Plain Speaking: Music Theory! Theory I

This theory text includes the tools from the pre-theory text to analyze, or break down, chords in context and then rebuild chords in a logical pattern to form a musical structure. The Common Universal Principles of Part One and Chord Construction of Part Two provide basic skills for those with little to no prior knowledge. Part Three relates to musical analysis. In this setting, the same concepts are explained as useful tools for contextual analysis. The next level of difficulty arises with the addition of non-chord tones. Chapter 12 covers the most common embellishing pitches. In Part Four, the study of individual lines leads to two and four-part writing. After the chapters on figured bass, melodic writing, counterpoint, and parsimonious voice-leading, students then have the tools to embrace a larger task. The culmination in four-part voice-leading coincides well with a scaffolded composition assignment.