The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy is the premiere journal dedicated to the dissemination of scholarship regarding the teaching and learning of music theory. The journal is a project of the Gail Boyd de Stwolinksi Center for Music Theory Pedagogy, published annually by the University of Oklahoma Libraries, with support from the University of Oklahoma Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts. Learn more about the journal.
The Dictation Resource is a comprehensive website of dictation and ear training exercises. The exercises in melodic dictation, harmonic dictation, and pitch patterns cover an entire four-semester undergraduate aural skills curriculum in Western diatonic and chromatic harmony. Topics are organized according to a scale degree approach. In addition to being used for homework and practice assignments, the materials from the website and accompanying answer key can be adapted in various ways for use in the music theory classroom. The dictation answer key is available by contacting the journal at jmtp@lipscomb.edu
Copyright (c) 2022 The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
A Critical Review of Current Aural Skill Materials and Pedagogical Practices
Editors’ Note: Many books and software programs are discussed in the following article, and these materials are listed in four examples in the article: Example 2 shows books focused on listening skills alone along with those that integrate listening and sight singing; the four books presented in Example 4 include aural skills along with other topics; Example 5 covers anthologies of melodies and rhythms; and Example 7 lists aural skills software. Included are some supplemental files that are a set of discussions among the authors that grew out of their collaboration on this article. In these videos, titled "Five Conversations about Aural Skills: Present and Future,” the authors talk with one another and with Melissa Hoag, the reviews editor of JMTP, about aural skills pedagogy as it currently stands and offer ideas about its future. These videos are also available on YouTube here.
Set Class 014 and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire
This one-page assignment on set class 014 and Schoenberg’s “Nacht” is designed for use in undergraduate or graduate courses involving analysis of 20th-century music. The main question requires students to trace 014 trichords in the introductory measures. A chart of pitch classes approximating location in the score simplifies the task. Other questions guide students to consider questions of meaning, specifically connecting abstract trichords to the narrative of the music, which exemplifies Expressionism. A separate PDF provides a key and commentary for instructors.
This one-page assignment is designed for use in undergraduate music theory or graduate music theory review courses. Two questions, one involving part writing and the other analysis, involve popular songs by John Mayer, “Stop This Train” and “Gravity,” both from his 2006 album Continuum. Both questions require some familiarity with mode mixture or borrowed chords, particularly iiø65, as well as basic part writing principles, secondary dominants (V7/V), and figured bass. The product of the student’s part-writing is a reduction of “Stop this Train,” in which seven different chords can be traced to convention tonal harmony and voice leading, yet with some remarkable treatments, including chordal sevenths that are not resolved conventionally, a dramatic suspension in iiø65(7–6), and a cadential six-four and dominant- seventh embellished with a chromatic line. The second question asks the student to compare two solos by Mayer in his show stopping song, “Gravity.” In the studio version, Mayer plays ^6, while in more recent shows, he plays flat-^6, a scale degree commonly associated with heightening drama or sadness in music. A significant portion of each question guides students to consider deeper questions of narrative, that is, what purpose does the modal mixture serve in the narrative in each song. A separate PDF provides a key for instructors, with additional links to YouTube videos.
Chopin Prelude in C, Op. 28 no. 1: Reductive Analysis Worksheet
This two-page assignment on Chopin’s brief but sophisticated Prelude in C, op. 28, no. 1 is designed for use in advanced undergraduate or graduate music theory courses involving reductive techniques or form. The primary question requires students to write a simple SATB- style reduction of the piano score. The first measure is given as example. Completion of the entire assignment would likely take more than one day. Other questions guide students to consider questions of motivic development, narrative, Fibonacci numbers and the Golden Mean, and performance. Suggested readings are provided to guide students interested reading more about prolongation (voice-leading graphs) or the intersection between theory and performance. A separate PDF provides a key and commentary for instructors.
This lesson will introduce the Lydian, Mixolydian, and Dorian modes, as well as connect the major and minor scales/keys to the terms of Ionian and Aeolian. Students will need to know the WT/HT sequence within major and minor scales before receiving this lesson, and the visuals in this lesson include examples in treble, bass, and alto clefs. Also, musical excerpts and review/assessment examples are given in various keys. This lesson is appropriate for undergraduate or high school theory students, or for anyone desiring a review of modes. During the lesson an acknowledgement of the system of assigning modes to specific white-key groups on the piano may be made (Dorian as D to D, Lydian as F to F, and Mixolydian as G to G), but the lesson focuses more on the altered pitches compared to the nearest major or minor scale, so students will be able to identify modes on any tonic/key center. This lesson was originally delivered via Zoom, and a copy of the slideshow used is included.
Review of The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy
Review of Understanding Post-Tonal Music and The Art of Post-Tonal Analysis: Thirty-Three Graphic Music Analyses
Nonwestern Music and Decolonial Pedagogy in the Music Theory Classroom
Many scholars have called for North American music theory curricula to include music beyond the western classical canon. First, I show the benefit of situating such discussions within the “decolonial option” (Mignolo 2011). Then, I offer decolonial pedagogical techniques for integrating nonwestern music into the theory classroom. Drawing on Mohanty (2003) and Hess (2015), I explore three curricular models in which “Other” subject material is engaged. I then adapt the models to the music theory classroom, showing three vignettes centering around music for the Chinese guzheng. Decolonial pedagogy aligns most with the Comparative Musics Model in which all musics are understood relationally. The other two models are more tokenistic, yet easier to implement. I conclude by offering decolonial pedagogical strategies derived from the Comparative Musics Model and from recent anti-oppression music scholarship (Attas 2019, Chavannes and Ryan 2018/2022, Hisama 2018, Kim 2021, Lumsden 2018, Reed 2021) that can guide ethical and nonviolent musical engagement in music theory classrooms.
