Music Student 101

Continuing our discussion from episode 35-Counterpoint Pt.2, it's time to tackle 3rd and 4th species counterpoint! We have already built our cantus firmus and tried it out with 1st and 2nd species cou...

In the school of music, we have the "Jury". This terrifying moment occurs at the end of the semester when the student must display their progress, on their instrument, in front of a panel of professor...

Continuing our discussion from episode 34-Counterpoint Pt.1, we will now discuss species counterpoint. We have already built our cantus firmus. Now, we will add a voice, using first species counterpoi...

Counterpoint, the art of combining two or more independent melodic lines, is a practice that has been around for hundreds of years. However, not a lot of musicians are familiar with the term. In this ...

In the beginning, before written history, our ancestors left artifacts and paintings that gave us clues as to how they once lived. This being a few million years ago, one can only speculate on how or ...

We've given the 7th chords a good listen. Now it's time to discuss the theory behind them and some of the conventions to consider while using them in part writing. This episode will focus on the ii7 a...

Continuing where Episode 18 left off, this episode will feature the diatonic chords I, II7, IV and V7 (in major and minor). Listen for those chord qualities (major, minor, dominant 7th and minor 7th) ...

You may be familiar with notes, key signatures and meter signatures. But, there's a lot more happening on a music score. Various markings, such as crescendo, forte, fortissimo and pianissimo, can tell...

Just in case we haven't said everything we need to say about intervals, it's time we said a little more! We will have a quick recap on the basic intervals followed by an extended discussion on other i...

Sometimes you will encounter notes that don't belong to the chords they are sounding over. These notes are just what they sound like, nonchord tones! In this episode, we will discover the main types o...