Carolyn Wilson Digital Collections (Lipscomb Univ.)
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1413 research outputs found
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An Alternative Approach to Teaching the viio/V in Major and Minor Keys
Get PDFThis resource was originally published in 2014 under the title Worksheet: IV vs viio of V, and iv vs viio of V - includes answer key This handout is appropriate for high school AP students, liberal arts college non-music-majors, music minors, or music majors, and can be especially helpful for students with weak backgrounds. Students often find secondary leading tone triads difficult, particularly in minor keys. Understanding their diatonic basis is crucial. The most common approach is to view the chord as diatonic in the temporarily tonicized key, but this can initially be difficult for students, as they juggle several keys in their head simultaneously. Another way to teach these chords is as altered diatonic chords in the original key, thereby eliminating the confound of thinking in two different keys. Raising the root of IV by a chromatic semitone, from ^4 to ^#4, turns a major triad into a diminished one, creating the viio/V. In minor, one must raise both the root and third of iv. This method makes explicit the connection between predominant chords IV and viio/V, and demonstrates how the viio/V (^#4 moving to ^5) has the stronger tendency to progress to V than does the IV chord (^4 moving to ^5). The exercises are laid out systematically in two ways: ascending by half or whole step through the octave, or through the circle of fifths
Teaching Secondary Dominant Triads and 7ths through the Circle of 5ths
Get PDFThis resource provides two approaches to teaching secondary dominant chords that are appropriate for high school AP students, liberal arts college non-music-majors, music minors, or music majors. The first and most common way to spell secondary dominants is to think in the secondary key (with its concomitant sharps or flats), spelling the dominant chord in that secondary key, and then adding the necessary accidentals to have that chord fit in the primary key. For example, if one wants to spell a V/V in C major, one first has to determine the key of V (G), its key signature (one sharp), and its dominant chord (D). To notate that in C major, one then has to add an F# to the chord. As keys with more sharps or flats are introduced, this mental juggling of keys and key signatures can become more difficult. One alternative and complementary approach to teaching secondary dominants is to construct them as altered diatonic chords through the circle of fifths. Almost any chord in the circle of fifths can be altered to become a major triad or a Mm7 chord, and thereby become the dominant of the chord that follows it. This teaching resource provides a detailed explanation of this topic, and includes a number of worksheets from which instructors can pick and choose according to their students\u27 needs. Instructors can also create more exercises following any of these models as they feel appropriate
Review of Musical Theory for Musical Theatre, Music Theory Through Musical Theatre: Putting it Together, Music Essentials for Singers and Actors: Fundamentals of Notation, Sight-Singing, and Music Theory, and Music Fundamentals for Musical Theatre
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Cultivating Career Skills Through Public Music Theory and Community Engaged Learning
Get PDFPedagogical research suggests that providing students authentic, real-world tasks boosts intrinsic motivation by helping them make connections between your course, your discipline, and the world around them. This is particularly true if class activities invite students to extend their work into the public sphere through community-engaged learning (CEL). Several authors have suggested possible large-scale CEL projects aimed at the undergraduate core. However, most projects tend to suffer from two issues. First, none reflect how students will most likely use music theory in their professional lives, diminishing the benefits of using real-world tasks. Second, I have found students are often overwhelmed by the newness of these types of assignments compared to more traditional projects commonly assigned in other courses—or even compared to assignments from earlier in my music theory class. This article outlines small- and large-scale ways to integrate public music theory activities into the undergraduate core that invite students to apply their knowledge of music theory to real-world tasks. Infusing classes with these smaller assignments not only leaves students better prepared to accomplish more complex cumulative assignments, but it also results in a curriculum permeated with consistent and meaningful opportunities for students to connect what they learn in the classroom to their intended careers
Teaching Half-Diminished and Fully-Diminished Leading-Tone 7th Chords: Using a Pattern-based Approach
Get PDFThis resource was originally published in 2014 under the title Spelling Fully-Diminished and Half-Diminished Leading-Tone 7th chords This discussion and worksheet is appropriate for high school AP students, liberal arts college non-music- majors, music minors, or music majors. Pattern recognition ability has been shown to be an important predictor of success in Music Theory courses. This handout includes some basic information regarding Nancy Rogers’ and Jane Clendinning’s testing of the correlation between pattern recognition and success in Music Theory classes. While the dominant 7th chord is identical in parallel major and minor keys, the leading-tone seventh is not, differing from the dominant 7th by just one note. Yet students typically have difficulty spelling them. The attached set of materials employs a systematic pattern-based pedagogical approach to discuss and spell leading-tone seventh chords in major and minor keys, with four different but complimentary approaches that may be used: as diatonic chords within a key signature; as chords built intervallically above a root; as the upper three notes of a V7, to which a 7th is added; and as the upper four notes of a V9. Students are asked to notate leading-tone sevenths in parallel major and minor keys (C major, c minor, etc.), moving up by step through the octave
Review of Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony by L. Poundie Burstein and Joseph N. Straus and The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis by Jane Piper Clendinning and Elizabeth West Marvin
Get PDFThe Rest Is Noise : A Historically Integrated Approach to Post-Tonal Pedagogy
Get PDFWhile making connections to pre-existing knowledge is crucial to student learning, fostering such connections in a post-tonal theory classroom can be difficult. This article proposes a curricular approach to post-tonal undergraduate theory in which historical context provides an already familiar framework around which students can learn new information and skills. We present an example of such a curricular approach, framing an undergraduate post-tonal theory course around Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise. We demonstrate how instructors can use Ross’s chapters as a backdrop for a variety of adaptable activities that intertwine music, its history, and the tools we use to understand it. Rather than prescribing one specific curriculum, the purpose of our article is to empower instructors to create their own historically-driven post-tonal curricula. In doing so, we demonstrate the importance of context for student learning and provide flexible materials that instructors can adapt for use when developing their own courses
