Don Taylor Posted July 11, 2014 Posted July 11, 2014 The University of Edinburgh is about to hold a MOOC (massively open online course) on music theory starting next Monday. It is free and over 70,000 students have already enrolled. The course lasts five weeks and details can be found here: https://www.coursera.org/course/musictheory I have enrolled, if anyone else here also signs up then send me a PM so that we can chat about the course and how to apply it to the concertina.
gcoover Posted July 11, 2014 Posted July 11, 2014 Looks great. Do you know if it is taught in real time or not? Not sure I want to get up in the middle of the night for class!
Don Taylor Posted July 11, 2014 Author Posted July 11, 2014 I think that you are supposed to attend the course sometime during the week and do the assignments before the next class the following Monday. My wife has taken several Coursera classes and that is how they worked. So no, you do not have attended real-time. Folks from all over the world have signed up so real-time attendance would be tricky for most students. I think that this will be the first time for this course, I have been looking for a MOOC on Music Theory for a while and this is the first one that I have found.
Don Taylor Posted July 11, 2014 Author Posted July 11, 2014 (edited) The recommended, but not required, book for this course is Tonal Harmony by Kostka and Payne. This is a very expensive book but ABE books have many used copies of older editions available for just a dollar or pound or two. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Tonal+Harmony Don. Edited July 11, 2014 by Don Taylor
alex_holden Posted July 11, 2014 Posted July 11, 2014 I don't have that one but I do have a copy of the alternative recommended book: The AB Guide to Music Theory by Eric Taylor (and a couple of others besides).
Jack Campin Posted July 12, 2014 Posted July 12, 2014 Just hangs with "Loading..." on both of the browsers I can use for it.
Łukasz Martynowicz Posted July 14, 2014 Posted July 14, 2014 Thanks for sharing this! I have just signed up.
Don Taylor Posted July 15, 2014 Author Posted July 15, 2014 OK, I have just finished the first set of video lectures and I am happy with the course. They got as far as explaining and demonstrating the three chord trick in the first lecture, covering scales, intervals and modes along the way. I have not read the lecture notes yet, or taken the first exam so perhaps I am being too optimistic about my retention. Spoiler alert - there is an error in one of the mode charts ... They whipped through quite a lot of basic material but you can take it slowly if you need to do so. If anyone has hesitated about enrolling because they thought it might be too dry and academic then they should not be afraid to register and try the first lecture. I think that there is still plenty of time. Rather than set up a private email group as I suggested in my first post I have set up a "study group" as one of the forums that is part of the course. Search for "Concertina Players" in the course forums and subscribe to the study group. I hope to see you over there.
Jeff Jetton Posted July 15, 2014 Posted July 15, 2014 I have been looking for a MOOC on Music Theory for a while and this is the first one that I have found. There's also the Berklee "Developing Your Musicianship" course. Next round starts in a few days: https://www.coursera.org/course/musicianship
Don Taylor Posted July 15, 2014 Author Posted July 15, 2014 I have been looking for a MOOC on Music Theory for a while and this is the first one that I have found. There's also the Berklee "Developing Your Musicianship" course. Next round starts in a few days: https://www.coursera.org/course/musicianship That looks good too, I might take that the next time that they schedule it. Thanks for sharing. Don.
Jack Campin Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 The Berkeley one just stalls with "loading" too. What web service is "coursera" actually using? Are there ways of getting at the content without going through the front door?
Don Taylor Posted July 16, 2014 Author Posted July 16, 2014 The Berkeley one just stalls with "loading" too. What web service is "coursera" actually using? Are there ways of getting at the content without going through the front door? Jack I can access the Coursera web sites from each of several Windows computers and an Android tablet with no problems using any of the browsers I have installed. Maybe you could try temporarily disabling any security software that you have installed? Don.
Łukasz Martynowicz Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 Signed up for Berklee to, thanks for sharing!
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