To fully prepare students for taking the Unit Tests and Final Exam, each concept covered in the course begins with a mission and ends with an invitation to practice concepts in our RCM Music Theory Apps.

Unit 1: Pitch and Notation
Ledger Lines and Enharmonic Equivalents

• Why use ledger lines?
• Ledger lines
• Enharmonic equivalents

Transposition

• Transposing down an octave
• Transposing up an octave
• Rewriting, not transposing!
• Transposing a melody
• Rewriting a melody

Unit 2: Rhythm and Meter
Note and Rest Values

• Note and rest values review
• Breves and semibreves
• Breves and semibreves example
• Dotted whole note and example
• Triplet sixteen notes and triplet quarter notes
• Triplet sixteenth note example
• Triplet quarter note example
• New notes and rests review

Simple meters 2/2, 3/2 and 4/2 and compound meter 6/8

• Simple duple, triple, and quadruple meter review
• Introducing 2/2, 3/2 and 4/2
• 2/2 example
• 3/2 example
• 4/2 example
• Compound Time Signature 6/8
• Compound Duple Time
• Identifying a time signature - examples
• Summary – Time Signatures and Meter

Completing measures with rests

• Completing rests in simple duple meter
• Completing single beats with rests
• Completing rests in simple duple meter - examples
• Completing rests in simple quadruple meter
• Completing rests in simple quadruple meter - examples
• Completing rests in simple triple meter
• Completing rests in simple triple meter - examples
• Completing rests in compound duple meter
• Completing rests in simple triple meter - examples

Unit 3: Scales
Major and minor scales with 4 sharps or flats

• E major and A flat major
• Major scale pattern
• Major scales
• C sharp minor and A flat minor
• Minor scale patterns
• Minor scales
• Relative keys
• Finding the relative minor key of a major key

Parallel Keys and Scale Degree Names

• Parallel keys
• Scale degree names – tonic, subdominant, dominant, subtonic, leading tone

Unit 4: Intervals
Identifying Intervals

• Chromatic and diatonic half steps
• Diatonic and Chromatic Half Steps example
• Intervals: quality and size
• Major, minor and perfect intervals
• Identify the interval – examples
• Writing an interval – examples

Unit 5: Chords and Harmony
Primary Triads and Dominant Sevenths

• Triads
• Quality of primary triads in major and minor scales
• Dominant 7th chords
• Identifying dominant 7th chords
• Writing dominant 7th chords
• Functional chord symbols
• Root/quality chord symbols

Triad inversions

• Inversions of triads
• Identifying triad inversions –examples
• Writing inversions of primary triads –examples

Unit 6: Melody Writing, Form and Analysis
Identifying the key of a piece

• Identify a key as major or minor by listening
• Identify a key as major or minor by looking for clues
• Steps for identifying the key of a melody

Parallel periods

• Musical ideas
• Parallel periods
• Analyzing phrases
• Parallel periods – examples
• Composing an answer phrase

Unit 7: Music History
Combining words and music

• Messiah by Handel
  • Oratorios, choruses and word painting
  • Hallelujah chorus analysis
• Operas and Arias
• The Magic Flute by Mozart
  • “Queen of the Night Aria”
  • Analysis of the aria - part 1
  • Analysis of the aria - part 2
• The Wizard of Oz by Harold Arlen
  • Analysis

Unit 8: Music Terms and Signs

• Andantino
• Cut time, 2/2
• espressivo, espress.
• larghetto
• largo
• leggiero
• pedale, ped.
• rubato
• spiritoso
• tranquillo

To fully prepare students for taking the Unit Tests and Final Exam, each concept covered in the course begins with a mission and ends with an invitation to practice concepts in our RCM Music Theory Practice Apps.

Unit 1: Pitch and Notation
Transposition in major keys up by an interval

• Changing the key of a melody
• Transposing up to a key
• Handling chromatic notes when transposing
• Transposing up to an interval

Unit 2: Rhythm and Meter
Note and Rest Values

• Thirty second notes and rests
• Thirty second notes and rests - example
• Dotted sixteenth notes and rests
• Dotted sixteenth notes and rests - example

Compound meters: 6/8

• Compound duple, triple and quadruple meter
• Compound duple meter example
• Compound triple meter example
• Compound quadruple meter example
• Identifying a time signature - examples
• Summary – Time Signatures and Meter

Completing measures with rests in compound time

• Completing rests in compound meters
• Completing single beats with rests
• Completing rests in simple triple meter - examples

Unit 3: Scales
Major and minor scales with 5 sharps or flats

• C flat/B major and A flat/G sharp minor
• C flat/B major and A flat/G sharp minor
• C flat/B major and A flat/G sharp minor
• Review of all major scales
• Review of all minor scales

Scale Degree Names

• Scale degree names - tonic, supertonic, median, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic, leading tone

Unit 4: Intervals
Identifying Intervals

• Double sharps and double flats
• Double sharps and double flats - example
• Augmented and diminished intervals
• Augmented and diminished intervals summary
• Importance of letter name in augmented and diminished intervals
• Identifying a chromatically altered interval - examples
• Chromatically altered intervals summary
• Writing a chromatically altered interval
• Identifying intervals when the bottom note is not the tonic of a major key
• Different ways of altering intervals
• Identifying a chromatically altered interval when the bottom note is not the tonic of a major key - examples
• Writing a chromatically altered interval when the bottom note is not the tonic of a major key

Unit 5: Chords and Harmony
New triads and open and closed positions of chords

• Supertonic, median, and sub-mediant triads
• Triad inversion review
• Triads in open or closed position
• Dominant 7th chords in open or closed position

