Great music expresses the inexpressible, communicates across time and cultures, and galvanizes audiences across the globe. Music is abstract—its aural language is a set of tones—but it has a highly organized structure, a structure that allows for both its form and its meaning. As such, a knowledge of the structure or “theory” of music, how music is organized and how it functions, offers deeper levels of understanding, appreciation, and pleasure in listening—as well as practical, hands-on knowledge for playing music.

In these 18 enjoyable and revealing lessons, you’ll delve into the fascinating inner workings of Western tonal music. As you develop your skills in reading and understanding a musical score, you’ll explore the elements of musical form, structure, and composition, such as:

Tonality—Grasp how most Western music is based in tonality—the organization of musical tones into recognizable patterns; Rhythm and Meter—Learn how rhythm forms a central structure or backbone for a piece of music; also, study meter, the organization of musical pulses or beats within the music; Counterpoint—Uncover the parameters of counterpoint, the writing of two melodic lines which are played at the same time; Harmony—Study the motion of harmony, where groups of notes played together move through tonal tension or instability to resolution or stability; Musical Narrative: Phrase Structure—Witness how a piece of music unfolds by means of musical units called phrases, periods, and sentences; and Playing the Score: Elements of Expression—Explore the markings within a score that indicate how the music should be performed.

Music Theory: The Foundation of Great Music offers you an adventure in listening, a richly insightful inquiry that will deepen your appreciation and enjoyment of one of our world’s most sublime art forms.