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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Getting Started With Music Theory by Michigan State University

4.5
stars
731 ratings

About the Course

This course is a brief introduction to the elements of music theory for those with little or no music theory experience. We will explore pitch, rhythm, meter, notation, scales, keys, key signatures, meter signatures, triads, seventh chords, and basic harmony. If you listen to music or play music by ear, and you want to know more about how music is organized and notated, this course is for you. By the end of the course, you should know all major and minor keys, how to read and write in treble and bass clef using standard meters and rhythmic values, and how to notate and harmonize a simple melody. This course can serve as a stand-alone basic music theory course, or it can be a springboard to more advanced theory and composition courses. Your instructor is Bruce Taggart, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Michigan State University, in the College of Music, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate music theory since 1996....

Top reviews

WV

Aug 20, 2020

Course was quite tough , eventually I had given up on this course, but consistency made me learn and I went through rigorous learning in finding the chords and middle C notes. Yes I made it in the end

CM

Jul 22, 2020

Fantastic lectures and very easy-to-understand, hard to master lessons. This course will leave you with a much deeper understanding of music if you are a beginner to music theory like I am.

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201 - 225 of 269 Reviews for Getting Started With Music Theory

By Jimmy P

Nov 21, 2019

Professor Taggart is very knowledgeable on the topic. I learned a great deal from these lectures. The lectures are fast-paced and require some self-motivation to memorize key music theory facts and perseverance to work through the problems. The effort is well worth it to get a grasp of the music theory.

By Tan T

Apr 28, 2020

I've learnt basic music theory using the British style so there are quite a number of questions I did not understand as they used American terms instead, which messed my initial knowledge up. Nevertheless, it was a good refresher course for anyone who wants to continue the music path.

By Yearim A

May 11, 2020

There were some parts in the lecture that were so hard to understand because it was going to fast. There were questions that I didn't know how to do because it was too vague and I couldn't recall that it was taught in the videos. But, overall, I'm very grateful.

By Andreas K G K

May 19, 2020

The videos really made me wanna learn more. In general, the course helped me to understand a lot of things much better. Just sometimes explanations were pretty fast and the following questions then were really hard to solve. But great course in general!

By Michael A W

Mar 18, 2024

I appreciated the bulk of the course however there were several technical issues with the quizzes and tests that often made things very difficult. It’s entirely possible that my final score would have been better if the difficulties weren’t there.

By Melissa Z

Jan 3, 2020

I learned more through this course then trying to take Theory years ago on campus. Only issue I had was following some of what was being explained. I had to do online research for formulas to complete the tests well. Overall it was really helpful.

By Patrick H

Nov 2, 2021

A good, thorough explanation of the mathematics behind the music and the effect it has on what we hear. For me it was a bigger challenge than I anticipated and I had to take several quizzes more than once to pass. I'm glad I took this course.

By Angelo J M

Jun 7, 2020

Thank you! This is a commendable course! Learned so much stuff about music theory, although I have been playing piano for quite some time, the terminologies is really new to me. God will bless you a lot on teaching this stuff online.

By Lang B

Feb 1, 2018

Excellent presentation of theory, with in-video practice exercises. There is a glitch during some of the pauses for solving exercises during the video: the graphic from the video that the exercise is based on is no longer visible.

By Akshaya A

Oct 27, 2020

A good intro course and it covers a lot of fundamental concepts and can be overwhelming for someone new to music. It was fast and hard to follow sometimes. More detailed explanation for few hard topics would have been helpful.

By Gene H

Feb 1, 2019

Very good course, though I thought there could have been more practice exercises to re enforce the lesson taught. Had an issue with the last quiz, seemed like two questions were not being graded. Overall enjoyed the course.

By Pitcha R

May 1, 2020

The lessons and instructor are great. But should have lecture notes after videos because it's difficult. Each quiz have too many questions. Maybe it's better to divide them into more quizes, each quiz with less question.

By Felipe H

May 22, 2017

Excellent information but I think that this course needs more visual examples, when the instructor is talking, the presentation does not move and He give examples but they don´t follow graphically.

By Jonathan G

Jan 14, 2018

This course had everything I needed. I learned a lot although some parts were hard to follow. I am better at playing things by ear. I know when to be in key and when things are out of tune.

By Megumi A

Jun 6, 2017

I had some knowledge of basic music theory, but it really helps me to understand it deeper from different aspect. Please fix the week 4 question error. I flagged.

By Angelika

Jul 15, 2017

I'm very pleased with this course, although you have to keep in mind that it's packed with lots of information, which can be a lot for a beginner.

By Marco A A Z

May 8, 2020

Good course with really good and clear explanations but you really need to learn fast the concepts to continue with each module.

By Dmitry Y

Oct 29, 2022

There are no good russian subtitles. They were be translated by google translate. And probably not just the russian subtitles.

By Tai C

May 13, 2020

One of the most difficult but very well done courses out there for anyone with 0 knowledge.

By Hossein S

Dec 16, 2020

It was awesome at first, but it got a little fast and low in quality at the end.

By Outa J

Jun 5, 2022

A very good course for beginners who want to learn music theory

By 梁司其

Apr 21, 2018

thanks for this course, which introduces me to the music theory

By Devis G

Dec 1, 2019

Love this course, gives a 360 degree of music basic knowledge

By Graeme H

Apr 10, 2018

Good, but fairly basic. Useful overview or re-introduction.