Cadences

• Authentic cadence (V-I)
• Authentic cadence (V-i)
• Half cadence (I-V)
• Half cadence (i-V)
• Half cadence (IV-V)
• Half cadence (iv-V)
• Composition example
• Cadences and harmony
• Keyboard style cadences
• Identifying cadences

Unit 6: Melody Writing, Form and Analysis
Key of a melody and phrase composition

• Identifying the key of a melody with a key signature
• Identifying the key of a melody without a key signature
• Identifying the key of a melody without a key signature
• Composing phrases

Unit 7: Music History
Combining words and music

• Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Invention in C major
  • “Brandenburg Concertos”
    • Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, first movement
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Eine kleine Nachtmusic
  • Sonata form

Unit 8: Music Terms and Signs

• ad libitum, ad lib.
• alla, all’
• ben, bene
• col, coll’, colla, colle
• con
• con brio
• con espressione
• con fuoco
• con grazia
• con moto
• e, ed
• fortepiano
• grave
• loco
• ma
• meno
• meno mosso
• non
• più
• più mosso
• poco a poco
• primo, prima
• quasi
• secondo, seconda
• sempre
• senza
• sforzando
• simile
• subito
• tre corde
• troppo
• una corda

To fully prepare students for taking the Unit Tests and Final Exam, each concept covered in the course begins with a mission and ends with an invitation to practice concepts in our RCM Music Theory Practice Apps.

Unit 1: Notation and Transposition
Transposition down to another key or down an interval

• Review: transposing up to another key
• Review: transposing up by interval
• Transposing down to another key
• Transposing down by interval

Unit 2: Rhythm and Meter
Double dotted notes and rests and irregular groupings

• Double-dotted notes
• Double-dotted notes - example
• Double-dotted rests
• Irregular groupings
• Irregular groupings - examples

Unit 3: Scales and Key Signatures
Chromatic, Whole-Tone, Octatonic, Pentatonic and Blues scales

• Chromatic scales starting on C, F Sharp and G flat
• Chromatic scale – example
• Whole-tone scales
• Octatonic scales
• Pentatonic scales
• Pentatonic scales – example
• The Blues scales
• The Blues scales – example

Unit 4: Intervals
Identifying Intervals

• Diatonic and chromatic intervals
• Writing intervals below a note
• Inverting intervals
• Inverted intervals – example

Unit 5: Chords and Harmony
Chords

• Augmented and diminished triads
• Functional chord symbols and root quality symbols
• Leading tone diminished 7th
• Identifying seventh chords in open position
• Inversions of augmented and diminished triads
• Functional chord symbols and inversions
• Dominant 7th chords and inversions

Cadences

• Review of half cadences, authentic cadences and keyboard style
• Authentic cadence in G minor
• Half cadence (I-V)
• Half cadence (i-V)
• Cadences at phrase endings – examples

Unit 6: Melody Writing, Form and Analysis
Key of a melody and composing contrasting periods

• Passing tones – example
• Neighbor tones – example
• Writing a contrasting periods
• Harmonic progressions – examples

Unit 7: Music History
Musical Styles of the Romantic and Modern Eras

• Felix Mendelssohn
  • Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sonata form
• Frédéric Chopin
  • Etude in C Minor (“Revolutionary”)
• Igor Stravinsky
  • Petrushka and Rondo form
• Hugh LeCaine
  • Dripsody
• Duke Ellington
  • Ko-Ko

Unit 8: Music Terms and Signs

• agitato
• dolente
• giocoso
• grandioso
• martellato
• mesto
• morendo
• pesante
• quindicesima alta, 15ma
• risoluto
• scherzando
• semplice
• sonore
• sopra
• sostenuto
• sotto voce
• tacet
• tutti
• vivo
• volta
• volti subito, v.s.

To fully prepare students for taking the Unit Tests and Final Exam, each concept covered in the course begins with a mission and ends with an invitation to practice concepts in our RCM Music Theory Practice Apps.

Unit 1: Notation and Transposition
Transposition in major keys up by an interval

• C clef
• Moveable C clef
• Alto clef
• Tenor clef
• Arranging key signatures
• Transposition between clefs
• Transposing instruments
• Vocal scores
• String quartets

Unit 2: Rhythm and Meter
Hybrid meters

• 5/8 example
• 5/4 example
• Mixed meters – examples
• Hybrid duple, triple, and quadruple meter
• completing measures with rests in hybrid meters

Unit 3: Scales and Key Signatures
Scales in context and diatonic modes

• Scale passages - examples
• Modes
• Writing modes

Unit 4: Intervals
Identifying Intervals

• Compound intervals
• Inverting intervals

Unit 5: Chords and Harmony

• Triads on major, natural minor and harmonic minor scales
• Review of functional chord symbols and inversions
• Review of dominant 7th chords and inversions
• Root/quality chord symbols and inversions
• Plagal cadences in keyboard style
• Cadences in chorale style
• Writing cadences at phrase endings – example

Unit 6: Melody Writing, Form and Analysis
Melody writing in minor keys

• Review of contrasting periods in a major key
• Contrasting periods in a minor key
• Harmonic rhythm – examples
• Harmonic progressions – examples
• Melodic motion
• Expanding harmonic vocabulary

Unit 7: Music History
Medieval era, Renaissance era, and world music

• Hildegard von Bingen
  • Ordo Virtutum, Scene 4
• Sumer is Icumen In
• Josquin des Prez
  • El grillo
• Javanese Gamelan
• Raga in Indian Music

Unit 8: Music Terms and Signs
French Terms

• cédez
• léger
• lentement
• modéré
• movement
• vite

German Terms

• bewegt
• langsam
• mässig
• mit Ausdruck
• schnell
• sehr

Italian Terms

• allargando, allarg.
• arco
• attacca
• calando
• comodo
• con sordino
• largamente
• l’istesso tempo
• pizzicato
• ritenuto, riten.
• stringendo