Teacher's Guide
We wrote this book because the other textbooks that we looked at were long and had hundreds of names. We supposed that students react to these with the TLDR reflex ("too long, don't read!"), and that even if they make the effort, they don't remember most of the content, and therefore missed an opportunity to achieve the outcomes listed on the syllabus.
We decided to be brief in order to foster a new attitude towards studying (NTLR, or "not too long, read!") and focus on a few key figures like Machaut, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky, Joplin, Ellington, Little Richard, Elvis, and The Beatles in order to develop a solid framework that students can use to relate other music to. Each chapter has a couple of sidebars with related artists like Josquin, Handel, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Haydn, Clara Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Public Enemy,
The world music chapter highlights music from Louisiana, Mali, Benin, Brazil, North India, Indonesia, and Korea.
One of the unique features of the book is that after we introduce the main historical periods we return with bonus chapters on form, performers, spaces, and technology in order to consolidate the learning by reviewing some of compositions from other points of view.
We hope students enjoy studying this material, and that as a result of working through it come out at the end of the course are actually able to:
As you will see in the "Preview and Review" section, each chapter starts with some knowledge survey questions designed to help alert the reader's subconscious what to watch for and introduce the main topics. The review questions at the end are related and ask for more specifics. In this way students will consolidate what they've read and see the benefits of their efforts.
Other pedagogical techniques include mindmaps and timelines. We think that structuring information spatially makes it easier to process and store in memory than linear outlines.
We decided to be brief in order to foster a new attitude towards studying (NTLR, or "not too long, read!") and focus on a few key figures like Machaut, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky, Joplin, Ellington, Little Richard, Elvis, and The Beatles in order to develop a solid framework that students can use to relate other music to. Each chapter has a couple of sidebars with related artists like Josquin, Handel, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Haydn, Clara Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Public Enemy,
The world music chapter highlights music from Louisiana, Mali, Benin, Brazil, North India, Indonesia, and Korea.
One of the unique features of the book is that after we introduce the main historical periods we return with bonus chapters on form, performers, spaces, and technology in order to consolidate the learning by reviewing some of compositions from other points of view.
We hope students enjoy studying this material, and that as a result of working through it come out at the end of the course are actually able to:
- Explain examples of style differences between Medieval/Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern music, citing examples of specific compositions and their composers.
- Explain the basics of common practice notation, such as staves, clefs, names and locations notes, dynamic markings, time signatures, and note values. Be able to count and tap simple rhythms.
- Explain commonalities and differences between jazz and today's popular music.
- Cite examples of members of different instrumental families and their characteristics.
- Describe three or more types of world music.
- Describe three or more common compositional forms.
- Explain what performers add to the music that is not indicated in the score.
- Explain the effect of spaces on sound and musical style.
- Cite examples of how technology and music have evolved together.
As you will see in the "Preview and Review" section, each chapter starts with some knowledge survey questions designed to help alert the reader's subconscious what to watch for and introduce the main topics. The review questions at the end are related and ask for more specifics. In this way students will consolidate what they've read and see the benefits of their efforts.
Other pedagogical techniques include mindmaps and timelines. We think that structuring information spatially makes it easier to process and store in memory than linear outlines.
Listening examples in the eBook are linked to Spotify and YouTube, making it easy to listen to, and watch, the music while reading about it. Each song is accompanied by a list of things to pay attention and questions to answer about it. There is also a Spotify playlist for each chapter.