Music theory anyone?

[VocMusTcrMaloy]

I teach music in an elementary school and my 1st graders learned how to spell triads, construct scales, sight-sing and were at the point of melodic dictation last year in kindergarten. If you are interested in a simplified music theory that you can understand, let me know. I am making a new student packet for transfer students who I did not teach last year. If you would like some of that here let me know!

[longfinger]

That's excellent. Those 1st graders are very lucky to have had you.

[JeffBTZ]

Great job on starting them on that stuff early. We don't learn any theory at our school outside of scale construction. I have to admit, it's really dragged me down as a musician. Fortunately, as I'm taking upright bass lessons combined with the fact that I find it interesting, I'm slowly catching up in my theory.

How in-depth do you go? I'm currently tasked with memorized all of the major triads of each note in the key of C Major... So I'm honestly, although I wish I could say otherwise, not very far along.

As embarrassed I am by this lack of theory, I wouldn't mind having a bit of reinforcement on top of what I'm doing with my bass instructor. I'm really itching to get out of patterns of intervals (IE, one fret back, one string higher = major 3rd) and into the mindset of "Ok, I just played a C, so if I play an E, that's the third." I understand how to construct them, but they aren't second nature. At all. Anything to help me get to that point would be beneficial.

[BassChuck]

This is great to hear. I've taught music theory on the high school and middle school level. Any look at the success of Suzuki methods will show you that it is impossible to start too soon in a childs life.
The question I would have is how do they sustain the knowledge? To my thinking (which may be faulty) I see the study of music theory alone and not applied to performance, or compostion as an intellectual exercise. Kind of like learning a foreign language but not being around people who speak it naturally.

[VocMusTcrMaloy]

BassChuck,
I use a lot of repetition. After the summer, my 1st graders were naming the intervals. I bought 11 guitars this year and plan to start applying!

[VocMusTcrMaloy]

Here is part of a packet I sent home to parents of new students this year:

Intervals

First of all, an interval is defined as a measure of distance between two pitches (notes, as in higher or lower notes). Two carpenters communicate to each other about how short or long they want a board to be cut by giving a measurement in inches (or feet and inches). The tool the carpenter uses for this is his/her tape measure. In music, the tape measure for telling the distances between pitches is called an interval.

Simple intervals

Half Steps

The smallest unit of distance in Western music is the half step. On a piano keyboard, a half step is the very next key. Usually this will involve going from a white key to a black key or visa versa. Occasionally, two white keys do not have a black key between them. Those two white keys are a half step apart. Frets on a guitar or bass guitar are in half steps.

Whole Steps

The next unit is the whole step which consists of two half steps. On a piano keyboard, the whole step skips one key and goes to the very next key after. In most cases, a white key will skip a black key and go to a white key, or a black key will skip a white key and go to a black key. The exceptions are in cases where two white keys have no black key in between. Then, a white skips a white key and goes to a black key, or a black key skips white and goes to another white key.



Octaves

The third unit is the octave. An octave is the next note that has the same name. In other words, an octave from F# is F#. On a piano keyboard, the octave is the next note that is found in the same pattern. In other words if the first note is the middle black key of the three black keys, then an octave would be the next middle note in the three black keys. On a guitar, if one plays an open string, then stops the string at the double dot fret it will form an octave.


Intervals of the octave (formal names)

These three units help describe other units in music. Within the octave, there are 12 half steps. Each half step has a name. I am going to make a list of those names below using abbreviations. "P" will stand for "perfect", "M" will stand for "major", "m" will stand for "minor", "U" will stand for "unison", "8" will be for "octave", and "TT" will stand for "tritone."

These intervals will be listed beside the number of half steps in the particular interval. Of course, the octave will be listed beside the number "12" since there are twelve half steps in an octave. The octave is called a "perfect octave." The perfect intervals are the only ones of their kind. The perfect octave is the only octave and the only representation for the number "8." A perfect fourth is the only interval with the number "4" in it. All other intervals have both a "major" and a "minor" interval. There are two intervals with "3" in them; the major third, and the minor third. Notice that the number "3" represents the word "third." The only interval that is neither a perfect, major or minor interval is the one called the "tritone."

The tritone has six half steps and falls in the very center of an octave. During Medieval times, the Roman church excommunicated anyone who sang or played a tritone because it was thought to be the "devil in music." I tell the children that no one believes the tritone to be evil today; and that much church music of all denominations uses it in many forms. The intervals of the octave are symmetrical on either side of the tritone. The perfect unison and perfect octaves are on the outsides, while the perfect fourth and perfect fifth are inside on either side of the tritone. A perfect unison is when the same note is played twice or when two or more voices or instruments sing or play the same note. A perfect unison has "0" half steps because it stays on the same note. Here is the list of intervals in the octave, and their corresponding half steps:




0- PU

1- m2

2- M2

3- m3

4- M3

5- P4

6- TT

7- P5

8- m6

9- M6

10- m7

11- M7

12- P8
Please point out that there are two sets of major-minor intervals between two perfect intervals. NOTE: "Minor" (m) always comes before "major" (M). Now that you have the list of intervals with half steps, the list can be used as a chart. If one wants to know how many half steps are in a minor sixth (m6) one can look at the chart and see the number "8" by "m6" and know that a minor sixth has eight half steps. If one counts five half steps, one can look at the chart and see that five half steps is a perfect fourth (P4).

[So Low Bass]

What are you thoughts on solfege?