From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music - Softcover

Houlahan, Micheal; Tacka, Philip

4.8

5 ratings by Goodreads

9780195327700: From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195327705 ISBN 13: 9780195327700

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Designed for a one-semester musical fundamentals course, From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music clearly covers all essential topics, but with a unique, "sound-to-symbol" approach that explores concepts through the sound of music before explaining how symbols are used to represent that sound. Reversing the pedagogical perspective of traditional music theory texts, the authors work from the premise that students should first intuitively comprehend musical sounds, and then link this knowledge to an understanding of musical symbols and theory. Recent research in music perception and cognition suggests that using this "perceptual orientation" is an effective means of teaching both musical thought and knowledge.
The text's most innovative feature is an early and continuous focus on active music-making, which is supported by workbook exercises. Using discovery learning and collaborative learning techniques, it teaches students how to develop their perception of sound through kinesthetic, aural, and visual methods. The authors incorporate numerous examples and activities for developing musicianship skills at progressive levels of difficulty; marginal icons direct students to exercises in music theory, sight reading melodies and rhythms, improvisation and composition, ensemble singing, and keyboard performance. By employing a repertoire that is simple and easy to sing or play, From Sound to Symbol gives students the opportunity to actively engage in the learning process and to easily internalize the concepts and elements inherent in the music. A fold-out, laminated keyboard is packaged with each text.

SUPPLEMENTS:
Audio CD
Each text is packaged with an audio CD that includes all the focus melodies in the text, recorded in both vocal and instrumental versions.
Technology CD
Each text also comes with a CD-ROM that provides tutorials for chapter review, theory exercise drills, and dictation exercises.
Instructor's Manual
Available to adopters, this manual includes lesson plans, teaching tips on learning assessment, tutorials that interface with the CD-ROM, additional aural and written dictation examples for each chapter, and suggestions for scoring tests.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Micheal Houlahan is a Professor of Music Theory and Chair of the Department of Music at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. Philip Tacka is an Associate Professor of Music at Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Review:

"The book's main philosophical position (that music is an experience in sound and that learning should proceed from this point) is profoundly interesting and seems intuitively correct to me."--Ed Pearsall, University of Texas

"The instructor's manual contains many good ideas and resources. It's much more useful than many instructor manuals that I've seen. This makes the book particularly good for first-time teachers."--Michael Berry, Texas Tech University

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.