Unit 1 – Introductions and basic musical units

All Unit 1 materials are due at 7am Mountain Daylight Time on Wednesday, June 1.

Unit introduction

What is a musical note? a chord? rhythm? Do musicians define these differently than cognitive scientists? What exactly do we hear when we listen to music?

We will engage these and other related questions during this unit, as we begin to explore the workings of the human auditory system and basic musical concepts.

Core concepts

In this unit, we will explore the following core concepts:

• musical pitch
• musical meter
• musical keys

Assignments

Complete the introductory activities. See Getting started for details.

Read or watch the following:

• Music and Memory, Chapter 1, “Auditory Memory: an Overview”
• Open Music Theory, “Meter”
• Video: “Meter, part 1: counting pulse”
• Video: “Meter, part 2: grouping & division”
• Video: “Major keys & scales”
• Video: “Minor scales & keys”
• Open Music Theory, “Pitches”
• Open Music Theory, “Scales and scale degrees”
  Then take Quiz 1 on D2L.

Keep in mind the collaborative nature of the D2L quizzes. See the Assignment guide for details.