Music Theory

So I've been playing Violin and Piano for about 13-14 years. I'm taking a music class atm that is all about music theory and most of it is out of range of anything you'd usually learn just by playing. Anyone around here good with that stuff? Trying to find examples of some of these concepts but Youtube sort of sucks and the entire course is pen and paper, zero music. Reading a book only takes you so far lol.

Not sure where you live but something you can try is searching the web for some classical stations. There's a station near where I live that has 2-3 hour long segments dedicated to this kind of thing. 88.7 The Diamond is the station. Not sure if you'll be able to find it on the web or not but you can try.

Theory for dummies Amazon

Do not underestimate this book :3

http://www.musictheory.net/

http://musictheoryexamples.com/ this one actually gives you music examples ranging from very simple to the complex

Was this what you were looking for?

Music theory is easy ***... Shinsaki or I could help you with anything you need.

ITT: Theoryfags unite!

That's pretty bad that they're not at least providing examples on a piano :\ What exactly are you looking for?

Music theory is logical--applying it is the art.

I took music theory through my elementary and middle school years. I didn't like it at the time, but I definitely regret not following through all the way to the end. What I do remember applies to pretty much everything I do--singing, guitar/bass, drums, piano, etc.

I'm sure its simple ***. Basically the course is all about identifying theory into music during a test.

Like for example it wants you to identify:

Conosance and disonance. The description they give for each is stable and unstable music. Then they discribe stable and unstable music as music which is pleasant and music which is not.

Then it wants you to identify things like musical contours(weather a melody is smooth or jagged)

As a person who plays music I generally visuallize music in bars and measures. This book explains musics in concepts of phrases containing a specific form, usually represented by As or Bs.

Example: AABA or ABBA or ABAB etc

While you can clearly tell some differences in music, it is hard to understand the difference between:

Conosance/Unity/Stability/resolution
Dissonance/Departure/Variety/tension

I took some music theory when I was a music major at UNM, played cello for 20 years. Anyway, hit me on on msn if you have questions.

hmm, well I know Dissonance is like throwin an off note carefully in a piece, like it sounds off then it resolves, almost as if the note shouldn't be there, but because it resolves itself within the piece, it makes more sense, I guess you'll hear alot of that kind of thing in Contemporary music.
Conosance is opposite dissonance, because it has to do with stability of the sound, like your brain automatically thinks the sound is pleasant, so would be considered Conosance.
Variety would be like for example, haveing everyone play different notes and even in a different key, and Unity would be to bring it together creating a certain harmony between them, Shostakovich had alot of Unity in Variety, I guess he would be the best example I could give.
I think Departure is stuff that's not in the key.

Did they show you an interval stability chart? if you have it, look at it to see what is considered Stability.

Resolution is an easy one to explain, it would be like comeing from a Dissonance note to a Conosance note.

Tension is like building up to an emotionally expressed chord or note, alot of pieces written for cello do that, probably because it sounds so good on cello..... It would be easier to show you what I mean....

oh, but you're trying to indentify each in the book they gave you? I would have to see the book first..

No they explain it to you in the book, then they try to get you to identify it by listening to a piece of music. The problem is they don't let you hear examples of what you're supposed to identify. Anyways Serj and his friend got on MSN with me and explained it a bit better.

Did someone say Dissonance? :3