Do You Speak Music?

The course consists of 6 lessons. The first five each cover one of the parts of musical speech. The last involves a cumulative project that combines all five previous lessons.

• Lesson 1: Sound

• Lesson 2: Rhythm

• Lesson 3: Melody

• Lesson 4: Harmony

• Lesson 5: Form

• Lesson 6: Speaking Music

Each lesson will use the class playlist as sample material to answer the questions below:

• How do we define this part of musical speech?

• How do we listen for and identify it?

• What role does it play in music?

Schedule: Even though the study group is asynchronus, it will move along at a weekly pace. Starting later this month (or as soon as we get enough participants) I'll post new material for discussion each week and hold weekly office hours to discuss that week's materials over Skype. I'll be using WhenIsGood to figure out what office hours will work best for everyone.

Materials: There are a few things you'll use to participate in this study group. Here's a list (I'll be posting live links soon):

• Coursebook - this is my manifesto, Do You Speak Music, and it will serve as the "primary text" for the study group.

• Skype - I'll be using this to hold live video chats during "office hours". You should download it and set up an account if you're interested in the video chat portion of this study group.

• Group Playlist - Every participants picks a few songs and I whittle this down to a playlist. You can buy the tracks off iTunes (will be around $5 total) or something similar or get them from me through a shared Dropbox folder.