Do you think you’re going to a university vocal program to learn how to sing and act better? To master your Italian, French, and German diction? To star in a multitude of peratic triumphs? To study with a great teacher? To learn to teach voice? Well, of course you are, but there is another dimension to a university music education that is seldom pitched to you when you are making your investigations and applications.
Part 1: What’s in Store
The University
You’ll never hear any university recruitment pitch saying, “Yes, you’ll get great performance training, but more importantly, we have a wonderful theory core that is going to make you a sterling, complete musician.”
Why is that? The reason is simple: Theory scares the living daylights out of the great majority of us. Don’t be fooled, though: When you enter a university music program, the theory core will become an integral, two-year part of your training—if you are able, that is, to pass the school’s musicianship entrance exam.
The BMT
No, a BMT is not, as you might have guessed, a bacon, mutton, and tomato sandwich (The Princess Bride). It is Indiana University’s Basic Musicianship Test. It is typical of the kind of test you will face upon entrance to most music programs. Indiana’s test includes an aural section in which you will be asked to listen to and identify melodic and harmonic intervals, scale types, chords, melodic fragments, bass lines and rhythm patterns. The written section asks you to view and identify intervals, scales, key signatures, chords, rhythms, meters, and tempos. Are you or your students ready for that?
What happens if you don’t pass the test? That depends on the school’s policies. If your score is a little low the school may ask you to take rudimentary theory classes (thereby extending your theory core an additional year—blech!). If your score is too low, the school of music may deny you admission until you retake the test and get a higher score. Many schools have a policy that you may only retake this test once.
What Else Is Ahead of You?
Most accredited university music schools follow a similar curriculum for their theory core. Topics include much of what you might expect, but often include surprises you might not have thought of before. One such surprise for me was a little half-credit class called Keyboard Harmony. For a while, this class gave me some real difficulty—my
keyboard skills are not that fabulous (and yes, I studied piano as a youth for several years).
Don’t be surprised! When you’re preparing to sing a leading role in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte is not the time to be spending hours in the practice room transposing harmonic progressions in your mind, trying to get your fingers to play them in three sharps or four flats. Look ahead and be prepared.
The most common elements of a foursemester music theory core include:
• Musical Analysis (including diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, figured bass, counterpoint, form, and 20th century techniques).
• Sight-Singing (starting with simple diatonic melodies and advancing to melodies with complex chromatic and
rhythmic properties).
• Ear Training (including melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic dictation: you listen, and then you write it down).
• Keyboard Harmony (you learn to play and transpose melodies and harmonic progressions on the fly).
Part 2: Tools to Help You (or Your Students) Prepare
If It’s Free It’s for Me
Ricci Adams’ website, musictheory.net, not only holds the No. 1 spot in a Google search for “music theory,” it is a truly wonderful, free resource you can either use online or download to use on your computer. The site features three types of activities, two of which I’ll highlight: lessons and trainers.
Lessons: These cover aspects of notation, rhythm, and harmony. They take you from building a simple staff and basic clefs to more advanced topics such as seventh chords, compound meters, and harmonic progressions.
Trainers: These invaluable interactive trainers are used to exercise your newfound written knowledge as well as provide practice in many of the ear training activities you will be expected to perform as part of your theory core.
First, test your written knowledge with four trainers:
• Note Trainer: Identify notes by name. Settings allow you to turn on or off all four of the most common clefs, so you can focus on a specific clef or practice with all four at the same time.
• Key Trainer: Identify keys by signature. Settings allow you to enable or disable all possible keys, minor or major, in any clef.
• Interval Trainer: Identify written intervals.
• Triad Trainer: Identify written major, minor, augmented, and diminished triads.
Next, test your ears with three more great trainers:
• Interval Ear Trainer: Plays two notes in succession and asks you to identify the interval. You can adjust the settings to focus on specific intervals, have the notes played in ascending order or descending order,
or at the same time harmonically.
• Scale Ear Trainer: Plays a scale and asks you to identify it. All common scales as well as the seven modes are available to turn on or off.
• Chord Ear Trainer: Plays a chord and asks you to identify whether it is major, minor, diminished, etc. You can focus solely on the triads and seventh chords you need to study.
Once you’ve mastered all that Adams’ site has to offer you should be more than well prepared for most of what your university has to throw at you. The exceptions include sight-singing, keyboard harmony, and musical terminology, as well as rhythmic and melodic dictation. Another possible drawback to using this site exclusively: you don’t get any practice writing the answers out, since everything takes place on your computer screen. (Writing clear, legible answers in correct music notation is an acquired skill, necessary for your success at school.)
