Do You Speak Music?

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Do You Speak Music?

About the Course Organiser:

I'm a jazz musician and business writer living in New York City and married to a classical pianist. We've both met and worked with so many people who say things like, "I don't have a musical bone in my body" or "I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket".

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Music is as natural to humans as language, but in most cases people simply lack the exposure and the context to realize this. My aim is to eliminate this notion and show as many people as I can that music is simply a language... and anyone can speak it.

No of Seats:

Course Status:

Completed

Members

admin Gabri	selin	Rafae	dj ze	Carlo
Jessi	klaus	gokha	Audre

If music is a language, can you learn how to speak it WITHOUT being a musician? (Spoiler Alert: yes, you can)

Summary

The course is founded on the concept that music is a language and anyone can speak it. And that you don't have to be a professional musician to hear music virtually the same way they do. You should take this course if you want to...

Understand the one law of physics that gives each instrument its unique sonic DNA
Find out what ping pong machine guns have to do with your ear drums
Discover the two things you do every day that determine the tempo of almost every song you've ever heard
Learn how Claude Monet illustrates the concept of Harmony in his paintings
Uncover the link between Ludwig van Beethoven and Gollum
Find out how to "see" the music in a city skyline
Discover the most important question in history and how it shaped our musical minds

This is not a course in music theory. It will not teach you how to play an instrument or compose a song. Rather, it is like a language course that will teach you how to speak a new language, but not necessarily how to write a poem or a play.

Learning objectives

There are 5 basic "parts of musical speech". The objective with this course is to understand what they are conceptually, learn how to identify them in music, and understand the role they play in making music sound the way it does.

Schedule/Syllabus

Syllabus for Do You Speak Music?

Broadcast messages

Still Kicking 2011-05-31 13:33

Last Minute Office Hours 2011-05-08 17:41

How's Lesson 1? 2011-05-04 19:21

Two Clarifications 2011-05-01 21:21

Class is in Session!!! 2011-05-01 21:10

Comments

Hey Gabriel - the course idea

Philipp Schmidt

Thu, 2011-03-17 06:10

Hey Gabriel - the course idea sounds great. Is your book available online already? I'd love to have a look. I bought "This is your brain on music" recently ... but haven't gotten around to reading it.

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Hi Phillip. Thanks for your

Gabriel Gloege

Fri, 2011-03-18 17:26

Hi Phillip. Thanks for your kind words. Dan's book is a fascinating read and really opened my eyes to the musical nature of the human mind. It also justified a lot of the conceptual rules and guidelines followed by most musicians by showing how they play on our fundamental brain structures.

As to my own book, it's an eBook manifesto that will be available for free as soon as I can get around to giving it some "online shelf space." For now it will be available soon as the syllabus to this course... assuming anyone actually signs up for it ;-)

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hello everyone! i'm not so

klaus consine

Thu, 2011-05-05 03:45

hello everyone! i'm not so sure if i am really a member of this course (i mean... if you are reading this please tell me)
anyway, what's the rules about linksharing? can we post links to grooveshark for the music? seems practical

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Hi Klaus! I've just added you

Gabriel Gloege

Fri, 2011-05-06 21:23

Hi Klaus! I've just added you to the course as a participant. I'm sorry for the confusion. This is the first time I've run this course (though it won't be the last!) and I'm still learning as i go along.

I've limited the class playlist to 6 tracks (1 from each of the first 5 students plus 1 from me) but we can have as many participants as we like. So please go ahead and download the tracks, check out the lessons, and start listening. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the material.

As far as grooveshark goes, sure, why not! I wan't actually aware of grooveshark (I mostly use last.fm or pandora) but I'll certainly be posting links to other tracks that I think illustrate important concepts. Though I'll keep the main focus of the tasks and activities focused on the course playlist.

Glad to have you with us!!