Dec 26, 2024  
2023-2024 College Catalog 
    
2023-2024 College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

MUS 102 - Music Fundamentals

3 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
3 lecture periods 0 lab periods

Introduction to fundamentals of music designed to develop basic literacy in music. Includes definitions and notation, rhythm and meter, intervals, scales and transposition, key signatures, triads, chords and harmony, and simple forms.

Recommendation: Students considering music as a major are encouraged to concurrently enroll in MUS 102 and MUS 106 . If any recommended course is taken, see a financial aid or Veteran’s Affairs advisor to determine funding eligibility as appropriate.
Gen-Ed: Meets AGEC - FA or HUM; Meets - CTE - A&H.



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Course Learning Outcomes
  1. Demonstrate basic literacy writing music notation.
  2. Develop basic literacy finding notes, intervals, and triads on the piano.
  3. Develop and demonstrate basic harmony through intervals, triads, and dominant seventh chords.
  4. Develop and demonstrate basic literacy in reading and notating rhythm through 16th notes and rests.
  5. Develop and demonstrate basic literacy with music terminology including dynamics, tempo, and various articulations.
  6. Demonstrate basic compositional techniques including writing an accompaniment line to a melody.

Outline:
  1. Basic Concepts, Definitions, and Notation
    1. Pitch, loudness, timbre, octave equivalence
    2. Notes and rests, note heads, stems, flags, beams, time values, dots, accidentals, enharmonics
    3. Letter names of notes, register, staff, clefs, lines, spaces, ledger lines, grand staff, middle-c
    4. Piano registers and keyboard acquaintance
    5. Dynamic marks
    6. Articulations
      1. Slurs
      2. Legato
      3. Tenuto
      4. Staccato
      5. Accents
    7. Enharmonic notation
  2. Rhythm and Meter
    1. Note values
    2. Beat and pulse, tempo, meter
    3. Tempo indications
    4. Metrical and non-metrical rhythmic organization
    5. Bar lines
    6. Classification of meters
    7. Counting time in simple meters, downbeat, upbeat, pickup
    8. Beaming notes, hemiola
  3. Intervals
    1. Chromatic vs. diatonic
    2. Half and whole steps
    3. Melodic and harmonic intervals
    4. Seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths
    5. Unisons, fourths, fifths, octaves
    6. Perfect and major interval classification systems
    7. Inversion
    8. Compound intervals
    9. Chromatic, diatonic, enharmonic intervals
  4. Scales and Transposition
    1. Definitions
      1. Mode
      2. Scale
    2. Major scales
    3. Scale degrees
    4. Key concept, tonality
    5. Key signatures of major keys, circle of fifths
    6. Intervals in the major scale, size and quality
    7. Name of scale degrees
    8. Minor scales
      1. Natural
      2. Harmonic
      3. Melodic
    9. Accidentals in minor keys
    10. Intervals in the minor modes
    11. Parallel and relative keys
    12. Other scale types
      1. Pentatonic
      2. Whole-tone
      3. Chromatic
    13. Transposition
  5. Key Signatures
    1. Relationship of key to key signature
    2. Sharp and flat signatures and what they determine
    3. Writing the signatures for major and minor keys
  6. Triads
    1. Triad defined, root, third, fifth
    2. Standard types of triads
      1. Major
      2. Minor
      3. Diminished
      4. Augmented
  7. Chords and Harmony
    1. Chord types and definition
    2. Chord inversion
    3. Figured bass
    4. The dominant-seventh chord
    5. Arpeggiated chords
    6. Proper names of triads and dominant seventh chords
    7. Chord voicing, root position, inversion, doubling
  8. Simple Forms
    1. Cadences
      1. Authentic
      2. Half
      3. Deceptive
      4. Plagal
    2. Simple Forms
      1. Binary
      2. Rounded-binary (song)
    3. Harmonizing melodies


Effective Term:
Fall 2021