In the fall of 2019, I started teaching Fundamentals of Western Music at the New School’s Eugene Lang College. It combines the usual Music Theory I content with a broader, more ethnomusicological perspective that brings in various forms of pop, non-Western musics, and (most excitingly for me) the blues. It’s an existing course, but I have had wide latitude to remake it. The students need to know how notation works, what major and minor keys are, some basic chord progressions, some rhythms, and a few other musical parameters like loudness/dynamics. They need some exposure to the Western canon, to modernist and contemporary composers, and to some other sounds outside their usual listening habits. And, most importantly, they need to retain that information for future music courses and beyond.

If you read this blog, you know that I take a dim view of traditional music theory pedagogy, which tends to present the aesthetic preferences of Western European aristocrats of the 18th and 19th centuries as if they’re a universally valid and applicable rule system. I don’t mind the idea of teaching the classical canon, as long as I can approach it as an ethnic music of a particular time and place, not a transcendent or universal one. So it’s refreshing that the New School has such a broad and expansive view of how to teach theory.

I was been told to expect that about a third of the students will be coming in with extensive classical music training and prior study of music theory; a third will be self-taught pop musicians like me; and a third will have zero music experience of any kind. The challenge is to have assignments with low floors and high ceilings, so that half the class isn’t overwhelmed or bored at any given moment. I’m open to suggestions as I develop this further. Here’s the syllabus, which I have been updating regularly as I go:

What you will need

Notation

You will compose and notate a lot of music for this class. You can write your music by hand if you would like. (If you Google “blank staff paper pdf” you will find many templates that you can print out.) However, you will probably find it easier to use a notation editor, especially if you are inexperienced. Noteflight and Flat.io are online editors that work like Google Docs, and their free versions are fine for this class. You can also use more advanced/professional programs like Dorico, Sibelius or Finale.

Digital audio workstation

Notation programs can export audio, but it usually does not sound very good. You will get more musical-sounding results using a digital audio workstation (DAW.) You can also use DAWs to record and edit audio. If you have a Mac, you already have GarageBand, which is fine for class purposes. Soundtrap and Bandlab are similar to GarageBand, but they run entirely in the web browser. I use Ableton Live and recommend it. There are many other good DAWs, including Pro Tools, Logic, and FL Studio.

Other useful software

Audacity is a free audio editor. It’s especially useful for converting audio from one format to another.

Critical Listening

Resources

Submit at least two questions or comments on this material: things you did not understand, related ideas that occur to you, arguments you disagree with.

• Listening, hearing, and the infinite loop – Repetition can be a deep listening aid.
• Listening as activism: The “Sonic Meditations” of Pauline Oliveros – Experimental music scores that describe the listener’s state of mind, not the performance.
• Audio or it didn’t happen – Sometimes recordings don’t sound like what you hear.
• Paulstretch – Use this free software to slow music or audio down extremely for a new kind of deep listening experience.

Projects

• Sound writing – Choose a physical location, and describe its soundscape in 500-1000 words. List all of the sound sources you can and describe them in as much detail as possible. Describe your emotional reactions to these sounds individually and collectively. If you like, review the sounds as if they are a musical work.
• Choose a song or other short musical recording. In 500-1000 words, describe all of the sound sources (instruments, voices, samples, sound effects, etc) in the order they appear. Use as much detail as you can: what physical environment does the sound occupy? What is its emotional tone? Is it loud or quiet, peaceful or aggressive, close up or far away, clear or distorted? If you can identify specific instruments or pieces of equipment, do so, but otherwise simply describe each sound as best you can.

Rhythm and Meter

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Resources – Part One

• Introduction to time signatures – Nice audio examples.
• Ableton: Make beats – Explore the time-unit box system.
• Groove Pizza – Circular rhythm sequencer.
• Groove challenges with the Groove Pizza – Beatmaking prompts.
• Seeing classic beats with the Groove Pizza – What it says.
• Visualizing trap beats with the Groove Pizza – What it says.

