Music Theory after Alfred's?

[DragonFaerie]

My daughter is very involved in music, and music study is a large part of our homeschool program for her.  She does music theory, music history, band, private lessons, and practice on four instruments (clarinet, piano, guitar, and voice).  She is working her way through Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory now but will probably finish with that soon.   She is going to start Discovering Music for her music history study in the fall, but I need suggestions for what to do next for music theory.  Where do we go after Alfred's?

[lewelma]

ABRSM goes all the way up to university entrance.  Just google it.  It is out of the UK.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Penguin]

Another nod for ABRSM music theory.  If you are not interested in the actual exams, you can buy practice exams and just use those.  They are called Past Papers.That is what we are doing - at least for now. You will have to adapt to a bit of British notation, but it is not too much.

 

I am not 100% sure about this, but I think you can sit for any level exam that you are prepared for - you don't have to start by taking Level 1. Grade 5 theory seems to be an important threshold, and I read about a student not taking any of the theory exams until Level 5.

 

 

[DragonFaerie]

ABRSM goes all the way up to university entrance.  Just google it.  It is out of the UK.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

Is there a curriculum for this?  Right now I'm looking on the website and just finding information about the exams.  Do they also have a curriculum you can buy?

[lewelma]

You are looking for the music theory in practice books and the related model answers book.  They are graded levels 1 to 8, where level 8 is close to an AP exam (just slightly under as I understand it). 

 

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/dept/Music-Theory/100016

 

We also own the first steps in music theory for grades 1 to 5 as our summary textbook

 

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Taylor-Eric-First-Steps-in-Music-Theory/610730

 

This is the other textbook.  I don't own it so can't tell you much about it.

 

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Taylor-Eric-The-AB-Guide-to-Music-Theory-Part-I/598230

 

This is the Grade 3 page of all the materials available to buy to give you the overview of what is on offer:

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/syllabus/ABRSM-Music-Theory-Grade-3/12406/83/3

 

You can buy all the books on Amazon.com  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=music%20theory%20in%20practice

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

[Wildiris]

We've used The Fundamentals of Music Theory from Prep through Level 10. DD also did AP Music theory after her level 10 Certificate of Merit evaluation. Doesn't your private music teacher cover music theory for evaluation as part of your music lessons?

[DragonFaerie]

We've used The Fundamentals of Music Theory from Prep through Level 10. DD also did AP Music theory after her level 10 Certificate of Merit evaluation. Doesn't your private music teacher cover music theory for evaluation as part of your music lessons?

 

Not really.  He's teaching her some theory but also piano and voice, but it's very, VERY casual.

[DragonFaerie]

You are looking for the music theory in practice books and the related model answers book.  They are graded levels 1 to 8, where level 8 is close to an AP exam (just slightly under as I understand it). 

 

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/dept/Music-Theory/100016

 

We also own the first steps in music theory for grades 1 to 5 as our summary textbook

 

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Taylor-Eric-First-Steps-in-Music-Theory/610730

 

This is the other textbook.  I don't own it so can't tell you much about it.

 

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/prod/Taylor-Eric-The-AB-Guide-to-Music-Theory-Part-I/598230

 

This is the Grade 3 page of all the materials available to buy to give you the overview of what is on offer:

http://shop.abrsm.org/shop/syllabus/ABRSM-Music-Theory-Grade-3/12406/83/3

 

You can buy all the books on Amazon.com  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=music%20theory%20in%20practice

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

 

Thank you so much!

 

[DragonFaerie]

One more question about ABRSM, is there a placement guide somewhere?  After doing all three Alfred books, I doubt she'll need to start at Grade 1, but I really have no idea.

[lewelma]

I couldn't find a placement guide.  But did find the syllabi for all grades: http://nz.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/music-theory-exams/

 

Also, the grade 1 book on amazon has a very nice preview which might give you a feel for the manner in which the syllabus is implemented.  I did not find previews of the other books unfortunately.

 

[Penguin]

(I can't make links at the moment...sorry)

 

I have the "other textbook" that lewelma linked above, The AB Guide to Music Theory, Part 1 by Eric Taylor

It covers everything from Levels 1 to 5, but it is not organized in a way that matches the levels.

 

For instance, in the workbook (Music Theory in Practice), there is a worksheet called " Degrees of the scales and intervals." Underneath the title of the worksheet is a note directing you to the textbook Chapters 2/2 and 7/1. You would have to draw from part of Chapter 2 and part of Chapter 7 in order to complete the worksheet if the textbook is the teacher.

 

I teach the theory. My student would get frustrated trying to jump around in the book like that. It frustrates me! Maybe the other book is structured differently. lewelma, can you comment on that?

