What is Music Theory? The Language of Music

Introduction

When we think of music, we tend to think of what we hear and the sounds we listen to but there is also the symbolic language of music. This written language has its own symbols that indicate pitch, rhythm, volume levels, and more. When we begin to delve into the language of music, we are also able to isolate the smallest fragments of the music and understand its relationship to the entire compositional ‘whole’. Music Theory is the technical sentence structure and by studying it, we may compose our own music; and also glimpse into a composer’s mind and better understand the pathway to the final composition. In the microlessons for this module, you will:

Familiarize yourself with the physics of soundwaves
Comprehend and utilize pitch and rhythmic notational systems
Differentiate between simple and compound meter

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

Sound Wave Introduction

Pitch Notation

Rhythmic Notation

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