
Hi! I am very glad to see you here. This is an introduction video of this Intro to Music Theory course, and I hope to see you in next sessions. Cheers!
Joim me with this shor "museum tour" to see how different people record their music into written forms!
Try other popular songs or classical music etc. to identify their beat patterns (4, 3, or 2)!
Let's practice.
Explore how measures and bar lines define rhythm by counting beats per measure, practicing with quarter, eighth, half, and whole notes, and using repeats and ties.
Practice the musical rests, including the quarter rest, half rest, and whole rest, through guided questions with a metronome, counting 4-3-2-1 to build rhythm understanding.
Explore the staff: five horizontal lines and four spaces in western notation, learn how clefs determine where notes appear on the staff, and discover treble, bass, and grand staves.
Learn how the repeat sign marks sections to replay, where to start and end, and how to return to the beginning on the second pass, including common variations.
Explore how pitch creates the vertical dimension of music on the staff, with treble clef, ledger lines, and note names C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
Map treble and bass clefs to the piano keyboard to locate pitch and notes C D E F G A B on white keys. Use two-three black-key pattern to find them.
Explore major and minor scales and chromatic scales, learn whole and half step patterns, and see how natural and harmonic minor variants, tonic, leading tone, and octaves shape western music.
Explore how major and minor sounds emerge on piano through a short piece, highlighting A minor, E major, and C major and G major patterns, leading notes, and scale transitions.
Explore the early years of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Bach family's musical legacy, and the development of the crab canon, a palindrome-like composition.
During his Cöthen years as capellmeister for Prince Leopold, Bach wrote much of his chamber and keyboard music, including the Brandenburg concertos, before moving to Leipzig.
This video includes some brief introductions for the music interaction techniques used in computer field. Enjoy the content, don't take it very seriously, and maybe we will discuss it further later (perhaps in a new course).
*This is a course for beginners as well as intermediate music learners who want to build knowledge on music theory. *
The course materials include basic definitions, practices, and interesting facts and stories about music. We will also mention the great composer J. S. Bach, as we appreciate his famous works and his genius ideas related to mathematics. The practice questions may be a little bit difficult for beginners, but through practice, you will strengthen your skills and improve your music knowledge further.
I am your instructor, Freda Xiaoyun Yu. I have been playing the piano for 24 years (4 years of electronic piano, and 20 years for piano). I started my music theory classes when I was 3 years old, and I took that course in Tianjin Conservatory Of Music. Therefore, I definitely have something to say about music.
What You Will Learn:
- General music interpretation
- Beat, Meter, Rhythm, Tempo
- How to count music beats with the help of your hands
- Syncopation
- Tempo
- The music staff: Staff & Clef
- Repeat sign
- Pitch
- Half step, whole step
- Sharp & Flat natural signs
- Rests
- Major, Minor scales
- Major triad, Minor triad; Major third, Minor third
- Some investigations of J.S. Bach's personal life
- Discoveries about music and computer, music visualization, interactions
- A skeptical view to search for, learn, and investigate any knowledge
- A playful heart in learning any serious knowledge
- Creativity
If you have questions about music theory or about this course, please use the Q&A function in this platform to contact with me.
Instructor introduction:
(Freda) Xiaoyun Yu
University of London (Goldsmiths), BS. Computer Science (Data Science), First-Class Honour, 2023
Tencent QQ Music independent musician
Netease Cloud Music independent musician
~Best of luck & enjoy music with me~