It is important to note that one source is not going to prepare you for everything and mentioning these drawbacks in no way detracts from the usefulness of Adams’ site. Isn’t it great there are people like Adams around? If you find the sight as useful as I do, you might want to send him a “thank you.”
Just the Facts Ma’am
Do you enjoy crossword puzzles and worksheets? Do you want just the facts and some writing space to practice and firm up your new knowledge? Then perhaps Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory: A Complete Self-Study Course for all Musicians ($39.95) is for you.
I was a little skeptical that a book of just over 150 pages could claim to be a “complete” music theory course, but I was quite surprised by the amount and depth of knowledge crammed into those pages. This no-nonsense approach to the subject may not be riveting reading, but it is clearly laid out in a logical, orderly manner that is incremental and balanced.
The book covers most of the same information (with some important additions) that you would find on Adams’ website, but the workbook approach gives you ample space to practice writing your clefs, key signatures, melodies, chords, and rhythms, etc. The book includes 75 lessons that build your knowledge incrementally in a variety of subject areas at the same time. Each lesson provides a very brief explanation of a concept and then immediately puts you to work implementing it. In later lessons you get an introduction to musical form and even get some brief experience composing melodies. The book also comes with two CDs filled with a variety of ear-training exercises that cover rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic dictation—very balanced.
“Alfred’s Essentials” touts itself as a self-study course, but it might be useful to have a mentor at times to help you through concepts you’re not sure you entirely understand. Also, it would be best to use this book over a period of time as a supplement to your vocal studies, rather than cram through it. You can press forward at a higher rate, but there is a lot of information to digest here, so start early.
What if Theory Makes Me Feel Like an Idiot?
Not to fear! The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory ($19.95) by Michael Miller is here. The writer has a jazz background and pop leanings, but the book contains all of the vital information that a classically slanted book would contain, as well as some additional information you might find useful if you are a crossover artist. The explanations of theoretical concepts are far from terse, and explained in a laidback, entertaining manner.
This book’s greatest strength may also be its greatest weakness, depending on your learning style. The book tackles one subject at a time, without an attempt to integrate your newfound musical knowledge into a whole until later chapters. For example, the chapter on rhythm begins with the humble whole note and ends explaining super triplets. That’s a big leap. This, however, could be of advantage to someone who feels strong in one subject, say rhythm, and weak in another, such as chord analysis. You are able to go right to a chapter that focuses on the subject you want to learn about most.
Another nice thing about this book is that it gets you learning by doing. It leans toward practical applications and getting you to write your own tunes and harmonic progressions (something the Alfred book touches on only briefly). In addition, this book briefly covers topics not mentioned in the other sources discussed so far: accompanying, transposition, counterpoint, chord substitution, arranging, orchestration, and conducting. No you’re not going to need all of this as a prep for your university theory core, but it’s fun stuff and good to know. The “Idiot’s Guide” also features an adequate ear training CD that will get you started on your dictation.
Slow Down, Please!
Do you feel as if you need to take this theory thing one step at a time? The Master Theory series published by Kjos comes in six incremental booklets that cost only $3.95 a piece. Master Theory bears a striking similarity to the Alfred publication, except it is about 40 years older (theory hasn’t changed much in that time). Taken as a whole, the Kjos might be a little more complete than the Alfred, though a little less interactive. You are, however, missing the ear training CD that comes with either the Alfred or the “Idiot’s Guide.” Compensating for this drawback shouldn’t prove too difficult if you combine Master Theory with the “trainers” on musictheory.net.
Just the Beginning
Unfortunately, none of the resources I reviewed for Part Two of this article cover the skills of sight-singing or keyboard harmony. They will however get you in line with your musical analysis and much of your dictation. Be on the lookout for good sight-singing resources and practice your piano (don’t be caught off guard).
Ideally, you should start your theory studies as soon as you begin your music studies so that the information can become properly absorbed into your musical bones. Regardless, now is the time to start, and no matter how much or how little you are able to squeeze in, it will be of tremendous value to you, not only as a means of getting through the university theory core, but as something that will enrich your total musical experience.
Additional resources: Indiana University’s BMT site (http://theory.music.indiana.edu/ofc/bmt.html) includes a list of books the university recommends on the fundamentals of beginning music theory.
