No ability to read music or play an instrument is required to take this course. It is designed for beginner students who would like to sing in a choir (or solo) and understand the music notation of the part they are singing, or to begin the study of an instrument, or to prepare themselves with a good foundation to take a college music theory course or an AP Music Theory class, which can be overwhelming if taken “cold”.

Since musical aptitudes vary so greatly, this is designed as a self-paced online course, so that students may work more quickly through the early lessons, if they already have some knowledge of music, or take longer on any lessons they find more challenging. The essential elements of reading and understanding music that are listed in the title of the textbook will be covered, along with more advanced concepts of harmony, progression, beginner part writing, and harmonic analysis. The book comes with an audio CD of musical examples, but if a used book does not have the CD, it is okay and not necessary to have.

Each topic is introduced in a class lecture that explains it in a clear and engaging manner, and which occasionally draws spiritual observations and appreciation from a faithful Catholic perspective. Then the students work through the assigned chapter in the Norton self-paced textbook, covering answers with a card on the left side of the page while filling in the answer on the right side of the page, then checking their answers by uncovering it. There is enough repetition built into the lessons to make students feel they have comfortably mastered the material. There is a test at the end of each chapter in the book, which the student takes and then self grades, to serve as a practice test. However, questions from sections of the book not used in this course may be disregarded. Finally, the student takes a different but comparable weekly quiz on the computer designed by the instructor and graded by the computer, which counts as the official test for the lesson, and this may be retaken an unlimited number of times. Some students might be able to do two or more lessons a week, while others may choose the more comfortable pace of one test per week over an entire 12-week semester or take even longer. 

A note on the textbook: Since the textbook is a workbook that students write in, please be careful about purchasing a used one for a lower cost. There may be some used copies, for example, that only have the first lesson filled in, and in pencil, so that it can become usable by erasing those few pages. Others might come completely filled in with ink and therefore completely unusable. It will be best to inquire about the specific condition of used books before purchasing them. The book comes with an audio CD, but if this is missing in a used copy of the book, it is not needed. Those titles and scores are in the back of the book and may easily be found online, but they are not required, in any case.