Rogers 33-73 (Fundamentals)
Your comments are due by 11:59 pm on Friday Sept. 12
Some things to ponder after you've done the readings:
- Rogers believes that any problem a student has with "advanced" theory concepts (for example, augmented sixth chords) can be traced back to a weakness in fundamentals. Do you agree? If you were a student who struggled with music theory classes, do you think that having a more firm grounding in scales, key signatures, etc. would have made a difference?
- Rogers suggests that, to achieve fluency in music fundamentals, students must grasp the very large network of patterns and relationships that tie the fundamentals together. (For example, key signatures dictate scales which dictate interval qualities, which dictate triad qualities, etc.) However, some students do not grasp abstract patterns as well as others. (Some people can do Sudoku, others can't. I'm in the second group.) Can you think of a different, more intuitive path that these students could take as they work toward fluency? (Here's a hint: Think repertoire!)
Remember, these questions are seeds. You don't have to address all of them, or ANY of them for that matter. If the readings move you to bring up other ideas that you find interesting/important, then by all means, go there!
