Full Description
Explorations in Music Theory: Harmony, Musicianship, Improvisation offers an innovative learning approach to music theory, centered on instrumental skills, improvisation, and composition. Providing a comprehensive textbook to support music theory curricula, along with an accompanying workbook, it includes extensive performance-based exercises in each chapter, alongside written theory and analysis. This book teaches harmony as a series of historical practices, each with different advantages and disadvantages. Classes are empowered to critically compare these practices and adopt those that they find most effective. Designed to support multiple learning modalities, and incorporating repertoire from a diverse array of composers, this book offers instructors and students a comprehensive and engaging foundation in music theory.
Features of this book include:
· Modular lessons centered on inquiry-driven pedagogy, offering flexibility
· Lesson difficulty is marked to allow instructors to easily organize their course
· A wide variety of exercises and practice tasks incorporated throughout the chapters
· Improvisation Labs allow students to practice concepts through improvisation
· Historical Minutes introduce students to historical theorists and enable them to understand music theory as a living practice
· Composer Spotlights highlight the stories of composers whose work is featured in the chapter, bringing forward underrepresented composers
· Explore Online features provide additional exercises and coverage of advanced topics through an accompanying online resource
A flexible, modular organization allows the book to be used in a variety of course structures, accommodating a wide variety of schools. Enhancing improvisation and composition skills, introducing historical perspectives, incorporating diverse repertoire, and enabling students to better connect theory concepts with practical applications, this text provides a new and effective way to teach harmony.
This accompanying Workbook offers exercises to accompany each chapter in the book. Divided into warmup and homework sections, the exercises in the Workbook provide additional practice with the skills addressed in the textbook through a range of approaches, including writing, composition, and identification.
Contents
Part I: Fundamentals
1. Music Notation
2. Rhythm and Meter
3. Major Scales
4. Minor Scales
5. Intervals
6. Triads
7. Seventh Chords
8. Non-Chord Tones
9. Root-Position Triads
10. First-Inversion Triads
Part II: Diatonic Harmony
12. Composing with V7
13. Non-Dominant Sevenths
14. viio7 and viiø7
15. Six-Four Chords
16. Microform
17. Applied Chords
18. Diatonic Modulation
19. Small Forms
Part III: Chromaticism
21. Diatonic Sequences
22. Mixtures
23. The Neapolitan
24. Topic Theory
25. Augmented Sixths
26. Chromatic Chords
27. Chromatic Modulation
28. Chromatic Progressions
Part IV: Advanced Harmony
30. Rondo and Composite Forms
31. Sonata Form
32. Concerto Form
33. The Cadenza
34. Fugue
Part V: Advanced Topics
35. Modes and Collections
36. Free Atonality and Serialism
37. Centricity and Neoclassicism
38. Jazz Improvisation
39. Three 20th Century Composers
