Music Fundamentals

Objectives

1. Recognize a wide variety of sounds, comparing and contrasting them using musical elements of pitch, volume, articulation, and timbre.
2. Aurally identify important performing forces (use of the voice and instruments) of Western music.
3. Define basic elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and texture and build a vocabulary for discussing them.
4. Identify basic principles and types of musical form.
5. Listen to music and describe its musical elements and form.
6. Compare and contrast categories of art music, folk music, and pop music.
7. Identify ways in which humans have used music for social and expressive purposes.

Attribution

This chapter is adapted from “Music Fundamentals” by N. Alan Clark, Thomas Heflin, and Elizabeth Kramer, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

“Key Terms and Individuals” has been removed; “Glossary” links created; some video links updated and new links added (i.e. links to music notations); new videos added (i.e. Vocal ranges, “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” Consonance and dissonance, Bill Bailey, etc.); and new music notations and tables created (i.e. Different types of scales, Triads of C major, Standard twelve-bar blues in the key of C, etc.), by Yi-Chuan Chen.