Introduction to Music Theory: The Elements of Music

Do you hold a penchant for listening to or playing music but are clueless as to its construction? Perhaps you already are somewhat familiar with reading music but endeavor to broaden your grasp of fundamental music theory? Do you wish to explore how the principal elements of music fuse together to shape the larger musical structures we know as compositional artworks? If you answered yes to any of the above then this course is designed for you. We will commence by learning the basic ingredients of music notation including pitch, rhythm, meter, scales, and intervals. We will then examine some of the ways that these elements combine to form tonal melody and harmony such as through the utilization of triads, seventh chords, key signatures, and some standard voice leading and contrapuntal procedures. Finally, we will also briefly delve into a few pieces of actual music spanning various eras and regions within the Classical tradition in order to directly observe methodologies applied by composers and musicians that infuse the musical building blocks outlined above into the greater forms, styles, and genres that they craft. Some elementary ear training and rhythmic drills involving sight reading and dictation will be incorporated using basic ingredients such as scales and arpeggios, simple and compound meters.