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Views from the Choir Loft

Build your Music Theory Skills

Veronica Brandt · February 24, 2018

Coursera Music Theory OUIE, LOUIE, Phantom of the Opera and a Tribute to Henry Mancini are my main memories from Music classes in High School. We did briefly venture into Music Theory – I remember Bohemian Rhapsody employed as an example of different forms of music.

Part of me worries that everyone reading this already understands triads, secondary dominants and passing notes. Nevertheless, if anyone has felt their music background to be rather shaky, here is a free online course that can shore up your erratically collected knowledge and help you move ahead in leaps and bounds.

Fundamentals of Music Theory is a course created by teachers from the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh. It is hosted by Cousera, a website with many courses from educational institutes around the world.

The course itself could be taken with no prior knowledge. Reading music is very quickly described, but it quickly moves on. Someone without the ability to read music could struggle to get up to speed that quickly.

There are references to other websites for further practise, but I found taking notes with paper and pencil to be the most effective way to consolidate the new information. And playing around on the piano.

Although not aimed at Sacred or even Classical Music, the course shows how the same rules of harmony underpin all music. Now I feel better equipped to read Mr Ostrowski’s articles here about the relative merits of different harmonizations of hymns and organ accompaniments.

New enrollment periods start every few weeks. Share with your musical friends whose enthusiasm exceeds their theoretical foundations: Fundamentals of Music Theory.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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“The plea that the laity as a body do not want liturgical change, whether in rite or in language, is, I submit, quite beside the point. … (it is) not a question of what people want; it is a question of what is good for them.”

— Dom Gregory A. Murray (14 March 1964)

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