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Getting Started With Music Theory

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Getting Started With Music Theory

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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.5

760 reviews

Beginner level
No prior experience required
Flexible schedule
1 week at 10 hours a week
Learn at your own pace

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.5

760 reviews

Beginner level
No prior experience required
Flexible schedule
1 week at 10 hours a week
Learn at your own pace

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Shareable certificate

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Assessments

13 assignments

Taught in English
92%
Most learners liked this course

There are 4 modules in this course

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.

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.

What's included

9 videos1 reading4 assignments2 discussion prompts

9 videosβ€’Total 57 minutes
  • Course Overviewβ€’3 minutes
  • Tonality and Atonalityβ€’7 minutes
  • Harmonic Functionβ€’9 minutes
  • Harmonic Hierarchyβ€’4 minutes
  • Acousticsβ€’9 minutes
  • Notation I: Pitchβ€’8 minutes
  • Notation II: Rhythmic Notationβ€’7 minutes
  • Notation III: Measures and Measure Numbersβ€’4 minutes
  • Notation IV: Notation In Actionβ€’7 minutes
1 readingβ€’Total 10 minutes
  • Notation Readingβ€’10 minutes
4 assignmentsβ€’Total 120 minutes
  • Tonality and Acoustics Practice Quizβ€’30 minutes
  • Notation Practice Quizβ€’30 minutes
  • Tonality, Harmony, Acousticsβ€’30 minutes
  • Pitch and Rhythm Notationβ€’30 minutes
2 discussion promptsβ€’Total 20 minutes
  • Why Music? What Music? My Music.β€’10 minutes
  • Music Notation and Meβ€’10 minutes

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).

What's included

12 videos3 readings4 assignments2 discussion prompts

12 videosβ€’Total 81 minutes
  • Half Steps, Whole Steps, and the Diatonic Setβ€’8 minutes
  • Major Scalesβ€’7 minutes
  • Key Signaturesβ€’6 minutes
  • Sharp Key Signaturesβ€’5 minutes
  • Flat Key Signatures And The Circle of Fifthsβ€’4 minutes
  • Minor Scalesβ€’8 minutes
  • Relative Minorβ€’6 minutes
  • Forms Of Minor Scalesβ€’10 minutes
  • Generic Intervalsβ€’7 minutes
  • Interval Quality and Diatonic Intervalsβ€’7 minutes
  • More Diatonic Intervalsβ€’8 minutes
  • Chromatic Intervals and Inversionβ€’6 minutes
3 readingsβ€’Total 30 minutes
  • More On Minorβ€’10 minutes
  • Key Signature Practiceβ€’10 minutes
  • More On Intervalsβ€’10 minutes
4 assignmentsβ€’Total 120 minutes
  • Diatonic Set, Major, Minor: Practice Quizβ€’30 minutes
  • Intervals Practice Quizβ€’30 minutes
  • Diatonic Set, Major, Minorβ€’30 minutes
  • Intervals Quizβ€’30 minutes
2 discussion promptsβ€’Total 20 minutes
  • Sad Minor?β€’10 minutes
  • My Favorite Intervals!β€’10 minutes

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,

What's included

6 videos2 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt

6 videosβ€’Total 50 minutes
  • Accents and Meter Beatsβ€’8 minutes
  • Rhythm and Meter II: Subdivisions of the Beatβ€’8 minutes
  • Meter III: Simple and Compound Metersβ€’10 minutes
  • Metric Notation In Practiceβ€’10 minutes
  • Metric Notation: Tupletsβ€’6 minutes
  • Syncopationβ€’9 minutes
2 readingsβ€’Total 20 minutes
  • More About Meter and Meter Signaturesβ€’10 minutes
  • More On Tupletsβ€’10 minutes
2 assignmentsβ€’Total 60 minutes
  • Rhythm and Meterβ€’30 minutes
  • Meter, Tuplets, Syncopationβ€’30 minutes
1 discussion promptβ€’Total 10 minutes
  • Fascinating Rhythmβ€’10 minutes

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.

What's included

8 videos3 readings3 assignments2 discussion prompts

8 videosβ€’Total 56 minutes
  • Triadsβ€’4 minutes
  • Triads II: Inversionsβ€’6 minutes
  • Triads III: Qualityβ€’9 minutes
  • Seventh Chordsβ€’7 minutes
  • Qualities of Seventh Chordsβ€’5 minutes
  • Fully Diminished Seventh Chordsβ€’9 minutes
  • Chord Symbolsβ€’8 minutes
  • Roman Numeral Notationβ€’8 minutes
3 readingsβ€’Total 30 minutes
  • More on Triadsβ€’10 minutes
  • More On Seventh Chordsβ€’10 minutes
  • 7th Chords In Jazzβ€’10 minutes
3 assignmentsβ€’Total 90 minutes
  • Triadsβ€’30 minutes
  • Seventh Chordsβ€’30 minutes
  • Labeling Chordsβ€’30 minutes
2 discussion promptsβ€’Total 20 minutes
  • When Is A Chord Not A Chord?β€’10 minutes
  • What Now?β€’10 minutes

Instructor

Instructor ratings
4.7 (214 ratings)
Michigan State University
1 Courseβ€’121,450 learners

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DT
Β·

Reviewed on Jun 19, 2020

This course was very helpful as i earned a basic knowledge of music theory...........and also it is the best for the beginners who are keen in learning music.

JW
Β·

Reviewed on Dec 11, 2024

Lovely course. The narrator is easy to understand, the modules and chapters are well organized. The quizzes and reviews are easy to follow and challenging for what was just taught.

JG
Β·

Reviewed on Jan 13, 2018

This course had everything I needed. I learned a lot although some parts were hard to follow. I am better at playing things by ear. I know when to be in key and when things are out of tune.

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