Gain an understanding of the basic building blocks of musical theory and notation. This free course, An introduction to music theory, will introduce you to music staves, clefs, rhythmic and pitch values, rhythmic metre and time signatures. This OpenLearn course provides an introduction to music theory pitched at a level equivalent to Grades 1–3 of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music theory exams. You can test your understanding as you proceed by completing simple multiple-choice questions.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
understand the basic building blocks of musical theory and notation
understand music theory to the level demanded by Grade 3 of the Associated Board of the Royals Schools of Music theory syllabus
understand music theory to a level required to move on to Open University Level 2 Music offerings, e.g. A224 Inside Music.
This course was very helpful!! It filled in soooo many missing gaps in the music theory I have been learning over the years, and has answered and explained most of the questions I had. the only thing that really needs improving in my opinion was as it goes on in the course, it moves along very quickly, and it was a little hard to understand. But over all, it was amazing!
Starts off well but seems to pile on too much additional information towards the end. Doesn't always explain the relevance of the information, e.g. why is it important to use labels like 'dominant', 'subdominant' etc. Should maybe do more recaps and return to earlier lessons to build up understanding through more repetition.