Retrospective Course Overview

Course Overview: Online Introduction to Theory for Adults I

by Katherine Day

​Week 1

​Introduction to Noteflight:

• creating scores,

• inputting notes,

• ​adding parts,

• ​saving your work

• ​finding scores

• managing the site

• ​quiz on the basics

• ​time signatures, rhythm, counting

• ​Messiah and word painting

​Week 2

• staff = 5 lines and 4 spaces,

• treble clef = G, five notes above middle C,

• ​bass clef = F, five notes below middle C

• ​treble lines: Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit

• ​treble spaces: FACE

• bass lines: Grizzly Bears Don't Fight Alligators

• bass spaces: All Cows Eat Grass

• ​middle C is written on a leger line

• ​a leger line is like an extension ladder for notes too high or low to fit on the staff

• ​using the lyric tool in noteflight to label notes in the treble and bass

• Messiah and word painting;

​Week 3

• ​scansion; call and response writing

• ​semitone - smallest distance between 2 notes on the keyboard

• ​tone - 2 semitones

• ​a diatonic semitone changes note

• ​a chromatic semitone uses the same note and an accidental

• ​the Major scale consists of: T-T-S-T-T-T-S pattern

• ​the Natural minor scale consists of: T-S-T-T-T-S-T pattern

• ​the Harmonic minor scale consists of: T-S-T-T-S-T.5-S pattern

• ​the Melodic minor going up consists of: T-S-T-T-T-T-S

• ​the Melodic minor going down consists of: T-S-T-T-T-S-T pattern

• ​we reviewed briefly: chromatic, whole tone, pentatonic and Algerian scales

​Week 4

• ​more work on scales, semitones

• ​more work on scansion to help understand meter/pulse

• ​continuing discussion on how to put code into music using keysignatures:

  • ​2 sharps or flats represent love

  • ​major is happy, minor is sad

  • ​tempo creates mood

  • ​F Major is the pastoral key

  • ​flat keys tend to be outdoor-sy

  • ​# keys ten to be more refined

​Week 5

• ​more work on scales, semitones

• ​more work on scansion to help understand meter/pulse; setting our names to a rhythm

• ​continuing discussion on how to put code into music using key signatures

• ​Mahler 8, visit from Warwick

​Week 6

• ​Divertimento K563

• ​introduction to Minuet and Trio, and the influence of dance on music

• understanding motive, phrase period, sections

• ​starting to write chords

• ​introduction to hemiola 2:3 as a rhythmic device

• ​sequence

• ​antecedent and consequent phrasing

​Week 7

• ​Primary triads written on degrees 1, 4, and 5 of the major scale

• ​Divertimento K.563 Trio section

• ​looking at broken chords

• ​looking at the alla tedesca and tarantella as other dance forms that give extra meaning to our pieces

• ​look at personal repertoire in noteflight to see motives, phrases, periods, repetitions, learning to write in notes to a practice score, using colour to help see connecting ideas between parts/hands/sections

​Week 8

• ​introduction to your social platform on the Music To You website

• ​harmonising melodies in C Major with I, IV and V

• ​introduction to the 4 main candences = musical punctuation

• ​review of motive, phrase, period and binary form as applied to Divertimento K.563

• ​discussion of compound ternary form

• ​more in depth understanding of alla tedesca and tarantella

​Week 9

• the Baroque Suite: prelude vs the dances

• ​​12-bar blues

• ​introduction to secondary triads

• ​look at pop tune chord progressions

• ​look at introductions and codas

• ​more work on intervals

• ​the influence of the out doors on musical composition

• ​trying to write melodies

​Week 10

• ​drawing together what we have learned

• ​small, open book test to consolidate knowledge of scales, triads, scansion

• ​attempting to write songs to rhyming couplets