Course Introduction

You've finished Music Theory I and made it into Music Theory II. How will this course be different?

Music Theory I

Music theory is a cumulative subject, so it makes sense to review what you went over in music theory I, and highlight what we will need the most as we continue into theory II

• You learned about fundamental building blocks of music:

  • Elements of Pitch
  • Elements of Rhythm
  • Intervals

• You learned how those basic units combine to make the two most fundamental objects in music theory

  • Chords
  • Scales

• You learned about different chords qualities (Major, minor, diminished, augmented)

• You learned how scales relate to *key signatures

  • Major keys and minor keys have their own rules about scales and key signatures
  • Each scale degree has their own name.

• You learned about Roman numeral analysis and basic part-writing

  • Tonic harmonies: I and i
  • Pre-dominant harmony: IV (and maybe ii)
  • Dominant harmony: V and V&7

Music Theory II

So what will we cover in music theory II?

• Non-harmonic tones

  • Tones that don't belong in the chord

• Roman numeral analysis and more advanced part-writing

  • Tonic harmonies: tonic, submediant
  • Pre-dominant harmonies: subdominant, supertonic, submediant, mediant
  • Dominant harmonies: dominant, leading tone

  (Yes theres a good reason why I switched to the scale degree names)

• Building and resolving chords in 2nd inversion

• Building and resolving chords with four notes

  • Non-dominant 7th chords

Towards the end we preview music theory III content:

• Analysis and Part-writing using chords borrowed from other keys

  • From a key's own parallel minor mode
  • From a chord's key

• Analysis and Part-writing with pieces that change keys

In one sense Music Theory I is a combination of a course in Rudiments of Music and Introduction to Harmony

Music Theory II then is Diatonic Harmony. We will finish looking all of the elements of chords that are diatonic Music Theory III is Chromatic Harmony. Chords that function in a key but are not part of that key.

However, I believe the goals of Music Theory II are significantly different from the goals I have for student in Music Theory I

By the end of Music Theory II I want you to have a stronger understanding of...

• What Tonic, Predominant, and Dominant functions are, and why the T-PD-D-T cycle matters
• How each diatonic chord functions, how it wants to resolve, and how they are all unique
• The relative strength of a chord compared to others
• What function really means
• How changing inversion changes a chords ability to retain its function

Notice how none of those things seem to really be part-writing or analysis, yet every assignment you will be given will be a part-writing or analysis assignment. Why?