Rogers, pp. 1-30
- Comments Due by Friday, August 29 at 11:59 pm. But...please feel free to respond to others' comments after the due date.
- It will be helpful if you can post early so that others have a chance to read and respond!
- Remember that your response should be between about 100 - 500 words. You might find it helpful to type and edit your response in a Word Processor and do a word count there.
- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, please put line breaks between your paragraphs!
Here are some ideas to get you started. You don't have to comment on ALL of them; focus on what was meaningful to you in the reading, and please feel free to add questions/comments of your own.
- Last week, we spent some time talking about why so many students dislike music theory. In his opening pages (ca. 1-5), Rogers addresses this problem in some detail. What is his reasoning for this, and what kinds of remedies does he suggest?
- What ARE the "Purposes and Goals of Music Theory"? In other words, consider this scenario: You teach the entire music theory core at a small college, where you have a small class of only the brightest and best. They do everything you tell them to, and study what you tell them to study, and grasp all the concepts. You have them for a complete four or five semesters. Under these very ideal circumstances, what skills would you want them to have when you're done with them? What should they have learned? What should they be able to do?
- On page 7, Rogers says "That answers for [Music Theory] are necessarily elusive is no excuse for failing to grapple with the questions. Viewed in this context, the ultimate value of the endeavor will lie as much in the quality of new questions raised as in the answers given." What kinds of questions do you wish had been raised in your undergraduate music theory courses?
