Music Theory for Non-Music Majors

For undergraduate-level courses in Music Theory for the non-music major.

This text/workbook is especially designed for students who are not necessarily planning to make a career out of music, but who wish to understand how most of the music they hear every day on the radio or television essentially works.

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Music Theory for Non-Music Majors is designed for the student who wishes to gain a thorough understanding of the basic principles of music theory, but who is not immediately interested in making a career out of music. Chapters 1-4 cover the basic elements of notation, major and minor scales, scale degrees, simple meter, and melodic intervals. Chapter 5 applies the materials of the first four chapters to analyzing and composing melodies. Chapters 6 and 7 address triads, seventh chords, compound meter, and some basic principles of music notation. Chapter 8 applies the materials of the entire text to analyzing and composing songs that consist of a melody with a simple harmonic accompaniment. Because learning is best accomplished by doing, each chapter contains numerous carefully graduated exercises that follow concise text with clear musical examples, notes, and diagrams. In Chapters 5 and 8, the two pivotal chapters of the book, the exercises challenge students' imaginations in addition to their grasp of the information. This new edition features an improved layout and, in Appendix A, more complex pieces of music for analysis.