Hosted by / Sponsored by: MIT OpenCourseWare

Course of Study: Arts and Humanities

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The undergraduate course combines musical samplings and textbook readings,  beginning with a prelude from 1900-1960 and tracing multiple movements from 1960—the point of shift in 20^th century Western musical history. Post-60s music reflects the convergence of constantly changing cultural and technical influences. The stricter experimentation earlier in the century with mathematical serialism, atonal forms and indeterminate jazz  now emerges to an eclectic mix of post serial, neotonal, minimalist, new age and globalized Western traditional movements. Classical, rock, jazz, electronic, multicultural music and all their hybrids are explored. An assignment guideline is provided for independent analysis of live performances.

Several readings from this Spring 2006 MIT course are recommended, along with two required textbooks:

Modern Music and After: Directions Since 1945 by Paul Griffiths

Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and 5 Generations of American Experimental Composers by William Duckworth

Unit Topics:
Prelude: 1900-1960
Unit One: Order and Entropy
Unit Two: Mavericks
Unit Three: New Sounds, New Technologies
Unit Four: Quotation and Polystyle
Unit Five: The Minimalist Impulse
Unit Six: The Persistence of Tonality
Unit Seven: Agora

Hosted by / Sponsored by: Open Yale courses

Course of Study: Music

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Description: This introductory course on Listening to Music is a longstanding favorite at Yale College. It includes 23 recorded video sessions by Yale Professor of Music, Craig Wright, author of six books on music.

You will learn to develop aural skills through an historic view of Western music—from the rhythms of jazz and pop, to the bass patterns of blues and rock to the piano music of Mozart and Beethoven. The course will examine how music is put together—from the structure of chords and harmony to various forms like rondos, sonata-allegros, fugues, theme and variations—and even the ostinato. By the end of the course you will be able to discern styles from ancient sounds to Modernism.

The course textbook  Listening to Music is written by Professor Wright and includes a six-volume CD set. All lectures are downloadable as written transcripts and in both audio or video formats.

Hosted by / Sponsored by: GoPiano.com

Course of Study: Music: Piano

Course Link: Take this course.

Description: Have you ever wanted to learn how to play the piano, but you weren’t sure where to begin? GoPiano.com’s free online piano lessons can get you going in the right direction.

The free online course is broken down into seven lessons, and features two quizzes and a theory exam.

You’ll start by learning where to find each note on the piano keyboard, and then learn how to start reading music itself. Then you’ll move onto some rhythm work and by the end of the free course, you’ll be playing your first beginner-level song on the piano.