MUS 284 Popular Music Theory and Musicianship 1 - Course Outlines

Course Prescription

Training in practical musicianship and contemporary music writing skills pertinent to a popular music practitioner. Continued development of aural recognition skills.

Course Overview

Building greater proficiency in using the tools acquired through music theory study is a vital component in ensuring tomorrows professional musicians are adept in the analysis of today’s popular music canon. The skills acquired through this pursuit are essential building blocks for the professional working musician. Continuous enquiry into the musical lexicon allows students the opportunity to extend the breadth of their musical endeavours by applying a richer, more nuanced approach to interpreting the intricacies of their fellow musicians’ work. This enables a more acute examination of their personal musical styling. This course offers the student a wide range of written, aural and practical skills to use in strengthening their understanding of the varied means of communication between musicians and of the structures and devices used to compose and present music in both current and historical contexts.

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: MUS 104 or 185

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Furthering theoretical, analytical and aural skills practice solidifying best practice methods and materials while exploring varied approaches to both aural and written popular music concepts. (Capability 1 and 4)
Identify and accurately and fluently analyse simple, complex and compound time signatures, advanced rhythmic grouping, accents and tempo changes. (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Demonstrate an ability to use appropriate clefs, staves, key signatures, pentatonics, major scales and modes, intervals, minor modes, symmetrical scales and non-diatonic compound intervals. (Capability 1 and 4)
Accurately and fluently identify up to five and six-note chords and their inversions, write and label progressions using both roman numerals and popular/jazz chord notations and utilise voice leading concepts in written progressions . (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Utilise appropriate written directions relating to music notation and performance (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Accurately and fluently recognise and notate from dictation and perform by rote, complex rhythms, chord progressions, melodies, intervals and chord sequences. (Capability 1, 2, 3 and 4)

Assessments

Assessment Type	Percentage	Classification
Theory Tests	50%	Individual Coursework
Assignments	20%	Individual Coursework
Practical Tests	30%	Individual Coursework
3 types	100%

Assessment Type	Learning Outcome Addressed
	1	2	3	4	5	6
Theory Tests
Assignments
Practical Tests

Teaching & Learning Methods

Students will further extend their vocabulary of scales, chords and rhythms found in today’s popular music idioms. Class activities include the regular transcription, dissection and discussion of popular musical works and frame these against their historic precedents. The course promotes student’s proficiency in shifting between written and aural skill sets and supplements these with practical approaches to the organization and presentation of more esoteric musical material for performance in mainstream or academic settings. This course continues to investigate the options and logistics students require for capturing and transmitting musical ideas. Cultural, professional and pedagogical aesthetics are explored with an understanding that today’s popular music is built on a rich foundation of both physical scientific constants and the intellectual artistry of our classical forebears.

This course consists of both a two-hour music theory and aural awareness lecture per week and a one-hour tutorial per week focusing on the practical application of theory and aural skills. In the tutorials (divided into two groups - guitarists and keyboard players) students will be encouraged to apply the knowledge and skills discussed in previous lectures to their primary instruments with instrument-specific exercises and examples and will perform these individually and to the rest of the class. Guitarists will need to bring their instrument to each guitar tutorial. Though all handouts and assignments will be online at the end of each week, students are required to take notes during classes as many of the topics taught encourage further discussion that may be relevant to testing in future assessments. CANVAS is also used to upload relevant articles, examples and links to popular music as it is released.

Communication outside lecture times will be via Canvas and University email addresses. Please check regularly for class notices. Course resources will also be posted on Canvas. For information Webmail go to: Main University Homepage – For current students – “Student IT Essentials”.

Students in MUS 284 will also benefit from spending time every week practising on the Auralia ear-training programme and revising theoretical concepts on the corresponding Musition programme. You can purchase a licence from The University Bookshop (UBS) to use this software on your own computer. It is highly recommended that you use these programmes, and students generally find it very useful to have on their own computers.

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 24 hours of lectures, 12 hours of tutorials , 66 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 48 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

Attendance is expected at scheduled activities including tutorials to receive credit for components of the course.
Lectures may be available as recordings. Other learning activities including tutorials will not be available as recordings.
The course may include live online events including group discussions/tutorials.
Attendance on campus is required for the tests.
The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Digital Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Access to Auralia and Musition training programmes can be gained on some University computers or a year’s subscription purchased from the University Bookshop. Details of these and other programmes will be discussed in lectures. The updated Auralia and Musition 5.0.16.43 will be installed in KMC Computer Lab, building 820, room 118, and CAI Computer Lab, Building 421, room 521.

Logic X software is also available to students in the KMC and Kate Edger computer labs.

Although it is not required to have an advanced knowledge of the program, it will be used in class examples and exercises.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

In the event of unexpected disruption

We undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions, the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. In the event of a disruption, the University and your course coordinators will make every effort to provide you with up to date information via Canvas and the University website.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Capability 1:	Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2:	Critical Thinking
Capability 3:	Solution Seeking
Capability 4:	Communication and Engagement

MUS 284 : Popular Music Theory and Musicianship 1

Creative Arts and Industries

2021 Semester One (1213) (15 POINTS)