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Music theory is a course that studies the music language, rather than studying how to perform using the music language. For comparison, imagine taking one class to learn the English language and another to learn how to perform using the English language. Obviously a student must take an English class to study the English language, but there are many options for learning to perform using the English language. These performance classes include theater, speech, and communications major studies to mention a few.

We offer similar opportunities at Plano East in music language. A student can study performance of music through classes like band, choir, and orchestra. Music theory offers the opportunity to learn the language in greater detail than is afforded these performance classes. Students who are thinking about studying music in college should study music theory in addition to their performing ensemble. Many who focus their entire middle school and high school careers only in performance (or only in theory) are unprepared for the rigors they face at a university level.

Music theory approaches music in four different areas: verbal skills, listening comprehension, reading, and writing. Hopefully you can find answers to any questions you have in these four areas below.

Verbal Skill
Many students are very resistant to developing a musical verbal skill even though they could not go through a single day without exercising verbal skill in their native language - and many teens usually get a lot of verbal exercise! Whether speaking to their friends, their teachers, or their bosses; young people have a great amount of verbal skill. Sometimes their ignorance of grammar prevents them from using the proper words, but they can properly speak the words they use.

Musically, however, most teens have much fewer speaking skills. In other words, they may not sing with accurate intonation or with accurate timing. Some may have an ability to match pitch but not generate pitch. For example, they may sing fairly well when singing along with a CD or another person, but they are much less accurate when singing alone.

Children generally develop much of their native language verbal skills between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. If students enter a high school (or even college) music theory class with no verbal skill in music, it can be frustrating. They will be going through language processes they have not experienced in over a decade. It is important to remember that the goal of music theory is to learn language skills, not performance skills. Not all musicians are singers, and not all singers are musicians, but all musicians have verbal skills.

Listening Comprehension
There is a big difference between an awareness of sound (hearing) and an understanding of sound (listening). Most languages are communicative in nature and have concrete meaning. Music is abstract and generally communicates no specific meaning. Like other languagees however, music is governed by rules of form, structure, syntax, and grammar.

Not all music from all time periods follow the same rules. For example, twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) music of the twentieth century does not follow the same rules as the music of pop radio... yet each style follows predetermined structural guidelines. Most tonal music from most time periods share many basic principles.

Our goals for listening comprehension in music are to recognize and identify some of these principles in action in music. A few of the many things we strive to recognize in music theory are metric and rhythmic organization, tonal organization, harmonic progression and structure, non-harmonic ornamentation, and formal structure.

Reading
Reading music is a difficult skill that is often misunderstood. Many students have knowledge of written musical symbols. Some can even interpret those symbols masterfully through the use of an instrument. Unfortunately, most students who read through the use of an instrument interpret written symbols through a series of kinetically learned physical responses rather than interpreting them as sound. In other words, as long as these students move their fingers, hands, feet, mouth, etc. the way the symbols on the page tell them to, the right sounds will occur.

In the same way that children are encouraged to use their verbal skills to read aloud before they learn to read silently, music theory students are encouraged to use their verbal skills to read music aloud. The eventual goal in a musician's literacy is to be able to know what music sounds like without actually having to hear the sounds represented by the symbols on the page. This is a very advanced skill that is only developed through years of reading aloud.

Writing
Writing music is a skill that is rarely developed in performance classes. Please understand that this statement does not refer to composition. While simple compositional techniques are introduced, the primary goal of writing in this class is to write music correctly. Even in most universities, students are rarely allowed to study composition before their third year.

Most students stop writing letters backward or confusing the letter "q" with the letter "p" by their third grade year. However, many students who have been reading music daily in their performance classes since sixth grade still can not properly write music even as seniors in high school. Some students have read in the treble clef staff for many years, but have never tried to write one. Many can not properly write a key signature even if they know in what order the sharps or flats should appear on the staff. Many students put stems on the wrong side of the note heads to which they are attached. Still many more write flags on the wrong side of the stems to which they are attached. Music manuscript is never taught in quite the same way that handwriting is taught on writing tablets throughout the early years of grade school... until music theory.

If you have any questions about Music Theory courses at Plano East call Brandon Pedigo @ 469-752-9240 or bpedigo@pisd.edu.