MUS F193: Introduction to Music TheoryDavid Dodman

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What we’ll talk about today...

• Introductions

• Overview of the syllabus

• What is music theory? Why is it important?

• Core ideas/principles of music theory; core questions; listening; video time!

• Q&A

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What we’ll talk about Next Week...

• Brief history of music theory, music notation, written music

• The basic grammar of written music

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Who is this guy?

• David Dodman

• Web Director at KNOM Radio

• In Nome: 2006 – present

• Originally from New Jersey

• AB in Music from Harvard University in 2005

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Who are you?

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...and by the way...

...please make sure you put your name and email address on the sign-up sheet!

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Contact:

• dodman@gmail.com

• “pushes” to my phone

• on Twitter? @daviddodman

• cellphone: 732-259-8055 (note the 732!)

• http://davidcdodman.com

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Syllabus

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Course Information Title: Introduction to Music Theory Department/Number: MUS F193 Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Location: Northwest Campus, Nome Meeting dates & times: Tuesdays and Thursdays, April 30 to May 21, 2013 Instructor Information Name: David Dodman Office location: N/A Office hours: N/A Telephone: 732-259-8055 (cellphone) E-Mail: dodman@gmail.com Course Readings & Materials Course textbook: TBD (several textbooks – including Berklee Music Theory: Book 1 and Music Theory for Dummies – are currently being considered) Author: TBD Publisher: TBD

Introduction to Music Theory

Syllabus

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Calendar

• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm

• Class will take place on:

• May 14, 16, 21, 23, 28, 30

• Class will NOT take place on Thursday, May 9

• Graduation!

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Calendar

• Unless I hear otherwise, I’ll always assume that you’ll be at every class.

• Please let me know as soon as possible if you can’t make a class

• What we’ll learn is cumulative – it builds from one week to the next

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Evaluation

• Attendance (7 classes x 2% each): 14%

• Participation/engagement: 6%

• Quizzes (5 quizzes x 6% each): 30%

• Take-home assignments (2 x 15% each): 30%

• Tests (2 x 10% each): 20%

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Evaluation (more details)

• Quizzes – each class starting Thursday, May 16

• will review material of previous session

• Tests – review class lessons up to that point

• Later in class – dates TBD

• Take-home assignments: TBD

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Book & CD

• Homework will largely involve the textbook/workbook and 2-CD set

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Recommended but not required: Instrument(s)!

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Also recommended

• Online resources, potentially worth a look (especially as the class progresses):

• http://www.musictheory.net/

• http://www.hooktheory.com

• http://soundsjustlike.com

• More suggestions to come...

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Want to hear/see that again?

Lecture slides and audio recordings will be posted on the web.

Web address TBA!

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Finally, Before we dig in...

...any questions?

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Definitions

What are we talking about?What IS music theory?

Why do we need it?

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A few Definitions

(Music theory describes) the abstract principles embodied in music and the sounds of which

it consists... the properties of single sounds... and those of

collections of sounds.

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A few Definitions

(Music theory describes) the abstract principles embodied in music and the sounds of which

it consists... the properties of single sounds... and those of

collections of sounds.– The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians,

pub. 1999, p. 667

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A few Definitions

Music theory is the study of how music works.

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A Few Definitions

Music theory is the study of how music works.

– Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory

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My Own Definitions

Music theory...

...quantifies elements of music that, at least to some extent, we

already know, intuitively.

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Core Ideas

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Music is innate.Music is intuitive.

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Analogy: Spoken vs. Written Language

• Think about your own experience with (verbal) language – in particular, your native/first language

• You learn how to speak and hear language automatically, innately – it just happens

• When it comes time to learn how to read and write, are you learning a new language, or just the same language with an expanded skill set?

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Analogy: Spoken vs. Written Language

• Learning how to read and write takes effort, but it vastly expands your potential to comprehend and reproduce words and concepts and, especially, to create and disseminate new and more complex ideas

• It is much the same with music!

