Beyond Post-Tonal: A Broader Approach to the Fourth Semester Course

In this article, I argue for organizing the undergraduate curriculum around topics that are applicable to a wide variety of repertoires. Doing so allows students to continue to learn the central concepts and skills that theorists seek to impart via the core curriculum but through a wider variety of musical styles and traditions. Pairing this approach to the curriculum with a wide range of musical activities and projects that extend beyond analysis to include improvisation, arranging, performance, composition, and research helps students connect the content to their own instruments, degree programs, and musical interests. I describe my application of this philosophy towards curricular reform within the context of a fourth semester course on twentieth-century music, where twentieth-century music was treated as a broad category encompassing post-tonal and avant garde music alongside jazz, popular, and world music. This article presents a broad overview of the course, discusses the successes and failures of this approach, and offers some suggestions for how it may be implemented and adapted for various teaching contexts.

Iconography, Nomenclature, and Sound: Building a Musical Database

Musicians who possess functional sight singing and dictation skills have unified into a single entity three discrete bodies of knowledge about music: iconography, nomenclature, and sound. Iconography refers to the visual representation of music. By nomenclature, I mean any labeling system for pitch, rhythm, and harmony. The third component—musical sound—is abstract, being invisible to human eyes and intangible to human touch. In this essay, I suggest approaches to unifying iconography, nomenclature, and sound into a "musical database," as well as propose a curricular reform in which aural skills precedes courses in written theory.

Promoting Far Transfer and 21st-Century Competency Through the Aural Skills Capstone Project

This essay shares a project that is designed to connect first-year ear-training coursework to the functional use of aural skills beyond traditional classroom limitations. In particular, we focus on a second-semester capstone project that utilizes transcription, transposition, composition, and primary-instrument performance of popular music songs using multi-track recording software. In addition to reinforcing the knowledge and skills of the curriculum, this capstone increases student engagement, gives students ownership of their own skill development, and allows them to experience a broader application of their acquired skills. After a brief discussion of the concept of transfer and its relevance to the ear training classroom, we examine the details of the capstone, consider some of its challenges, and share examples of student work.

Teaching with Radical Optimism: Mastery Learning in Music Theory

In this essay, I discuss how mastery learning may be used to transform assessment in music-theory curricula. Mastery learning is a learning theory that posits that most students are capable of achieving mastery of a subject if given enough time and instruction. Students are therefore assessed based on their abilities to demonstrate mastery and, if they have not yet achieved it, continue to work towards that goal until they do. I discuss the methods I have used to structure my music-theory classes around mastery learning, in particular by employing a mastery-learning rubric that clearly defines a passing level for each assessed task. I propose that setting mastery as the expected standard is a radically optimistic approach to student learning.

Foreword for Engaging Students Vol. 7

No abstract available.

ES7 Contributor Biographies

No abstract available.

Taking Aural Skills Beyond Sight Singing and Dictation

In this article, I address the issue of stratification between high- and low-performing students in aural skills classes, proposing that this situation may be in part a result of the rigidity of standard curricula. If we go beyond our focus on sight singing and dictation, our low-performing students may be able to demonstrate other strengths, and all students will learn to apply their skills to a greater variety of situations. I propose two methods of diversification: focusing on the diverse skills that underly these dominant tasks, and embracing a wider view of tasks and skills relevant to the aural experience of music. Finally, I suggest methods of assessing and integrating these more diverse skills into our curricula.

Putting the Theory Back in 'Music Theory'

What is music theory? This foundational question is scarcely even broached in textbooks and classrooms, and that fact has allowed naive views to persist among students and teachers alike. This state of affairs has also perpetuated an unfortunate disconnectedness in institutional and disciplinary conceptions of music theory, including through the devaluing of music theory "fundamentals." In this essay, I argue for a purposeful centering of theory as an intellectual enterprise; I describe a subtle reformulation of elementary music theory that celebrates its epistemological essence and methodological complexities; and I identify meta-theoretical issues that can be seamlessly introduced early in the music theory curriculum without compromising the delivery of content itself. I begin by describing a classroom discussion prompt that motivates a working definition of "theory" in general, which in turn can be leveraged throughout the music theory curriculum. I then describe several interactive lessons that highlight the theoretical underpinnings of certain venerable topics in tonal music. The study of music theory, even from the very first rudiments, is thus transformed from a stern rite of passage mired in dry technicalities, into an expansive intellectual endeavor—reminding students that they themselves are theorists, both in class and in life.

Desequencing the Music Theory Core: A Liberal Arts Model

The undergraduate music curriculum has been the subject of ongoing discussion with regards to technology, repertoire, pedagogy, and purpose. This article contributes to this continuing conversation by presenting a case study of a restructured music theory sequence at a small liberal arts college. Part of the liberal arts mission at the College of Idaho includes a commitment to interdisciplinary ways of knowing, effective written communication skills, and information literacy. The curriculum proposed in this article reflects the liberal arts identity of the instition and some of the practical realities faced by smaller programs. Although specific to the needs of the institution, this model provides one path forward to a more efficient and flexible core theory curriculum.

Editorial & Review Board

No abstract available.