Introduction to Music Theory 2: Pitch and Notation
Added to website 24/03/2025.
This free course explores pitch, considering how musical sounds are differentiated as notes and as systems of notes and how they are represented.
This course introduces the Western pitch system, then explores how pitch is organised in some other world traditions, including Aka singing from Central Africa, Sundanese gamelan music from Indonesia, and Arab classical music from Syria. It explores how notes are represented through words and symbols, devoting special attention to Western staff notation while also considering Arab and Sundanese notation. It provides opportunities to read and write notes and to sing and play short musical extracts with the help of staff notation.
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The Open University
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