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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of Music Theory by The University of Edinburgh

4.5
stars
1,772 ratings

About the Course

This course, revised in 2022, will introduce you to the theory of music, providing you with the skills needed to read and write Western music notation, as well as to understand, analyse, and listen informedly. It will cover material such as pitches and scales, intervals, clefs, rhythm, form, metre and time signatures, phrases and cadences, and basic harmony. This course covers the fundamentals of Western music theory, from the absolute basics to some more advanced concepts. As such, it delivers material for beginners and offers much to experienced musicians alike....

Top reviews

SS

Aug 22, 2017

It was a very nice course. We were able to understand the basics of music theory and how the notations and chords work. Thank you so much to the entire staff of Edinburgh University and Coursera..:-)

GE

Apr 1, 2021

Very good course which hammers home the essentials.

Good enthusiastic lecturing and importantly on completion progressed onto Coursera Musicianship Specialisation which I have now almost completed

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501 - 525 of 570 Reviews for Fundamentals of Music Theory

By tim f

Mar 14, 2017

It was good, and i learnt a lot, but it vexed me that in the first lesson they stated you didn't need to read music to get on with the course, but everything from then on seemed to require reading music including an very difficult final test reading some complicated Beethoven apparently! I understand why they did it that way, as they are used to reading music, but music can also be described as actual note names and the theory will be learnt nevertheless, without the massive barrier of having to translate it all from musical notation.

By Kara O

Mar 13, 2023

The class started out well for the first couple of weeks- great videos and easy to follow and understand. The last two quizzes and the final exam were extremely difficult for a six week introductory class. There were items on the last quizzes and final exam that were not covered in any of the lectures, and I had to seek additional resources online to be able to pass them. It seems like quizzes should be reflective of what you are taught during the lectures and not include material above and beyond the level of teaching.

By Marc S

Aug 28, 2017

Good course covering some of the fundamentals of music theory. I found the difficulty of the quizzes to be disproportionate to the material in the lectures and some of the material could be explained better. It would certainly be a challenging course to more novice students. I would recommend "Getting Started With Music Theory" by Michigan State University as a prerequisite. The cadence of the material is a lot more systematic and incremental and what I learned in that course helped me get through this one tremendously.

By Marquad E

May 24, 2018

Areas where uncertainties are within the course melodic include phrasing and secondary dominants. I had make use of other online platforms to gather information on these two topics. Also, I feel that the exam is too difficult. I only learned a few things from it, not a great deal. But other than that, I learned quite a great deal and I am very grateful for it. I didn't really get how the circle of fifths worked before I was exposed to this course. Thank you very much, for the opportunity.

By Deleted A

Dec 26, 2021

This is called a fundamental theory course, but it is definitely geared for students who already have a music theory background. It's definitely a good review course for musicians, but I believe it would be very difficult for anyone who doesn't have a theory background, and it would be even harder for students who can't read music or play piano.

Again, a good review course but incredibly fast-paced for a fundamentals class.

By Sean M

May 17, 2020

While I learned quite a bit in this course, the quizzes and exams were a bit misaligned with the material covered. There seemed to be little direction in the way of further study other than the occasional Wikipedia link. The jump from beginner material to more advanced theory did not transition very smoothly. it would be a better learning experience to know why a question was missed on a q

By Rebekah L

Sep 9, 2020

The lectures were really nice and easy to follow, but the quizzes were far too complex. Many of what was covered in the quizzes were not explained in the lecture. If you are going to make the quiz more difficult than what was taught in the lecture, please improve the lecture and what is covered in it so that students can know better what to expect and what they should study for.

By Maciej L

Oct 26, 2022

It's good for the most part. However, I feel like some aspects are overlooked or rather expected to be known by the course learners. To give an example of this, one was not taught to distinguish harmonic from non-harmonic notes, an ability which is quite essential when analysing a music piece (as one is expected to do during the final exam part 2).

By Cees O

Nov 21, 2020

For me this was the first of many courses on Coursera where the quizzes and exam were way too difficult compared to the videos and reading materials. I had to find and use a Dutch Music Theory textbook to be able to understand the subject matter and to complete the quizzes and exam. My advice: more video instruction and reading material is required.

By Hannah L

Apr 9, 2018

It would great if explanations could be given alongside incorrect answer choices. I'm auditing the course and got stuck on a few question during weekly tests, and I didn't know what I'd done wrong with them even once I'd passed the test. I'd love if there was a feature that explained why an answer choice is correct or incorrect.

By Tobias S

May 15, 2023

Taught good stuff, but moves very quickly without much review. If you don't know much beforehand, this course is really confusing. It's very dense and doesn't repeat much stuff throughout the weeks, and then expects you to recall everything. Take your time on this course; you'll learn a lot better.

By Sann T

Jul 17, 2021

This course is very intersting at first but after the third week, it is getting harder and the videos and the reading texts could not provide enough information to take the tests. Anyway, I learned some useful things from first weeks as the basic knoeledge of music theory, Thank you very much<

By Brian B

Feb 13, 2020

Level of difficulty is inconsistent. There are better basic topics to cover (learning how different note lengths actually work, completing bars with notes, time signatures) rather than cadances, the extremely technical and impracticle explaination of note length values etc.

By Jose V

Aug 20, 2019

The last part of the recording or video was completely bad. you couldn't understand a word.

Some of the question in the tests were a bit out of the lecture spectrum or at lest they were not take deep enough in order to ask some of the in tests.

By Hercules C

May 20, 2021

The classes have not passed the necessary details and necessary training vis a vis the level of the quizzes and of the final exam. In my opinion, this course should be divided in 4 courses with more basic training included in all sections.

By Gregory C

Mar 4, 2019

The lectures were entertaining and the lecturers are qualified and competent. However, I feel that they left content out which was needed to pass the quizzes and tests. I spent significant time on the internet researching the topics.

By Shlok H

Oct 4, 2023

Slightly complicated. I believe there is a simpler way to teach this. Especially when I go to music theory.net, they have much simple methodology. A lot of important concepts like 7th chord of dominant were just brushed through.

By Vicky V

Jan 27, 2019

It's an upper intermediate course reviewing everything you must know already. I have basics of music theory and had to retry this course twice. I haven't finished yet. I will when I gather more knowledge elsewhere...

By Fanny J

Aug 31, 2020

There is a lot of content, the course goes very quickly. It could have been structured in a better way to make it easier to approach. Some notions are discovered in the exercises, which is a bit surprising.

By Saran T

Mar 30, 2022

It was easy enough for an absolute beginner like me at first. But by week 4 the difficulty had gone up drastically. Challenges are good for learning but I feel it may be a bit too challenging at my level.

By Alan J D

Aug 3, 2021

I enjoyed this course. However, some fundamentals could be tackled in greater detail namely chords of the the augmented sixth, these were lacking in explanation.

By Yi-An L

Jul 2, 2017

A little bit not well organized. If the music and the staff can be demonstrated at the the same time to show the progression of the triad would be better.

By K. L

Jul 9, 2020

Hard to come in without a music background. I still had some trouble, even though I've been playing music since I was a child.

By Sunita S

Feb 6, 2018

The assignment at the end was pretty tough to attempt with the content of the course

By Natanielle F

Jan 17, 2021

The first three weeks were great, but I found it advanced too quickly in weeks 4-6.