Music 15: Preparatory Musicianship
Instructor: Samuel Cushman
Email: sbcushma@ucsc.edu
Course Description:
Preparatory Musicianship offers students basic studies in musicianship related to theoretical concepts and notation. Students will develop skills and knowledge in basic tonal nomenclature, rhythm, melody, and harmony (scales, modes, keys, chords, harmonic usage). Skills include ear training, melodic/rhythmic dictation, and sight reading. A basic ability to read music is highly recommended, but not required, for this class. Cross-cultural approaches to melody and rhythm will supplement conventional sight singing and dictation exercises.
The course will focus on:
· Fluency in the basics of western staff notation
· Recognizing intervals, scales, modes, chords, and key signatures
· Developing aural skills through sight singing and dictation exercises
· Understanding and internalizing rhythm and meter
· Basic keyboard skills
· Chords (including triads, seventh chords, and inversions), simple modulations, and tonicizations
· Introducing functional harmony: chord progressions, basic cadences, analysis of musical pieces, elementary figured bass notation and analysis
Required materials:
Students should purchase a standard music notebook, preferably around 8.5 x 11 in size (if this is cost prohibitive you can print blank staff paper from the internet). This notebook will be used for taking notes and doing dictation exercises in class, as well as for turning in homework assignments. Music notebooks are available at the campus bookstore, at local music stores, and may be purchased easily online. I recommend keeping course handouts in some sort of folder or binder. Also invest in plenty of pencils and erasers. Everybody makes mistakes and doing theory assignments in pen can get messy!
There is no required textbook for this course. All materials will be covered fully in class and/or made available through Canvas. Instead of a required reference textbook, we will use the website Teoria (www.teoria.com). This website is a great way to practice ear training and has excellent tutorials and reference materials to help master concepts introduced in class.
Homework:
There will be short homework assignments for each class. These assignments generally consist of identifying and writing out intervals, scales, chords, rhythms, etc. and are designed for you to practice applying theoretical concepts. Assignments will be distributed (and posted to Canvas) at the end of each class period and should be submitted at the beginning of the following class. Homework grades will be evaluated based on effort and timely submission rather than correctness, so it’s important to submit all assignments on time. Late homework will not be accepted!
Individual Practice:
This class focuses on developing musical skills, and you must do some kind of daily work on you own in order to improve. This should be done at a piano or keyboard, at least 15-30 minutes per day. Preferably you should pair up and test each other on interval recognition and give each other simple dictation exercises. We will do some practice during class and lab meetings, but students will also need to practice on their own as they would an instrument. Another excellent way to practice is to pay attention to intervals, rhythms, chord qualities, and simple melodies in the music you hear daily. Try singing to yourself and think about the intervals in the melodies you’re singing!
Lab Meetings:
Students are expected to attend weekly ear training and musicianship labs. We will discuss lab scheduling during our first meeting on June 26th.
Grading:
There will be two quizzes, a midterm, and a final. Students will also complete a final project in the form of a short original composition or musical performance to be presented to the class (more details to come).
Grades will be calculated as follows:
Quizzes: 20% (total for the two quizzes)
Midterm: 20%
Final Exam (cumulative): 30%
Homework: 10%
Final project: 10%
Labs/Attendance: 10%
The final exam is scheduled for our last class period: Thursday, August 16, 12-2:45 pm.
No makeup quizzes/exams will be given except in the case of emergencies or unless arrangements are made well in advance.
Class Schedule: (subject to change as the term proceeds)
Week 1:
Concepts: Basics of western notation, note identification and clarification of musical/notational terms, treble and bass clefs, intervals in the major scale, the basic diatonic scale
Ear training 1: Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, octave, unison
Ear training 2: Introduce major/minor 2nds and major/minor 3rds
Teoria Tutorials:
· Reading Music (hopefully this will be a review, but it’s a useful tutorial if you need practice reading western notation)
· Intervals: What is an Interval?
· Scales: What is a Scale?
Week 2:
Concepts: Key signatures, circle of fifths, major scales, introduction to rhythm and meter
Ear training 1: Review all week one intervals, introduce major/minor 6ths
Ear training 2: Introduce major/minor 7ths
Teoria Reference:
· Key Signatures
o Construction
o Identification
Quiz #1 is Thursday!!!
Week 3:
Concepts: More on rhythmic notation and meter; natural, melodic, and harmonic minor scales; introduce other modes
Ear training 1: Review all intervals from weeks one and two, introduce the tritone
Ear training 2: Harmonic intervals, basic melodic and rhythmic dictation
Teoria Tutorials:
· Scales: Scale Constructor
Teoria Reference:
· Minor Scale
· Modes
Week 4:
Concepts: Chord notation (triads) and construction (major, minor, diminished,
augmented; including inversions); triad types occurring in the major and minor scales
Ear training 1: Interval and dictation practice
Ear training 2: More interval and dictation practice
Teoria Tutorials:
· Chords: What is a chord?
Teoria Reference:
· Triads
Midterm Exam is Thursday!!!
Week 5:
Concepts: Review triads, introduce seventh chords, seventh chord inversions, basic harmonic functions
Teoria Reference:
· Seventh Chords
Teoria Tutorials:
· Harmonic Functions
Submit proposal (1-2 paragraphs) for final project by Thursday!
Week 6:
Concepts: Introduction to harmonic analysis, figured bass notation
Teoria Reference:
· Chord Symbols
o Baroque chord symbols
o Triad Symbols
o Seventh Chord Symbols
Quiz #2 is Thursday!!!
Week 7:
Concepts: More on figured bass notation; harmonic analysis; non-diatonic scales, basic cadence types
Rough draft of score/final project due!
Week 8:
Tuesday: Final presentations, exam review
Thursday: FINAL EXAM (cumulative), Ear training/piano skills evaluation (by appointment)
**Options for Final Project**
1.) Compose an original piece of music, complete with a score, to be performed and discussed in class. You can write for any instrumentation as long as you find players (or singers) to perform your music in class on Tuesday 8/14. A rough draft of your score is due on Tuesday 8/7. Be prepared to give a brief presentation about your piece to the class.
2.) You may also choose to perform an existing piece of music for the class (one you didn’t write). If you choose this option, I’ll ask you to turn in a basic chordal analysis of the score (we’ll talk more about this in class) and 1-2 typed pages addressing how the piece utilizes theoretical concepts from the class.
Text/Web Resources for Music 15 (not required, but possibly helpful!)
Books:
Zinn and Hogenson. Basics of Music, Opus 1
(inexpensive, readable, good exercises, and focuses more or less on what we will do in class)
Clendinning and Marvin. The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis.
Aldwell and Schacter. Harmony and Voice Leading
(a valuable resource, especially as you advance in the music theory curriculum)
Websites:
Music Theory Net
https://www.musictheory.net/lessons/21
Terrific, easy to use, readable, fun. It presents a simplified version of what we’ll
be doing in class, but it might be useful for some students.
Teoria
https://www.teoria.com/index.php
Very good, and considerably more detailed than Music Theory Net. Also a great resource for interval/ear training practice.
Understanding Basic Music Theory
https://www.earmaster.com/music-theory-online/course-introduction.html
Fun, basic, and simple.