• Music theory expands your exposure to a language that you know, at least somewhat, already

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Analogy: Spoken vs. Written Language

• In the same way that written (verbal) language allows you both to read the thoughts of others and then create your own thoughts, music theory allows you both to understand the music of others and, in turn, to write your own music – or, at least, appreciate the act of composition – with an informed ear

• This is one of our goals in this class: to give ourselves insight both into constructing and de-constructing music

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Another Analogy: an Automobile

We all see cars everyday.

But unless you’re a mechanic, most often, you probably don’t see them like this...

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Another Analogy: an Automobile

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Music as a Cultural Experience

Think about all of the places/moments you hear music, encounter it, share it, sing it...

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Music as a Cultural Experience

• Our culture/society offers us so many moments in which we are invited to – or expected to – take part in music

• It’s something we all take part in – we all, in a sense, know music “natively”

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Music as a Cultural Experience

• If you’ve ever done any of the following, you’re using your innate sense of musical elements:

• Sing to the radio? In the shower? Clap along at a concert? Sing “Happy Birthday” at a party?

• Music theory is, in part, a way of transferring and broadening these musical sensibilities into something that is quantitative and written down.

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Music is Specific.

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Music is Specific

• We encounter many, many different kinds of sounds throughout our daily lives

• Ambient sounds, talk, (relative) silence, noise

• Music is a very small, very special subset of these sounds in that it employs single, sustained, specific pitches...

• ...as opposed to the randomness of normal noise

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Music is Specific

• The human ear can hear sounds from about 20 Hz (very low) to 20,000 Hz (20kHz – piercingly high).

• Music, like all sound, travels on waves – at specific frequencies (measured in waves per second, or hertz); the faster/higher the hertz, higher the pitch

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(By the way...)

• 20kHz is high for humans but not for cats (hear up to 64 kHz), dogs (45 kHz)

• This is why dog whistles (23-54 kHz) are so effective

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Music is Specific

• Musical pitches occur at specific frequencies

• For example: modern music uses the note A sounding at 440 Hz as a universal reference point...

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Music is Specific

• Some examples of pure tone sounds at various hertz (frequencies)

• http://plasticity.szynalski.com/tone-generator.htm

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Music is Specific

• Within the hertz range of human hearing, there are infinite musical pitches

• But in Western music, we narrow this down to about 120 different tones – about 10 sets of a dozen pitches each

• That’s a huge difference!

• Infinity of pitches VS ~ 120

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Music is Specific

• ...BUT, even 120 pitches would be unwieldy if we had to identify them by their Hz number

• “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” first phrase:

• 659Hz-587Hz-523Hz-587Hz-659Hz-659Hz-659Hz

• Rather than this, we take those 120 pitches and break them up into 10 groups of 12 pitches each, with names using only 7 letters: A-B-C-D-E-F-G

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Music is Specific

• ...SO, instead of:

• 659Hz-587Hz-523Hz-587Hz-659Hz-659Hz-659Hz

• ...we have:

• E – D – C – D – E – E – E

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Music is Specific

• We’ll get into the letter names for tones – ABCDEFG – in next class...

• ...but for now, takeaway: the specific letters we’ll be talking about for the rest of the class DO have a specific, scientific reference point

• Again, the note “A” (or ONE of the many notes called “A”) is exactly 440 Hz

• that’s the reference point

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Music is Specific

• ...And while we’re at it, there is a specific, scientific, acoustic basis for the relationships between the notes in Western music

• You know those sets of 12 pitches, how their names repeat from one set to the next? ABCDEFG...

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Music is Specific

• ... The corresponding notes of one set are exactly double, or half, the hertz of the set immediately above or below

• Even though the notes are higher or lower, we hear them as the same note

• Example: A at 440, 220, 110, 880, 1760

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Music is Specific

• ... So, again, music (and musical notes!) are specific

• This allows the art form to be precise, transferrable, ready for repetition, imitation

• I could send you a musical score across 5,000 miles – or 100 years – and have confidence that the music will sound mostly the same

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...And One More Thing

• OVERTONES!

