Course Syllabus

Course Intro and Objectives

This course is designed for upper-division undergraduates and new graduate students in music theory. After completing this course, students should have a strong understanding of common notation, the physics behind music theory, as well as the basic concepts of music theory and a few slightly advanced but useful topics, such as transposition.

In this course you will learn to:

• Demonstrate the use of key signatures, meter, simple diatonic harmony, and historically traditional styles of music
• Demonstrate the use of chromatic harmony nonharmonic tones, compound meters and modulation
• Use the keyboard to realize common scales, triads and chord progressions
• Demonstrate the ability to identify common rhythms, harmonies and melodies by listening to them
• Demonstrate a knowledge of the physical attributes of sound (acoustics)
• Explain and demonstrate the commonly accepted principles of twentieth-century musical techniques
• Arrange and transpose music appropriate for classroom and performance needs

Textbook

Basic Music Theory by Jonathan Harnum
Free PDF Version: http://www.allabouttrumpet.com/BMT/BMT_giveaway.html
View Excerpt: Sample

Required Work

Discussions (15%) - Each week you will be expected to read the assigned chapter(s) or article(s) listed in the online course modules. There are also two hours of video lecture for you to watch each week. These are online so you can watch (and rewatch) them at your convenience.

Quizzes (15%) - Every other week you are required to take a quiz specifically on the readings for the week. These are timed and randomized, but you have 2 attempts. However, your first quiz attempt must be complete before we meet f2f.

Midterm and Final Project (30%) - Write a report or essay based on one of the topics in the class. You’ll write two drafts of this paper and participate in a peer review process. This is described in the online course.

Exams (40%) - You have two exams, a midterm and a final. Don’t worry: if you’ve been reading, studying, watching the lectures, and taking the quizzes you should be well prepared. Both exams are comprehensive, so practice those quizzes!

Communication

In addition to our face-to-face interaction you can expect to receive regular communications from the teacher from within the course web site. Be sure to configure your Canvas profile to receive notifications the way you want to. But in general I’ll be using:

• Announcements to send class-wide messages
• Assignment messaging for private, assignment-specific discussions
• The Q&A discussion forum for addressing general, class-wide questions
• Conferences or Chat for virtual office hours (by appointment only)
• Conversations if I need to discuss a non-assignment issue privately with you

Assignment Schedule