 

We are finishing Level 1. If you have specific questions please ask. We are on the slow theory boat, but I am ok with that.

 

Is the Alfred book that you linked above your course or is it part one of three? I would be happy to attempt to compare its TOC to ABRSM Level One for you.

 

I used:

 

The above textbook

Music Theory in Practice (workbook)

Music Theory in Practice (model answers)

Theory of Music Exams ( 4 practice exams)

Theory of Music Exams (answers)

 

I expect to go through Level 2 much faster. There was a bit of a learning curve for both of us.

[DragonFaerie]

(I can't make links at the moment...sorry)

 

I have the "other textbook" that lewelma linked above, The AB Guide to Music Theory, Part 1 by Eric Taylor

It covers everything from Levels 1 to 5, but it is not organized in a way that matches the levels.

 

For instance, in the workbook (Music Theory in Practice), there is a worksheet called " Degrees of the scales and intervals." Underneath the title of the worksheet is a note directing you to the textbook Chapters 2/2 and 7/1. You would have to draw from part of Chapter 2 and part of Chapter 7 in order to complete the worksheet if the textbook is the teacher.

 

I teach the theory. My student would get frustrated trying to jump around in the book like that. It frustrates me! Maybe the other book is structured differently. lewelma, can you comment on that?

 

We are finishing Level 1. If you have specific questions please ask. We are on the slow theory boat, but I am ok with that.

 

Is the Alfred book that you linked above your course or is it part one of three? I would be happy to attempt to compare its TOC to ABRSM Level One for you.

 

I used:

 

The above textbook

Music Theory in Practice (workbook)

Music Theory in Practice (model answers)

Theory of Music Exams ( 4 practice exams)

Theory of Music Exams (answers)

 

I expect to go through Level 2 much faster. There was a bit of a learning curve for both of us.

 

Oh, dear.  This is getting very confusing! 

 

I looked at the grade 1 preview on Amazon that lewelma linked, but it looks like it's just a workbook.  It doesn't look like there's any instruction in it.  So maybe the First Steps in Music Theory is meant to be the "textbook"?  The ABRSM link for each level lists both books as well as the practice workbook and the answer book.  Do I need all four, then?  I definitely don't like the way the AB Guide sounds like it is set up, but I need something for instruction to go with the workbook.

 

The Alfred book contains all the volumes in one.  Each lesson teaches a bit and then has exercises to practice the lesson.  And for each unit, there is an ear training page and a review page.

 

 

[lewelma]

The first steps in music theory is divided up by grade level material.  We find it very easy to use.  We simply do the exercises in the workbooks and only refer to the textbook when needed.  My older boy self studied music theory grade 5 for the exam and *only* used the workbooks, so apparently there is enough info in them to explain what you are trying to learn.  My younger and I, however, really like the first steps in music theory.

 

I only purchased:

1) First steps in music theory (will use for 5 years of material)

2) The Music Theory in practice workbook and answer book for each level as we got there

3) The exam papers and answer book for grade 5 exam which is the only exam older has taken.

 

We did have to hire a tutor for about 4 hours to help older understand the composition work for the grade 5 exam, as it is a bit more tricky.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Penguin]

BTW, I also really like Fundamentals of Piano Theory (Snell). This is what I used to learn theory, and would probably be using it if I lived in the U.S. I don't know how helpful it would be for non-piano instruments or voice.

 

If you go with ABRSM, I would try out lewlema's textbook suggestion.  It sounds better than ours.  I might buy it, actually!

 

I looked at the Alfred TOC that you linked above.  Given that your daughter has completed that book and is a serious music student, she would surely not need to begin at Level One.  We spend only smidgens of time on theory - that is the only reason that we move along at a snail's pace :)

 

 

 

There are a lot of terms to know, and they are cumulative.  You can see lists of them here. We made an Anki deck for them. We are only casual music students here.  Serious music students probably already know most of them from performance.

 

If she is not familiar with the British notation (semibreve, minim, crochet, etc.), she would have to learn it.  Not a big deal at all.

 

Sometimes switching from one curriculum to another can be tricky!  And the exams are cumulative. Maybe you could take your best guess at a level and try the practice exams.  Then you would know where the gaps are.

 

This website, musictheory4u ,   would be another option.

 

Oh, and I think that the ear training falls under the aural exams !

 

 

 

[DragonFaerie]

Thanks so much for all the info!  Y'all have been super helpful.  I think I'm going to go with the ABRSM and just get the books that Ruth suggested.  It sounds like a very good, comprehensive program.  I don't know that she has any interesting in doing the assessments, but it will definitely help her with the AP Music Theory exam (if she decides to do that) and/or college theory when she gets there.  Thanks, again!