MUS 112 - Basic Musicianship

This course provides an introduction to basic musical concepts and activities including singing melodies, performing rhythms, ear training, reading and notating music, identifying scales and keys, identifying intervals, spelling and inverting triads, and spelling seventh chords.  Students must take the Music Theory Placement test prior to enrolling in this course. 

1. Perform and dictate melodies using treble and bass clefs
2. Perform and dictate rhythms in simple and compound meters 
3. Demonstrate an understanding of major and minor scales and keys
4. Distinguish between different types of pitch intervals found in major and minor scales
5. Distinguish between major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads and their inversions
6. Identify different types of root-position seventh chords

1. Pitch literacy
   1. Musical alphabet and reading pitches on the treble and bass clefs 
   2. Accidentals
   3. Whole and half steps
   4. Enharmonic pitches
2. Simple meters
   1. Time signatures
   2. Basic rhythm values
   3. Rhythmic counting (solmization system)
   4. Conducting patterns
   5. Tempo
   6. Anacrusis
3. Major scales and keys
   1. Whole- and half-step pattern to create a major scale
   2. Key signatures (the order of sharps and flats)
   3. Circle of fifths
4. Rhythmic division of the beat
   1. Eighth notes and rests
   2. Ties and dots
   3. Metric accent and syncopation
5. Intervals
   1. Interval sizes
   2. Interval qualities part 1: major, minor, and perfect
   3. Interval inversions
   4. Complimentary intervals
   5. Interval qualities part 2: augmented and diminished
   6. Enharmonically equivalent intervals
6. Rhythmic subdivision of the beat
   1. Sixteenth notes
   2. Beaming to the beat
7. Minor scales and keys
   1. Relative keys and the circle of fifths
   2. Forms of the minor scale
      1. Natural
      2. Harmonic
      3. Melodic
   3. Parallel keys
8. Compound meters
   1. Time signatures
   2. Idiomatic rhythmic patterns
   3. Conducting patterns
9. Triads and their inversions
   1. Major, minor, diminished, and augmented qualities
   2. Triad inversions 
10. Seventh chords in root position
    1. Major, dominant, and minor seventh chords
    2. Half- and fully-diminished seventh chords

In class practice drills, rhythm studies, singing and ear training: 30-50%

Individualized instruction: 5-10%

Computerized drills: 5-40%

Group discussion: 0-15 %
Mandatory Course Components:
A Final Exam that shows that the student has mastered the learning outcomes for this course.
Equivalent Courses:
None