About this course: This course is a brief introduction to the elements of music theory for those with little or no music theory experience. We will explore pitch, rhythm, meter, notation, scales, keys, key signatures, meter signatures, triads, seventh chords, and basic harmony. If you listen to music or play music by ear, and you want to know more about how music is organized and notated, this course is for you. By the end of the course, you should know all major and minor keys, how to read and write in treble and bass clef using standard meters and rhythmic values, and how to notate and harmonize a simple melody. This course can serve as a stand-alone basic music theory course, or it can be a springboard to more advanced theory and composition courses. Your instructor is Bruce Taggart, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Michigan State University, in the College of Music, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate music theory since 1996.
Taught by: Bruce Taggart, Associate Professor
College of Music
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 2-3 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Video: Course Overview
- Video: Tonality and Atonality
- Video: Harmonic Function
- Video: Harmonic Hierarchy
- Video: Acoustics
- Quiz pour s'exercer: Tonality and Acoustics Practice Quiz
- Demande de discussion: Why Music? What Music? My Music.
- Video: Notation I: Pitch
- Video: Notation II: Rhythmic Notation
- Video: Notation III: Measures and Measure Numbers
- Video: Notation IV: Notation In Action
- Quiz pour s'exercer: Notation Practice Quiz
- Demande de discussion: Music Notation and Me
- Lecture: Notation Reading
- Video: Half Steps, Whole Steps, and the Diatonic Set
- Video: Major Scales
- Video: Key Signatures
- Video: Sharp Key Signatures
- Video: Flat Key Signatures And The Circle of Fifths
- Video: Minor Scales
- Video: Relative Minor
- Video: Forms Of Minor Scales
- Lecture: More On Minor
- Lecture: Key Signature Practice
- Quiz pour s'exercer: Diatonic Set, Major, Minor: Practice Quiz
- Demande de discussion: Sad Minor?
- Video: Generic Intervals
- Video: Interval Quality and Diatonic Intervals
- Video: More Diatonic Intervals
- Video: Chromatic Intervals and Inversion
- Lecture: More On Intervals
- Quiz pour s'exercer: Intervals Practice Quiz
- Demande de discussion: My Favorite Intervals!
- Video: Accents and Meter Beats
- Video: Rhythm and Meter II: Subdivisions of the Beat
- Video: Meter III: Simple and Compound Meters
- Lecture: More About Meter and Meter Signatures
- Demande de discussion: Fascinating Rhythm
- Video: Metric Notation In Practice
- Video: Metric Notation: Tuplets
- Lecture: More On Tuplets
- Video: Syncopation
- Video: Triads
- Video: Triads II: Inversions
- Video: Triads III: Quality
- Lecture: More on Triads
- Quiz pour s'exercer: Triads
- Demande de discussion: When Is A Chord Not A Chord?
- Video: Seventh Chords
- Video: Qualities of Seventh Chords
- Video: Fully Diminished Seventh Chords
- Lecture: More On Seventh Chords
- Lecture: 7th Chords In Jazz
- Video: Chord Symbols
- Video: Roman Numeral Notation
- Demande de discussion: What Now?
Chaque cours fonctionne comme un manuel interactif en proposant des vidéos préenregistrées, des quiz et des projets.
Connectez-vous à des milliers d'autres étudiants et débattez sur des idées, discutez le contenu du cours et obtenez de l'aide pour en maîtriser les concepts.
Obtenez une reconnaissance officielle pour votre travail et partagez votre réussite avec vos amis, vos collègues et vos employeurs.
| Acheter le cours | Auditeur libre | |
|---|---|---|
| Accéder au contenu du cours | Available | Available |
| Accéder au contenu noté | Available | Not available |
| Recevoir une Note Finale | Available | Not available |
| Obtenir un Certificat de Cours partageable | Available | Not available |
Very good course! I really enjoyed it! I reccomend it!
Overall an excellent course with a lot of foundational theory. A lot of it can get complicated and tedious, especially towards the end. It also requires a fair amount of memorization. These are all necessary steps and there's no faking your way through it. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to that first a-ha moment that ties the teachings into a real-world use case!
A few pieces of feedback: (a) the videos themselves could be a little better. eg. when discussing things with a keyboard on screen, the keys should light up in sync with the instructor's lecture. Similarly, when spelling the chords out, notes could be highlighted or added to the staff as the lecture progresses, rather than after the entire chord has been broken down. (b) the test questions in the middle of lectures will sometimes ask you about something that was on screen for a split second before cutting over to the question. It would be great to add an image to the question for reference (similar to the ones in the quizzes), otherwise it's very hard to answer the questions.
All in all, small gripes, and I would still highly recommend this course to anyone interested in getting their heads wrapped around the basics of music theory.
I'm very pleased with this course, although you have to keep in mind that it's packed with lots of information, which can be a lot for a beginner.
Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.
I am very pleased with which the professor speaks. I am also happy in which the way that this course is developed for budding musicians. hat is to say those who cannot maybe even read sheet music. Though keep in mind I have downloaded free PDF's and such online so that I might better be able to understand the course. Sometimes a professor is just right; I like his personality.