters.
Week 1:
(Part 1) What is music theory, and why do we need it?
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/what-is-music-theory.pdf
(Part 2)
Music notation primer:
Music notation is the written language that universally conveys both
space and time. In the first session, you learn about music notation, just
to put us all on a level playing field. You learn about notating:
Pitch (the five lines, clef, accidentals)
Rhythm (all those dots and flags)
Meter (feeling and categorizing the beat)
Beaming (putting patterns together)
Complex meter (7/8 of the time!)
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/notation-pitch.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/notation-rhythm.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/notation-meter.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/beaming.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/complex-meter.pdf
Week 2:
In part two, you learn about scales and keys.
The major scale, and how to build one from a melody
Half steps and whole steps in a scale
Key signatures, all those sharps and flats
The Circle of Fifths
The minor scale
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/the-major-scale.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/key-signatures.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/the-circle-of-fifths.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/minor-scales.pdf
Week 3:
In part three, you learn about intervals.
Diatonic intervals (intervals within the scale) and some melodies to
assist your analysis!
Perfect intervals (why do we call them "perfect"?)
Imperfect intervals (just to augment the instruction)
How to analyze and write your own intervals!
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/diatonic-intervals.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/perfect-intervals.pdf
https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/en-us/imperfect-intervals.pdf
Here's the one page of the score we use to analyze intervals and chords.
http://acwe.org/sites/default/files/MusicTheoryStudy.pdf