Resources – Part Two

• The Great Cut-Time Shift – Explains the concept of swing, and the difference between eighth-note swing and sixteenth-note swing.
• Click click – Simple web interactive that demonstrates how clicks fuse into a tone at around 20 Hz.
• Rhythm/Pitch Duality – Chords are really just fast polyrhythms.
• Groove Pizzeria – Explore polyrhythm and polymeter.

Projects

• Beat transcription – Find a short, repeated drum or percussion pattern (four bars maximum) and transcribe it. You can use standard notation or a time-unit box system (examples here.)
• Beatmaking – Using the Groove Pizza or any other hardware or software tool of your choice, create a dance beat in 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, or 12/8 time (on the Groove Pizza, 16 or 12 slices).
• Odd-meter beatmaking – Using the Groove Pizza or the tool of your choice, create a dance beat in an odd meter (not 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, or 12/8).
• Create a short repeated melody using only two distinct pitches. They can be played on the same instrument, or on two different instruments. I encourage you to use pitched percussion like bells, congas, or toms. You can use whatever additional unpitched drum sounds you want. Listen to some agogô bells for inspiration.

Harmonics and Tuning Systems

Submit at least two questions or comments on this material: things you did not understand, related ideas that occur to you, arguments you disagree with.

Resources – Part One

• Interactive Harmonics – The first few in the overtone series.
• Interactive Spectrogram – See the harmonics of your own voice.
• Why can’t you tune your guitar? – Because prime numbers don’t mutually divide evenly.
• Just intonation explained – Skim lightly over the math, but listen closely to the audio examples.
• Equal temperament vs just intonation – Listen to side-by-side comparisons.
• Organ with split black keys – Before 12-TET, D-sharp and E-flat were different pitches, and some historical keyboards had split black keys to enable you to play both.

Resources – Part Two

• Omni – Playable scales visualized on a circle.
• Ableton: Pelog – Indonesian scale using a non-Western tuning system.
• Ableton: 19-tone equal temperament – It’s pretty weird.
• Scale Workshop – Explore various tuning systems from the QWERTY keyboard.

Projects

• Spectral music – Create a short piece of music on a single pitch that only changes the overtones/timbre. Use the spectrogram to help you.
• Beyond 12-TET – Create a short piece of music using any tuning system other than twelve-tone equal temperament. Use any of the interactive tools listed above, the Wilsonic app, or Audiokit Synth One.

Diatonic Scales and Keys

Submit at least two questions or comments on this material: things you did not understand, related ideas that occur to you, arguments you disagree with.

Resources – Part One

• The aQWERTYon – Play scales and chords on your QWERTY keyboard.
• Ableton: Building major scales – What it says.
• Ableton: Building minor scales – Natural minor only.

Resources – Part Two

• Musictheory.net: Intervals – What it says.
• Interval song chart – Song examples for all the intervals.
• “Be Worry, Don’t Happy” – Hear Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” digitally transposed into a minor key.
• “Vader’s Redemption” – Hear the Imperial March in major.

Projects

• Twelve major keys – Pick a short, familiar major-key tune (or write your own) and notate, sequence or record it in all twelve keys.
• Twelve minor keys – Pick a short, familiar minor-key tune (or write your own) and notate, sequence or record it in all twelve keys.

Modes and Blues Scales

Submit at least two questions or comments on this material: things you did not understand, related ideas that occur to you, arguments you disagree with.

Resources – Part One

• Scales and emotions – A guide to some commonly used Western scales and the moods they conventionally imply.
• Ableton: Modes – Diatonic modes presented both as relative and parallel.
• Scales, keys and modes on the circle of fifths – Writing scales on the circle of fifths can help you see their relationships more clearly.
• Scale necklaces and symmetry – Another way to visualize the diatonic modes.

Resources – Part Two

• Blues tonality – Explore the alternate harmonic universe of the blues.
• Music for practicing scales – Long modal tunes at relaxed tempi.
• Guitar Dashboard – Every scale in every key on the guitar fretboard.

