<p>Hey everyone- I’m taking a music theory class at Yale college starting next week. Can anyone offer some insight as to how difficult they are?</p>
<p>i don’t know about yale’s class specifically (seeing as I’ve never taken it).</p>
<p>but generally music theory classes are pretty standard across the board at all colleges. it really just depends on how experienced you are with it.</p>
<p>do you play an instrument? do you have any prior experience w/ theory?</p>
<p>I play guitar and I know a little bit of theory. I plan on cramming this weekend just to make sure that everything I learn in the class isn’t COMPLETELY new. I was just wondering if the teachers make the tests unnecessarily difficult, like some teachers do.</p>
<p>Yale’s music program is very classically oriented, so theory will often be in the context of composition rather than, say, composition. I don’t think there’s metrics out there that could tell you the difficulty, but I’m sure they’re pretty good.</p>
<p>What class are you planning to take? If it’s a 200-level class or higher, you’ll have to take a placement exam first. The exam has basic note-naming things and stuff, plus harmonic analysis and (if I remember correctly) a sample composition portion. Based on how much you can complete, they’ll place you in a class. If you’re starting out with a 100-level class, it’s pretty basic, so I’m sure if you play an instrument you’ll be fine!</p>
<p>I’m taking the exam today. I think that I know enough theory to place in 205, but I really know nothing about “harmonic analysis.” =/ I know a lot about scales, modes, reading music, time signatures, keys, etc.</p>
<p>“Yale’s music program is very classically oriented, so theory will often be in the context of composition rather than, say, composition.”</p>
<p>Ugh, I meant to say composition rather than improvisation.</p>
<p>I took Music Theory 210, and I will be honest, it was a challenging course. Having prior knowledge of key signatures, scales, intervals is very helpful because you go straight into these things. Harmonic Analysis is the main thing you will be learning, one, two, three, and four part counterpoint (writing melodies with voices) as well as choral writing. Each counterpoint adheres to strict musical rules which become very tedious when writing music (I spent many a nights frantically scanning my music for parallel fifths). While challenging, it is an enriching course that you will be most certainly glad you took when it is all said and done.
That’s my two cents.</p>
<p>I will also add that I didn’t put my best effort into some of my homework assignments, which in my class atleast, was a big portion of the final grade and I still managed a 86 in the class. For most Yalies anything below an A might be instant failure but to me I was very happy with it.</p>