4 hours per week
Concepts and techniques are presented and discussed in the lectures.
1. Scales:
- Modes
- Pentatonic
- Blues
- Other
2. Chords:
- Extended chords (9ths, 11th, 13ths)
- Altered dominants
- Other chords
- Chords of addition/omission
- Sus chords
- Chord Symbols
- Jazz/pop
- Nashville, etc.
3. Textural elements of pop music:
- lead(s)
- rhythm section
- bass
- horns, strings, pads
- ostinati, riffs, grounds
4. Harmonic Practices:
- Folk (Diatonic, Tonal/Modal)
- Pop (Diatonic, Tonal/Modal)
- Blues Tonality
5. Form:
- Phrase Constructions
- Named progressions/chord cycles
- Sectional Forms
- Refrain Forms
- Popular/Folk song/32-bar forms
- Blues Forms
6. Repertoire for listening and analysis will be drawn from a wide range of styles such as:
- Folk/Country
- Blues/Gospel
- Ragtime/Jazz
- Tin Pan Alley/Broadway
- Rhythm and Blues/Rock and Roll
- Pop/Rock
- Hip Hop/Dance/Electronica
At the end of the course, the successful student will be able to:
• identify idiomatic practices in popular music.
• apply core theoretical concepts used to create characteristic sounds in popular music.
• harmonize, arrange and compose excerpts in a popular style with or without a given melody, bass line, or chord progression.
• create simple charts, scores and parts.
• provide written answers to questions on any aspect of the course content.
| Assignments (minimum of 5) | 25% |
| Class Participation | 10% |
| Quizzes and Speed Drills (minimum of 10) | 20% |
| Tests (minimum of 2) | 20% |
| Final Exam | 25% |
| TOTAL | 100% |
Required texts (current edition) such as the following:
Tagg, Philip. Everyday Tonality II: Towards a Tonal Theory of What Most People Hear. The Mass Media Scholars Press, Inc., New York & Huddersfield.
Or
Snodgrass, Jennifer Sterling. Contemporary Musicianship:Analysis and the Artist. Oxford University Press.
MUSC 1210 or special permission of instructor
None
None