Theory & Practice I: 

* Instructor Note: The Instructor Companion Site includes additional resources, notes, and sample solutions for activities and discussions. 

Course Description

An introduction to the tools and vocabulary needed for critically engaging with music from a broad range of styles and repertoire in preparation for upper-level courses in the music theory and aural skills sequence. Topics include rhythmic and metric organization, melodic structure, ornamentation, instrumental families, texture, tuning systems, chords, and harmonic syntax representative of music in the Western art music tradition, popular music and film, and non-Western musics. 

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the basic elements of music and how different notational systems communicate those elements in early and contemporary Western music, non-Western, and popular and folk music.

• Recognize and construct pitch collections that include major and minor scales; modes; pentatonic, octatonic, and whole tone collections; and non-Western collections used in Indian raags and Turkish makam. 

• Analyze melodic construction, phrase structure, rhythmic and metric organization, ornamentation, and texture in a variety of musical styles. 

• Describe differences in sound properties, timbre, and instrumentation common in a variety of Western and non-Western musical styles.

• Apply both lead sheet and Roman numeral chord notation to analyze music that includes diatonic harmony, extended chords, and common pop harmony. 

• Compare and contrast harmonic syntax in common-practice Western art music and popular music, compose chord progressions, and harmonize melodies using each.