Projects

• Random modes – You will be given a mode and key. Compose a short melody using that mode.
• Blues – Write a 12-bar blues melody. Suggestion: repeat the same 4-bar phrase three times.

Melody

Resources – Part One

• Deconstructing the bassline in Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” – Going in depth with a funk classic.
• Groove is in the Heart – Another funk classic.
• Ableton: “Tour de France” – Experiment with a Kraftwerk melody in the browser.
• Ableton: “Good Life” – Experiment with a techno bassline in the browser.
• Ableton: Play with melodies – Piano roll with various scales in all 12 keys plus beat sequencer.

Resources – Part Two

• Bach’s Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 – Prelude – Hear how Bach uses a single melody line to imply a full chord progression.
• Can drums play a melody? – Max Roach thought of the drum kit as a melodic instrument, and who could argue with him?

Projects

• Melodic Adaptation – Take an existing melody and adapt it into a new one by keeping the rhythms the same but changing all of the pitches. Be sure to tell me what melody you adapted.
• Rhythmic Adaptation – Take an existing melody and adapt it into a new one by keeping the pitches the same but changing all of the rhythms. Be sure to tell me what melody you adapted.
• Call and Response – Create a short melody that includes a series of call phrases answered by response phrases.
• Narrow Range – Create a short melody where all of the notes lie within the span of a minor third (for example, between C and E-flat.)
• Angularity – Create a short melody where every interval between one note and the next is larger than a fifth (for example, from C to G.)

Counterpoint

Resources – Part One

• The contemporary musician’s guide to counterpoint – Don’t worry about all of the terminology, just listen closely to the audio examples.
• Nokia fugue – It’s easier to hear counterpoint when the theme is a familiar one.
• “Life on Mars” and “My Way” – Many songs share the same chord progression, and if you sing them simultaneously, it can sound pretty cool.

Resources – Part Two

• Bach’s Crab Canon on a Möbius strip – A crab canon is its own accompaniment backwards. Math!
• Paul McCartney based “Blackbird” on Bach – Specifically, on his Bourrée in E minor.
• Dave’s JS Bach MIDI page – The complete works of Bach in MIDI format.
• Bach Google Doodle – Enter a melody and have the computer automatically generate a four-voice chorale.
• Béla Bartók – “Two Major Pentachords” – The left hand part is in F-sharp major, the right hand part is in C major.

Projects

• Robot counterpoint – Use the Bach Google Doodle to generate counterpoint for the melody of your choice. You can compose an original melody, or enter an existing one. It may take you several tries to generate a satisfying result.

Chords

Resources – Part One

• Chord dictionary – A guide to triads, seventh chords, and some of the more commonly used extended chords.
• Chord calculator – Displays many kinds of chords on the staff.
• Interactive Arpeggios – Play major and minor arpeggios around the circle of fifths.
• Making chords from scales – Learn how to construct chords by stacking thirds within various scales.
• Ableton: Diatonic triads – Take the quiz.

Resources – Part Two

• Ableton: Inversions – Take the quiz.
• Ableton: Voicings – Hear the effect of changing the order of notes in a chord.
• Ableton: Seventh chords – Cmaj7 and Cmin7 only.
• Learning minor key harmony from the Bach Chaconne – Compare the chords you can make from natural vs harmonic minor.

Projects

• Fill in the chords – You will be given a melody, a bassline, and a scale. Add chords comprised only of the notes in the scale. For a more advanced challenge, use non-scale notes in your chords as well.
• Harmonize a melody – You will be given a short melody and a scale. Create a bassline and chords using only the notes in the scale.

Chord Progressions

Resources – Part One

• Chordchord – Generate four-chord loops and export them as MIDI.
• Learn diatonic harmony from a classic breakbeat – What it says.
• Ableton: I-V-vi-IV – Experiment with the Axis progression.
• The happiest chord progression ever – What it says.
• The Epic Online Orchestra – Choose chords, an epic orchestra plays them.

