Understanding music
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This introduction to the fundamentals of music will allow you to understand and use music notation. You’ll study the elements of music and how these are assembled into larger musical structures, focusing on music encountered in Western traditions (popular and classical). You’ll learn to make sense of a wide variety of notated music, and you’ll be encouraged to make meaningful connections between the topics you study and your own experiences and tastes through independent study. You’ll develop practical musicianship skills, using professional music-notation software, that will provide you with a grounding for arranging and composing.
What you will study
You'll learn about concepts in music theory and notation in order to help you understand various music examples from a number of different Western music traditions (including classical, pop and rock, film music, musicals, folk/traditional). You’ll be encouraged to select your own examples of music you wish to understand better through independent study tasks. In the final assessment, you’ll be able to choose from three options to suit your strengths.
The core teaching material is grouped into four blocks. The first two blocks introduce you to the fundamentals of music theory and notation, an awareness of which will help you to understand a wide variety of music. The third block examines how music is structured, and the final block develops your skills in harmonisation. Throughout the module there are various activity types that will help you to engage with the teaching materials. These include:
- listening tasks
- practical notation exercises using software and worksheets
- simple performance tasks using a MIDI keyboard
- watching videos
Your understanding of music-theory concepts will be enriched through practical exercises. These are designed to improve your aural skills and musicianship, and to develop your proficiency with handling notation. You'll use specialist music-notation software to do this which is supplied as part of the module materials and you'll need to download before you begin. You'll also need to buy a MIDI keyboard controller to use with the software.
You don't need any prior knowledge of musical notation in order to study this module, but some basic preparation in advance will be helpful. You'll be directed to websites where you can gain the relevant information. The module is presented online, with two accompanying printed scores booklets, and the text is interspersed with musical recordings and guidance videos.
There will be a series of online tutorials run by your tutor. You'll also be able to interact with other students as you undertake tasks on the module’s online forum.
Professional recognition
This module is considered to be an acceptable alternative for Grade 6 Theory by the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
Entry requirements
There are no entry requirements for this module, but you are advised to study one or more OU level 1 Arts modules, such as Discovering the arts and humanities (A111) or Revolutions (A113), which will provide you with relevant study, writing, and listening skills).
If you are studying this module as part of either our music degree or diploma we advise that you study this module before Music, sound and technology (A232), though you should be guided by your prior experience and existing skills in deciding which module order is best for you. In addition, the following free courses on OpenLearn are recommended as preparation:
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
What's included
You'll be provided with two printed scores booklets and have access to a module website, which includes:
- a week-by-week study planner
- module materials (with instructions about downloading the commercially available Dorico software)
- audio-visual materials
- interactive content
- an assessment guide
- access to online tutorials and forums.
You will need
A MIDI keyboard controller (recommended 49 full-size keys, but smaller or larger acceptable, with USB-MIDI connection).
You'll need a listening setup with which you can listen to audio at a reasonably high quality. Ideally you'll be able to plug your computer into good quality studio monitors, a stereo hi-fi system, or at least some kind of external loudspeakers. Good quality headphones are a suitable alternative. Internal laptop speakers or mobile phone speakers are unsuitable as they are too limited in terms of sound quality, frequency response, and volume.
Computing requirements
A computing device with a browser and broadband internet access is required for this module. Any modern browser will be suitable for most computer activities. Functionality may be limited on mobile devices.
Dorico Elements software requires a desktop or laptop computer with a minimum of either an up-to-date version of Windows (64-bit) or macOS (64-bit), 4GB of RAM, and 6GB of free hard disk space.
The screen of the device must have a resolution of at least 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixels vertically.
To join in the spoken conversation in our online rooms we recommend a headset (headphones or earphones with an integrated microphone).
Our Skills for OU study website has further information including computing skills for study, computer security, acquiring a computer and Microsoft software offers for students.