Does your teen desire to learn music theory, but you haven't found a course created just for them?
Now, it's here!
Beginning Music Theory for Teens
Gena Mayo has been teaching various types of music to students, including teens, for over 30 years. One of her greatest loves is music theory, and she is thrilled to have this much-requested course here for you!
Your student will work through 72 days of lessons, learning about all the basics such as the names of the notes of the treble and bass clef staffs and how to count rhythms, while working all the way through ear training exercises and playing seventh chords.
Who will benefit from this course?
- Any teen already playing an instrument, singing, or composing music.
- Any teen who wants to start playing an instrument, singing, or composing music.
- Any teen who is not interested in pursuing music further but wants to take a music theory course for their high school Fine Arts Credit.
Types of Lessons and Practice Included:
- Video Lessons (with captions and transcripts)
- Ear Training
- Worksheets
- App Practice
- Flashcard Practice
- Sight-singing Practice
- Dictation
- Playing scales, chords, etc. on the piano keyboard
- Online quizzes (self-grading)
- Final Exam
Free Previews:
Take a look below to see the lesson topics under the section called "Course Curriculum" and be sure to click through to watch the free preview lessons, labeled "Preview."
Try the free preview lessons here:
- Lesson: Staff, lines, and spaces
- Ear Training: Same, different, high, and low
- Flashcard Practice: Notes of the Treble Clef
Your Instructor
Gena Mayo is a homeschooling mom of 8 who has been teaching music in various forms for 30 years. She has a Bachelors degree in Music Education and a Masters degree in Vocal Pedagogy (teaching voice lessons). It has been her joy to teach elementary and junior high choir, high school voice classes, private voice lessons for teens through adults, early childhood music and movement classes (babies through preschool), elementary general music, and music appreciation for elementary through high school. But, her favorite music teaching experience has been as musical director for stage musicals such as Seussical, Shrek, Singing in the Rain, Newsies, and Beauty and the Beast. It is Gena's desire to help all homeschoolers easily include music in their homeschools!
Course Curriculum
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Start1) Introduction (3:53)
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Start2) L1: History of and why study music theory (5:57)
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Preview3) L2: Staff, lines, spaces (4:01)
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Preview4) ET: Same, different, high, and low (3:15)
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Start5) L3: Treble clef note names (6:00)
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Preview6) FC: Notes of the Treble Clef (2:43)
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Start7) L4: Bass clef note names (3:36)
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Start8) FC: Notes of the Bass Clef (2:14)
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Start9) ET: Melodic Contour Recognition (2:19)
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Start10) L5: Types of notes (6:28)
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Start11) AP: Identify note lengths
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Start12) ET: Quarter, half, and dotted half notes (2:48)
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Start13) L6: Types of rests (2:58)
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Start14) ET: What type of rest is heard (2:44)
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Start15) AP: Practice Naming Notes with Ledger Lines
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Start16) L7: Note stems (1:45)
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Start17) L8: Measures and time signatures (8:49)
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Start18) FC: Notes, Rests, and Time Signatures (1:44)
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Start19) AP: Complete measures (bars) with notes and rests
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Start20) L9: Accidentals (Sharp, Flat, Natural sign, Double Sharp, Double Flat) (6:43)
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Start21) L10: Configuration of the piano, Whole and half steps (3:41)
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Start22) AP: Whole steps and half steps
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Start23) ET: Distinguishing between whole and half steps (1:54)
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Start24) L11: Major scale pattern (5:07)
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Start25) ET: Recognizing the WWHWWWH pattern (3:06)
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Start26) L12: Minor scale patterns (4:49)
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Start27) ET: Distinguishing between different minor scales (2:39)
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Start28) L13: Chromatic scale (2:02)
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Start29) ET: Distinguishing between major, minor, and chromatic scales (2:14)
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Start30) L14: Pentatonic and Blues scale patterns (4:00)
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Start31) AP: Listen to and play various scales
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Start32) ET: Distinguishing between major, minor, chromatic scales, pentatonic, and blues scales (3:11)
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Start33) L15: Key signatures with sharps (8:39)
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Start34) L16: Key signatures with flats (5:25)
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Start35) FC: Key signatures (2:41)
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Start36) L17: How to count rhythms (9:44)
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Start37) FC: Counting rhythms part 1 (5:49)
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Start38) FC: Counting rhythms part 2 (5:14)
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Start39) L18: Ties and Slurs (4:05)
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Start40) L19: Repeat signs, first and second endings, D.C, D.S., coda, and fine (4:24)
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Start41) L20: Intervals (8:30)
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Start42) FC: Intervals (0:59)
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Start43) AP: Intervals #1
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Start44)AP: Intervals #2
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Start45) AP: Intervals #3
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Start46) ET: Intervals (1:54)
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Start47) L21: Sightsinging with solfege (8:48)
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Start48) WS: Sightsinging with solfege (1:16)
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Start49) ET: Melodic Dictation with Solfege (2:52)
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Start50) L22: Major and Minor Triads (5:57)
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Start51) L23: Playing Major and Minor Triads on the piano (3:16)
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Start52) L24: Augmented and Diminished Triads (6:19)
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Start53) L25: Playing Augmented and Diminished Triads on the piano (1:44)
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Start54) ET: Recognizing different types of triads (1:53)
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Start55) L26: Chord inversions and 8ve (4:05)
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Start56) L27: Playing Chord Inversions on the Piano (2:02)
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Start57) ET: Chord Inversions (2:55)
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Start58) L28: Dynamic markings (2:34)
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Start59) FC: Dynamics (1:27)
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Start60) L29: Tempo markings (8:09)
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Start61) FC: Tempo markings (1:20)
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Start62) L30: Articulation markings and fermata (1:32)
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Start63) FC: Symbols (3:42)
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Start64) L31: Circle of Fifths (3:14)
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Start65) L32: Triplets and Syncopation (5:29)
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Start66) L33: Unusual time signatures (5/4) and Conducting patterns (4:30)
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Start67) ET: Recognizing time signatures
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Start68) L34: Nashville number system
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Start69) L35: Seventh Chords (4:49)
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Start70) L36: Playing seventh chords on the piano (3:12)
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Start71) ET: Recognizing the different types of seventh chords (2:18)
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Start72) Review before Final Exam
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StartFinal Exam (3:59)
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StartOnly for Teacher/Parent: Answers for the Final Exam
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StartWhat next? Advanced Music Theory
How to use the course
- There are 72 separate "lectures" which contain one of the following: L = Lesson, ET = Ear Training, FC = Flashcards Practice, AP = App Practice, WS = Worksheet (extra worksheet practice)
The course is self-paced so you can use it however you'd like, but is written to be used for one semester (about 18 weeks long) for about 30 minutes to an hour a day. As you work on the course, it automatically keeps track of where you are. When finished with a lesson, click "Complete and Continue" to move on. You can always come back to past lessons, though.
How does a student earn high school credit with this course?
To earn 1/2 credit Fine Arts elective, do 4 "lectures" per week to finish the course in a semester.
What exactly will the student do for the course?
- Watch/listen to video lessons
- Take notes
- Practice the concepts on worksheets, flashcards, ear training exercises, and apps.
- