Music Curriculum

Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory is designed for students of any age, whether listeners or performers, who want to have a better understanding of the language of music. In this all-in-one theory course, you will learn the essentials of music through concise lessons, practice your music reading and writing skills in the exercises, improve your listening skills with the ear-training CDs (available separately or as a Book & CD combo), and test your knowledge with a review that completes each unit.

The Student Complete Book includes Books 1-3 in a spiral-bound format.

Book 1 (Lessons 1-25): Staff, Notes and Pitches * Treble & Bass Clefs * Grand Staff & Ledger Lines * Note Values * Measure, Bar Line and Double Bar * 2/4, 3/4 & 4/4 Time Signatures * Whole, Half & Quarter Notes/Rests * Dotted Half & Quarter Notes * Ties & Slurs * Repeat Sign, 1st & 2nd Endings * Eighth Notes & Rests * Dynamic Signs, Tempo Marks & Articulation * D.C., D.S., Coda & Fine * Flats, Sharps & Naturals * Whole & Half Step, Enharmonic Notes.

Book 2 (Lessons 25-50): Tetrachords & Major Scales * Key Signatures * Chromatic Scale * Intervals, Circle of Fifths * Perfect, Major & Minor Intervals * Augmented & Diminished Intervals * Solfège & Transposition * Sixteenth Notes & Rests * Dotted Eighth Notes & Eighth Note Triplets * Common Time & Cut Time * 3/8 & 6/8 Time Signatures * Pick-up Notes & Syncopation * Primary & Major Triads * Scale Degree Names * Dominant 7th Chord.

Book 3 (Lessons 51-75): 1st & 2nd Inversions of Triads * Inversions of V7 Chords * Figured Bass * Major Chord Progressions * Minor Scales, Minor Triads * Augmented & Diminished Triads * Primary Triads in Minor Keys * Minor Chord Progressions * Modes * Harmonizing a Melody in Major and Minor Keys * Broken Chords & Arpeggiated Accompaniments * Passing and Neighboring Tones * Composing a Melody in Major and Minor Keys * 12-Bar Blues Chord Progression & Blues Scale * Basic Forms of Music.

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(Faber Piano Adventures ). Good sightreading skill is a powerful asset for the developing musician. Carefully composed variations of the Level 2B Lesson Book pieces help the student see the "new" against the backdrop of the "familiar." Fun, lively characters instruct students and motivate sightreading with a spirit of adventure and fun.

What is music? "God's best gift to man," as Walter Savage Landor said? "The moonlight in the gloomy night of life," as Jean Paul Richter put it? Or perhaps--as Carl Maria von Weber and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow agree --"the universal language of mankind"? Whatever it is, it certainly "hath charms to soothe the savage breast," as William Congreve famously observed. And it "expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent" (Victor Hugo).
These and more than 400 other striking quotes about music, from musicians, authors, poets, historical figures, and other celebrities, fill the pages of this entertaining, practical little book. Not all are on the serious side; many are deliciously witty: "Her singing was mutiny on the high C's" (Hedda Hopper); "I can hold a note as long as the Chase National Bank" (Ethel Merman); "Donny Osmond has van Gogh's ear for music" (Orson Welles).
The quotations are arranged alphabetically according to author, from Fred Allen ("When Jack Benny plays the violin, it sounds as if the strings are still back in the cat") to Florian Zabach ("A musical talent is like having six fingers on one hand. You're born with it, you're different because of it, you can't do a thing about it except put it to use"). They constitute a collection that will not only be an indispensable reference for public speakers but will also delight general readers--especially music lovers--with its enduring wisdom and humor.