Lesson 4 (July 12)

Lesson 4: Introduction to basic musical forms

• introduction to some of the basic musical forms that's used in both Western Art Music and popular music nowadays

  • Binary Form (A-B)

    • Rounded-Binary Form (A-B-A')

  • Ternary Form (A-B-A)

  • Rondo Form (A-B-A-C-A)

  • Strophic Form (A-A-A-A...)

  • Through-Composed Form (A-B-C-D...)

  • (Intro)-Verse-Chorus/Refrain-Bridge (A-B-C-A-B-C-D...)

• Discussion questions:

  • What are some effective functions do you think on using different musical forms on composing music?

  • What are some of the reasons you think that many popular music nowadays are composed in the same form?

Listening examples from today's class: