Musical Explorations: Fundamentals through Experience
Edition: 7
Copyright: 2021
Edition: 7
Copyright: 2021
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Musical Explorations: Fundamentals through Experience is a music fundamentals text with a fundamental difference; it offers an innovative approach to the rudiments of music theory from an experiential and interactive perspective.
This text is written for both general survey courses and rudimentary music theory classes. It presents fundamental terms and concepts with suggestions for engaging and interactive classroom activities, designed to have students learn the fundamentals of music through experience.
Containing over one hundred explorations as interactive activities, guided listening experiences, exercises, and assignments, this text offers ample opportunities for students to participate in exploring music. Students also study the fundamental concepts of music theory and traditional Western notation, which could precede more in-depth study of music theory and history. In addition, this text makes historical and global connections to the traditional elements of music, fostering interdisciplinary and international education.
Each chapter contains examples, exercises, activities, and assignments, as well as learning objectives, a summary, and an indexed list of key terms and concepts. For classroom discussion or homework, review questions provide engaging opportunities for students to think critically about the questions and, more importantly, about music itself.
Although the rudiments of music theory are explained in many print and online resources, the experience of music is not. For the first time, this book offers interactive, interdisciplinary, and international pathways to explore the fundamentals of music in one concise text using applied learning as an active, hands-on approach.
Musical Explorations:
- Includes a four-month access to Rhapsody, an online music listening service, which accompanies textbook playlists and gives the ability for students or instructors to create their own from over ten million titles
- Can be used in general survey courses for non-music majors and traditional rudiments courses for beginning music majors
- Begins with an overview of the study of music, followed by dedicated chapters to the seven elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, form, and texture)
- Contains explanations of important terms/concepts and activities to guide student experiences with the musical element discussed
- Provides additional online resources including video reviews and web-based music theory trainer
Preface
To the Instructor
Text Outline
Active Learning
Using Classroom Instruments
The Barred Instruments
The Soprano Recorder
Fingering Sequence
Acknowledgements
To the Student
About the Author
Chapter One
Musical Essentials: Building Blocks
● Introduction
● Music and Its Meaning
● The Parameters of Sound
● The Elements of Music
● Learning to Listen
● Graphic Notation
Chapter Two
Rhythm: Feeling the Beat
● The Beat
● Tempo
● Notes and Rests
● Rhythmic Counting
Chapter Three
Rhythm: Keeping the Beat
● Meter
● Ostinato and Polyrhythm
● Dotted Rhythms
● Time Signature
● Syncopation and Backbeat
● Composing Rhythms
Chapter Four
Melody: The Sound of Music
● Treble Clef Pitches
● Bass Clef Pitches
● Pitch and the Piano Keyboard
● Accidentals
Chapter Five
Melody: Melodies and More
● Major and Minor Scales
● Chromatic Scales
● Key Signatures
● The Circle of Fifths
● Three Types of Minor Scales
● Melodic Key Identification
● Solfège
Chapter Six
Harmony and Texture: Unified Sounds
● Four Musical Textures
● Musical Intervals
● Intervals in Major Scales
● Altered Intervals
● Inverted Intervals
● Aural Recognition of Intervals
● Chords
● Chord Positions and Inversions
● Functional Harmony
Chapter Seven
Timbre, Dynamics, and Form: The Expressive Elements of Music
● Instrumental Timbres
● Vocal Timbres
● Keyboard Timbres
● Dynamic Factors
● Measuring, Indicating, and Expressing Dynamics
● The Form of Music
● Repetition in Music
Chapter Eight
Genre and Style in Music History
● Music in History
● Antiquity and The Middle Ages
● The Renaissance
● The Baroque Age
● The Classical Period
● The Romantic Era
● The Twentieth Century
Chapter Nine
World Music
● Music Around the World
● The Americas
● Cultural Focus: United States
● Cultural Focus: Argentina
● Europe
● Cultural Focus: Ireland
● Cultural Focus: Hungary
● Africa
● Cultural Focus: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
● Cultural Focus: Egypt
● Asia
● Cultural Focus: China
● Cultural Focus: Turkey
● Australia and Oceania
● Cultural Focus: Australia
● Cultural Focus: Solomon Islands
Glossary/Index of Key Terms and Concepts
Online Multimedia Guidelines
● Sequential Listing of Music Listening Selections
● Video Guidelines
References
Resources: Making More Music
● The Piano Keyboard
● Guidelines for Keyboard Playing
● Practice Keyboard
● Virtual Instruments
● The Soprano Recorder
● Guidelines for Recorder Playing
● Recorder Fingering Chart
● Recorder Music
● Folk Songs
● Online Music Theory Resources
● Blank Staff Paper
Daniel C. Johnson, Ph.D. is Professor of Music and Music Education at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, the University of Arizona, St. Louis Conservatory, and Emory University, he is a distinguished teacher-educator, scholar, researcher, and author. During the past twenty-five years, Dr. Johnson's teaching experience has spanned the PK - University gamut.
A Medici Scholar, he is an international authority on music education pedagogy, having presented teacher education workshops through the world, reaching hundreds of teachers and thousands of their students in eight countries and on six continents. Focusing on classroom music instruction and music listening, Dr. Johnson has published in numerous eminent journals including: The Journal of Research in Music Education, The Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, The International Journal of Music Education, Arts Education Policy Review, Visions of Research in Music Education, The International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and Contributions to Music Education. In addition to Musical Explorations: Fundamentals Through Experience, he has contributed to several books including Applying Model Cornerstone Assessments in K–12 Music and The Oxford Handbook of Assessment Policy and Practice in Music Education.
This book inspires students to learn music fundamentals through multi-sensory experiences with ease. While the chapters are laid out with simplicity, the content is diverse and succinct. Dr. Johnson integrates music psychology, logical learning strategies, world music, and sight and sound from the Internet to provide the learners with meaningful and practical music instruction. Finally, learning music fundamentals can be fun and meaningful for students.
Cecilia Wang
Professor of Music Education
University of Kentucky
This book has it all - clear prose, sequential presentation of content, and a focus on music making hooks students from the start. Johnson carefully leads the beginning student to a clear understanding of the fundamentals of music theory in a way that values and acknowledges their musical beliefs and preferences, while engaging them in musical activities that bring the concepts to life.
Timothy S. Brophy
Associate Professor of Music Education and Assistant Dean
University of Florida
It is a pleasure to read a text that is well organized and with clear and concise explanations! I wish I had this book thirty years ago when I first started teaching introduction to music classes.
David Sogin
Professor and Coordinator of Music Education
University of Kentucky
This is an excellent textbook for a music fundamentals course. I am pleased to recommend this text for consideration by anyone teaching a course in the fundamentals of music.
Kenneth C. Murray
Professor Emeritus of Music Education
Wingate University
Musical Explorations: Fundamentals through Experience is a music fundamentals text with a fundamental difference; it offers an innovative approach to the rudiments of music theory from an experiential and interactive perspective.
This text is written for both general survey courses and rudimentary music theory classes. It presents fundamental terms and concepts with suggestions for engaging and interactive classroom activities, designed to have students learn the fundamentals of music through experience.
Containing over one hundred explorations as interactive activities, guided listening experiences, exercises, and assignments, this text offers ample opportunities for students to participate in exploring music. Students also study the fundamental concepts of music theory and traditional Western notation, which could precede more in-depth study of music theory and history. In addition, this text makes historical and global connections to the traditional elements of music, fostering interdisciplinary and international education.
Each chapter contains examples, exercises, activities, and assignments, as well as learning objectives, a summary, and an indexed list of key terms and concepts. For classroom discussion or homework, review questions provide engaging opportunities for students to think critically about the questions and, more importantly, about music itself.
Although the rudiments of music theory are explained in many print and online resources, the experience of music is not. For the first time, this book offers interactive, interdisciplinary, and international pathways to explore the fundamentals of music in one concise text using applied learning as an active, hands-on approach.
Musical Explorations:
- Includes a four-month access to Rhapsody, an online music listening service, which accompanies textbook playlists and gives the ability for students or instructors to create their own from over ten million titles
- Can be used in general survey courses for non-music majors and traditional rudiments courses for beginning music majors
- Begins with an overview of the study of music, followed by dedicated chapters to the seven elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, form, and texture)
- Contains explanations of important terms/concepts and activities to guide student experiences with the musical element discussed
- Provides additional online resources including video reviews and web-based music theory trainer
Preface
To the Instructor
Text Outline
Active Learning
Using Classroom Instruments
The Barred Instruments
The Soprano Recorder
Fingering Sequence
Acknowledgements
To the Student
About the Author
Chapter One
Musical Essentials: Building Blocks
● Introduction
● Music and Its Meaning
● The Parameters of Sound
● The Elements of Music
● Learning to Listen
● Graphic Notation
Chapter Two
Rhythm: Feeling the Beat
● The Beat
● Tempo
● Notes and Rests
● Rhythmic Counting
Chapter Three
Rhythm: Keeping the Beat
● Meter
● Ostinato and Polyrhythm
● Dotted Rhythms
● Time Signature
● Syncopation and Backbeat
● Composing Rhythms
Chapter Four
Melody: The Sound of Music
● Treble Clef Pitches
● Bass Clef Pitches
● Pitch and the Piano Keyboard
● Accidentals
Chapter Five
Melody: Melodies and More
● Major and Minor Scales
● Chromatic Scales
● Key Signatures
● The Circle of Fifths
● Three Types of Minor Scales
● Melodic Key Identification
● Solfège
Chapter Six
Harmony and Texture: Unified Sounds
● Four Musical Textures
● Musical Intervals
● Intervals in Major Scales
● Altered Intervals
● Inverted Intervals
● Aural Recognition of Intervals
● Chords
● Chord Positions and Inversions
● Functional Harmony
Chapter Seven
Timbre, Dynamics, and Form: The Expressive Elements of Music
● Instrumental Timbres
● Vocal Timbres
● Keyboard Timbres
● Dynamic Factors
● Measuring, Indicating, and Expressing Dynamics
● The Form of Music
● Repetition in Music
Chapter Eight
Genre and Style in Music History
● Music in History
● Antiquity and The Middle Ages
● The Renaissance
● The Baroque Age
● The Classical Period
● The Romantic Era
● The Twentieth Century
Chapter Nine
World Music
● Music Around the World
● The Americas
● Cultural Focus: United States
● Cultural Focus: Argentina
● Europe
● Cultural Focus: Ireland
● Cultural Focus: Hungary
● Africa
● Cultural Focus: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
● Cultural Focus: Egypt
● Asia
● Cultural Focus: China
● Cultural Focus: Turkey
● Australia and Oceania
● Cultural Focus: Australia
● Cultural Focus: Solomon Islands
Glossary/Index of Key Terms and Concepts
Online Multimedia Guidelines
● Sequential Listing of Music Listening Selections
● Video Guidelines
References
Resources: Making More Music
● The Piano Keyboard
● Guidelines for Keyboard Playing
● Practice Keyboard
● Virtual Instruments
● The Soprano Recorder
● Guidelines for Recorder Playing
● Recorder Fingering Chart
● Recorder Music
● Folk Songs
● Online Music Theory Resources
● Blank Staff Paper
Daniel C. Johnson, Ph.D. is Professor of Music and Music Education at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, the University of Arizona, St. Louis Conservatory, and Emory University, he is a distinguished teacher-educator, scholar, researcher, and author. During the past twenty-five years, Dr. Johnson's teaching experience has spanned the PK - University gamut.
A Medici Scholar, he is an international authority on music education pedagogy, having presented teacher education workshops through the world, reaching hundreds of teachers and thousands of their students in eight countries and on six continents. Focusing on classroom music instruction and music listening, Dr. Johnson has published in numerous eminent journals including: The Journal of Research in Music Education, The Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, The International Journal of Music Education, Arts Education Policy Review, Visions of Research in Music Education, The International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and Contributions to Music Education. In addition to Musical Explorations: Fundamentals Through Experience, he has contributed to several books including Applying Model Cornerstone Assessments in K–12 Music and The Oxford Handbook of Assessment Policy and Practice in Music Education.
This book inspires students to learn music fundamentals through multi-sensory experiences with ease. While the chapters are laid out with simplicity, the content is diverse and succinct. Dr. Johnson integrates music psychology, logical learning strategies, world music, and sight and sound from the Internet to provide the learners with meaningful and practical music instruction. Finally, learning music fundamentals can be fun and meaningful for students.
Cecilia Wang
Professor of Music Education
University of Kentucky
This book has it all - clear prose, sequential presentation of content, and a focus on music making hooks students from the start. Johnson carefully leads the beginning student to a clear understanding of the fundamentals of music theory in a way that values and acknowledges their musical beliefs and preferences, while engaging them in musical activities that bring the concepts to life.
Timothy S. Brophy
Associate Professor of Music Education and Assistant Dean
University of Florida
It is a pleasure to read a text that is well organized and with clear and concise explanations! I wish I had this book thirty years ago when I first started teaching introduction to music classes.
David Sogin
Professor and Coordinator of Music Education
University of Kentucky
This is an excellent textbook for a music fundamentals course. I am pleased to recommend this text for consideration by anyone teaching a course in the fundamentals of music.
Kenneth C. Murray
Professor Emeritus of Music Education
Wingate University