• Because musical pitches are based on acoustic relationships, you can do something kinda cool:

• On certain instruments (piano and stringed instruments, like a violin, especially), certain notes – very low (for a piano) or very high (violin) – will create “extra” notes in the air, if played properly

• Try it on piano: strike/hold very low note in quiet

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Break!

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Music is textured.

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Music is Textured

• We just explored, briefly, some fundamentals of pure tones, acoustics, etc.

• But music ISN’T pure tones

• ...As a reminder, let’s hear pure tones again...

• Sounds more like an ambulance toning out then a song

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Music is Textured

• Music is different

• It involves rhythm, tempo (speed), timbre/tone, bright sounds and dark sounds

• It involves different components/voices coming together

• Each song has its own mix, its own texture

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Music is Textured

• What components are you hearing?

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Music is Textured

Paul Simon,Graceland

(1986),“Under African

Skies”

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Music is Textured

• We’ll listen to this song 3-4 times

• First time: get a sense of the song overall; what are the different components?

• Second: fixate on the melody; how would you describe it?

• Third: listen for the bass; try to keep hearing it even as other elements are layered on top of it

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Music is Textured

• What are you hearing?

• Sung melody

• Lyrics/melody irregular in length; regular meter; stays within certain range; “conversational”-type singing voice

• STRONG BEAT

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Music is Textured

• What are you hearing?

• Bass and guitar:

• Complementary rhythms

• Notes coming at different speeds, rates

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Music is Textured

• What are you hearing?

•

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Music is so often dependent upon tension and release

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Tension and Release

• Another way of thinking about this:

• expectation and delivery, anticipation and action

• What do you expect in a song?

• How does a song lead you to expect something?

• Does it fulfill that expectation, or not?

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Tension and Release

• Pretty much ANY song uses tension and release, expectation/delivery, whether obvious or not

• Whether fulfilled or unfulfilled, the “delivery” can have enormous creative, musical potential

• it becomes a vehicle for musicianship

• ...sometimes, especially when a surprise, or an unsettling moment, is involved

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Tension and Release:Three Examples

Ludwig van Beethoven,Symphony No. 9,

Mvmt. IV(1824),

Philippe Herreweghe, La Chapelle Royale,

Collegium Vocale, Orchestre de Champs

Elysees

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Tension and Release:Three Examples

Franz Joseph Haydn,String Quartet in E-Flat,

Opus 33 No. 2(“The Joke”),

Mvmt. IV (1781),Kodaly Quartet

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Tension and Release:Three Examples

Billy Joel,River of Dreams (1993),

“River of Dreams”

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Music is often more familiar than we realize.

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Music is often more familiar than we realize

• Many, many, many songs use very similar, if not IDENTICAL, chords/rhythms

• Melodies, harmonies are so often repurposed from one song to the next

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Music is often more familiar than we realize

• Examples:

• SoundsJustLike.com – three examples

• Paul Simon vs. Johann Sebastian Bach

• Video time! Axis of Awesome

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SoundsJustLike.com

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Showdown: Paul Simon vs. Johann Sebastian Bach

Paul Simon,“American Tune”,

There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973),

(sung with Art Garfunkel)

JS Bach,St. Matthew Passion

(1727),“Ich will hier bei dir

stehen”69

The Axis of Awesome - Four ChordsI V VI IV

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Final Thoughts & Takeaway Questions

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Things to think about over the next week

• What’s going on with what you’re listening to?

• “Take a close listen to what you’re listening to.” – photographer Jay Maisel (paraphrased)

• What are you hearing? What’s important?

• What are the central ideas of a song? Of a composition? What will you be whistling / singing in the shower the next day?

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Things to think about over the next week

• How do the various elements of a song – its various parts – combine to form the whole?

• What are YOU hearing?

• What can we tell about a song in the first 5 seconds? The first 30?

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From soup to nuts, music theory is all about the ear.

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Homework

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Homework

• Dive in to our textbook – Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory – and the accompanying CDs.

•Try to make it through Units 1–6 (to page 40)

• Do the workbook assignments as you go

• Don’t worry – we’ll review the material next week (no quiz ‘til Thursday, 5/16!)

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Thank you!

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