Resources – Part Two

• Ableton: “Mommy, What’s A Record” – Using parallelism to make non-diatonic progressions.
• The saddest chord progression ever – What it says.
• What key is “Sweet Home Alabama” in? – Adam Neely explains the ultra-important concept of dual tonicity. Cites me!
• Philip Tagg’s Everyday Tonality – Harmony works differently in loop-based music.
• The harmonica explains all of Western music – This deceptively simple instrument contains within it a lot of complicated racial politics.

Projects

• All twelve keys – Choose or compose a four-bar chord progression and write it out in all twelve keys using notation or chord symbols.
• Major chord progression – You will be given a major key. Create a four bar loop in that key, with one chord per bar.
• Minor chord progression – You will be given a minor key. Create a four bar loop in that key, with one chord per bar.
• Modal chord progression – You will be given a mode and a key. Create a four bar loop in that mode and key, with one chord per bar.

Notation

Resources – Part One

• Noteflight – An online notation editor; like Google Docs for music.
• Flat.io – Another online notation editor.
• Samuel Halligan’s Pop-Up Piano – Max For Live device showing MIDI notes on the staff and their scale functions in real time.
• Teaching note values – Using circles and fractions.
• How do key signatures work? – Using circles and arrows.
• Musictheory.net: Key signatures – Interactive explanation.
• Musictheory.net: Key signature quiz – What it says.
• List of musical symbols – Wikipedia really is the best resource for this.
• Tibetan Musical Notation is Beautiful – Yes it is.

Projects

• Accidentals and key signatures – You will be given a short melody in a major key. Write it using accidentals, then determine the key and write it using the appropriate key signature.

Dynamics and Loudness

Resources

• Online loudness meter – Click the gear icon and change the standard to Volume for decibel readings.
• Music dynamic levels – Compares decibels to dynamics.
• These go to eleven – It’s one louder.
• Teaching dynamics and loudness – Perceptual vs actual loudness in recorded music.

Projects

• Environmental dynamics – Choose two locations, one indoor and one outdoor. I recommend using your bedroom and the street outside your building. For each location, write a list of all the sound sources you can hear in decreasing order of loudness. Also write the peak and average decibel levels of each location.
• Make it loud – Take a tune typically played quietly (e.g., a lullaby) and play it as loudly as possible.
• Make it quiet – Take a tune typically played loudly (e.g., a punk tune or the end of a Beethoven symphony) and play it as quietly as possible.

Form and Structure

Resources

• The Shape of Song – Visualizing repetition in music using arc diagrams.
• Visualizing song structures – Using Ableton Live to color-code song forms.
• How does jazz work? – Walking you through “Someday My Prince Will Come” by Miles Davis.
• Musical Structures – European classical forms and structures with audio examples.
• Gerubach – YouTube videos of Bach works with scrolling scores and links to movements/sections.
• Anna Meredith: Dynamic Sketches – Composer/producer talks through her track visualization system.

Projects

• Song structure analysis – Choose a song and analyze its structure. List the sections of the song: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Breakdown, Bridge, Drop, Lift, etc. For each section, give its length in measures and its start time. You can also create a visualization of the structure using a tool like Canva.

Going Further

Resources

• The Music Theory Song – If you looked up all the references in this song, you would learn a lot of Western tonal theory.
• “Happy Birthday” in the style of 10 classical composers – What it says.
• Greta Thunberg’s ‘How Dare You’ Speech – Set to music by Megan Washington and Robert Davidson.
• 12 Tones – The inimitable Vi Hart explains how 12-tone serialism works. Long, but well worth it.

Projects

• Be the critic – Choose a work, performance, or album. In 1000-2000 words, write a review in the style of your favorite critic, publication or blog.
• Music Theory Online article response – Choose a paper from this open-access online music theory journal. In 1500-2500 words, explain it in plain language to the best of your ability. If you do not understand aspects of it or disagree with any conclusions, please say so.