TEXTBOOK/SOURCES:Essentials of Music Theory, Books 1 and 2 by Andrew
Surmani, Karen Farnum Surmani, and Morton Manus
PURPOSE:The purpose of Music Theory I is to equip students with the ability to use and appreciate music through a thorough understanding of the language of music. Activities in Music Theory I will explore basic elements of music through reading, writing, listening, aural recognition, improvisation and composition.
COURSE OUTCOMES: The student will:
•Name, define, and identify the symbol for rhythmic, melodic and harmonic
elements of music being studied.
•Read known and unknown rhythmic, melodic and harmonic patterns of music
with accuracy.
•Write known and unknown rhythmic, melodic and harmonic patterns of music
accurately with correct notation.
•Aurally identify rhythmic, melodic and harmonic patterns of music from known
and unknown patterns.
•Listen to and analyze recorded examples of rhythmic, melodic and harmonic
elements of music found in music literature.
•Create and improvise rhythmic, melodic and harmonic patterns of music.
•Apply the above skills to basic compositional devices found in music.
COURSE OUTLINE
Unit One: Notation Basics- Review
Concepts:
•The Staff
•The Grand Staff
•Treble Clef and Bass Clef
•Pitch
•Absolute Note Names on Treble and Bass Staves
•Ledger Lines
•Major Scales and Patterns within as performed from the letter ladder and felt staff.
Unit Two: Rhythm Basics
Concepts:
•Notation Symbols: Measure, Bar line, Double Bar, Repeat Sign, First and Second
Endings, Ties, Slurs, Time Signatures, Accent
•Rhythmic Elements: Beat, Rhythm, Whole note and rest, half note and rest, dotted
half note, quarter note and rest, eighth note and rest and dotted quarter note.
•Meter: simple duple and simple triple
•The motive and ostinato as organizing factor in musical form and composition.
•Form in music as found in like and unlike phrases.
•Major scales and patterns performed from the letter ladder, felt staff and
shorthand notation
Unit Three: Expressive Elements
Concepts:
•Dynamics: pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, fortissimo,
crescendo, diminuendo, decrescendo
•Tempo:Largo, Adagio, Andante, Moderato, Allegro, Vivacity, ritardando,
accelerando, a tempo, metronome, metronome marking
•Articulation: staccato, accent, szforzando, tenuto, fermata
•Notation symbols: Da Capo, Dal Segno, Fine, Coda
•Texture: Monophony, Polyphony, Homophony, Monody
•Form in music as it appears in question/answer phrases
Unit Four: Altering Pitches
Concepts:
•Flats, Sharps and Naturals
•Whole Steps, Half Steps and Enharmonic Notes
•Augmentation and diminution as compositional devices
Unit Five: Major Scales
Concepts:
•Scale Construction as a pattern of whole and half steps
•The Major Scale pattern of whole and half steps
•Key Signatures
•The Sharp Scales and Key Signatures
•The Flat Scales and Key Signatures
•The Circle of Fifths
•The Chromatic Scale
•Sight-singing in major keys of G and D Major in solfege and absolute note names.
Unit 6: Intervals
Concepts:
•Perfect and Major Intervals (melodic and harmonic)
•Minor Intervals (melodic and harmonic)
•Augmented and Diminished Intervals (melodic and harmonic)
•Transposition
•The sequence as a compositional device.
Unit 7: Intermediate Rhythmic Elements
Concepts:
•Sixteenth Notes and Rests
•Dotted eight note
•Common time
•Cut time
Unit 8: More Intermediate Rhythmic Elements
Concepts:
•Compound Meter
•Triplets
•Anacrusis
•Syncopation
•Retrograde and inversion as compositional devices
Unit 9: Triads
Concepts:
•Triads
•Primary and Major Triads
•Scale Degree Names
•The Dominant 7thChord