Music Theory
Music theory at the Community School of Performing Arts is a singing-based curriculum designed to enhance and support instrumental and vocal study through active engagement and kinesthetic exploration. From pre-reading exposure classes to 20th century atonality, music theory classes deepen understanding of the musical process and strengthen artistic expression and performance.
Music Theory Group Classes
Prior to enrollment, students complete an assessment test to determine which class(es) would be most appropriate. Evaluations are normally done in the fall, and enrollment is assumed to be a year-long commitment. At the end of the year, continuing students are reevaluated so that faculty can advise them on appropriate choices for further study.
Email the completed assessment to cspa@colburnschool.edu.
This class is an introduction to the basic building blocks of musical notation and reading. It focusses on reading notes on the staff and the relative time values of notes and rests. Students explore beginning performance and dictation skills in both pitch and rhythm.
New students must submit Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval needed prior to enrollment.
This course will introduce the rudiments of Music Theory for the older beginner, ages 12 and up. Basic notation, meter, rhythm, scales, and intervals will be taught at a slightly accelerated pace.
For those having mastered basic reading and performance skills, Elementary 1 students are ready to consider combinations of notes in scales and intervals. Students learn to hear/sing/write all major and minor mode scales. Moveable do solfege is practiced. Students perform rhythms in simple time. Appropriate singing and dictation skills are practiced.
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
This class continues the study of diatonic groups of notes in the study of triads and 7th chords. Students learn to analyze, hear, write, and sing various qualities of chords. Basic figured bass and diatonic roman numeral analysis is introduced. Students achieve a complete understanding of compound time. Appropriate solfege is emphasized. Students practice rhythmic and harmonic performance and dictation.
New students must submit Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval needed prior to enrollment.
For those students who have an understanding of how notes are organized into intervals, scales and chords, Intermediate I introduces how to put chords together by studying classical, diatonic chord progressions and four-part writing, with figured bass realization as its basis. Students also practice harmonizing a melody. Fixed do solfege is introduced. Appropriate singing and dictation are practiced.
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
Intermediate 2 introduces chromatic harmony. Once thoroughly at home in diatonic harmony, notes not in the scale are introduced. This is approached through secondary dominant and secondary leading tone chords. Common chord modulation and modal borrowing are included. Progressively complex figured bass writing, dictation and solfege patterns are practiced.
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
For those having gained rudimentary analysis and four-part writing skills in diatonic and chromatic harmony, Advanced 1 considers musical form. Starting with the various components of the phrase, to phrase relationships, binary, ternary, and sonata-allegro forms, the class practices understanding the relationships of phrase groups through both analysis and composition. Appropriate figured bass writing, dictation, solfege and composition skills and are practiced.
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
This class studies advanced chromatic harmony. Beginning with modulations other than common chord, including enharmonic modulations, the class progresses through the late Romantic literature through the Neapolitan sixth chord, augmented sixth chords, chromatic mediants, and altered dominants. Appropriate figured bass writing, dictation, solfege and composition skills are practiced.
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
This class approaches the early twentieth century musical styles and strategies through an extended immersion in the music of Claude Debussy. As strict diatonicism fades, Debussy harks back to renaissance modes, other-than-triadic chord structures, a new interest in rhythmic variation, and a different sense of density. As an extension of Debussy’s explorations, a brief foray into Olivier Messiaen ends the year. Appropriate figured bass writing, dictation, solfege and composition skills are practiced.
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
This two-semester course is devoted to twentieth and twenty-first century music through interactive instruction. Students will learn about different modern and postmodern concepts and will also gain experience through analytical and composition projects. The primary book for this course is “Norton Anthology of Western Music, Volume 3, The Twentieth Century and After” by Burkholder and Palisca (8th edition).
New students must submit a Music Theory Assessment for placement. Instructor approval is needed prior to enrollment.
Related Programs
Music theory and Dalcroze classes are designed to be taken simultaneously or one at a time to accommodate each individual’s pace and progress. In the same way, upper level music theory classes are compatible with simultaneous compositional study as well as advanced Dalcroze Rhythmic Solfege study.
Dalcroze
For more information, please visit our Dalcroze page.
Composition
For more information, please visit our Composition page.
Private Lessons
To study composition with a private teacher, submit an inquiry form.