Review of Bending the Rules of Music Theory: Lessons from Great Composers
Facilitating Group Composition for Large Ensembles through a Building Blocks Curriculum
When I was a sixth- through twelfth-grade band director in Illinois, I was continually searching for ways to bring composition and improvisation into our classroom. As a composer myself, it was important to incorporate compositional activities into my lessons in addition to engaging with music through performance, getting the students more involved with the music they were studying and rehearsing for concerts. As a result, I developed a composition curriculum for my large ensembles with the goal of going beyond the classroom and performing a collectively-composed work for our community. The curriculum allowed for a fluid and natural expansion from individual composing to small group performance, discussion, and voting, and then to large ensemble performance, discussion, voting, and workshopping. This procedure applied to every musical building block we focused on for the project, including rhythm, harmony, melody, countermelody, form, and orchestration. Students were naturally engaged in discussion about topics such as melodic contour, harmonic development, rhythmic variation, and structure, but they were also asked to consider what it means to be a composer, all while creating a new composition as a collective team. The resulting work was a composition and performance rooted in collaboration, respect, and theoretical understanding of musical structures. This article discusses the curriculum in greater detail, including its relationship to state and national standards, background knowledge and class climate, approaches to each musical building block, and how to differentiate this curriculum to meet the needs and abilities of your ensemble.
Dictation by Template: A New Approach for the Aural Skills Classroom
This article proposes a new approach to dictation based on using templates, essentially carefully designed worksheets that direct students’ eyes and ears toward relevant musical phenomena as they listen to commercial recordings. Taking dictation from templates, I argue, allows the exercise to work in service of higher order learning goals such as (1) familiarizing the student with real repertoire and compositional styles, (2) exposing students to musical recordings and offering a vocabulary for discussing them, and (3) privileging the role of sounding music in the path toward understanding music-theoretical concepts. It also provides a broadly humanistic approach to dictation that connects the sounding stuff of music to concepts that are often left to be studied on their own in written theory courses. It thus represents a reevaluation of the role of aural skills in leading the student toward mastery of theoretical, historical, and philosophical concepts.
Student-Driven Music Theory: How the Question Formulation Technique can Promote Agency, Engagement, and Curiosity
How can we move our students from answering questions that we pose to them, towards developing their own avenues of inquiry? In this paper we make the case for teaching students how to ask meaningful questions about music. We argue that asking questions can be a crucial activity that motivates students’ development as thoughtful and effective musicians. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a pedagogical tool that teaches students how to develop their own questions, centers those questions in learning activities, and lastly encourages reflection on the entire process. This method foregrounds students’ ideas and agency, motivates them to engage creatively with the topic, and thereby increases their confidence with and interest in the course material. We will share strategies for using the QFT, highlighting how this approach can create deeper learning and ultimately challenge students in ways that are meaningful for their own musical pursuits.
Either/Neither/Both: Teaching Formal Ambiguity in the Undergraduate Theory Core
Thomas Benjamin, Counterpoint in the Style of J. S. Bach
Copyright (c) 1987 The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Trends and Issues in Music Theory Teaching
Harmony and Integrated Theory: Four Recent Texts
In Memoriam: Richard Pierre ("Pete") Delone
Guides to Better Classroom Teaching: A Review of Three Books and Additional Possibilities
Phrase and Cadence: A Study of Terminology and Defintion
Robert Gaudlin, A Practical Approach to Sixteenth-Century Counterpoint (Prentice-Hall, 1985)
Pedagogical Aspects of Chromaticism in 16th- and 18th-Century Counterpoint
sixteenth-century and eighteenth-century counterpoint
Overall Structure and Design in a Variation Form
This article was the third prize winner of the University of Wisconsin/Madison Analysis Competition. The University of Wisconsin/Madison Analysis Competition was conducted in 1985 and adjudicated by an independent panel of nationally respected theory specialists. Contestants were instructed to submit a teaching analysis of a tonal composition suitable for classroom presentation at the level of sophomore theory. [It is assumed that readers will consult a complete score of each composition under discussion.] Grateful acknowledgement is extended to Dr. Bruce Benward, Director of the Competition, for his permission to publish these papers in this journal.
Comprehensive Muscianship at San Diego State University
A Comparison of Synthesized and Acoustic Sound Sources in Lower-Division Theory Courses
personalized system of instruction (PSI)
This article was the second prize winner of the University of Wisconsin/Madison Analysis Competition. The University of Wisconsin/Madison Analysis Competition was conducted in 1985 and adjudicated by an independent panel of nationally respected theory specialists. Contestants were instructed to submit a teaching analysis of a tonal composition suitable for classroom presentation at the level of sophomore theory. [It is assumed that readers will consult a complete score of each composition under discussion.] Grateful acknowledgement is extended to Dr. Bruce Benward, Director of the Competition, for his permission to publish these papers in this journal.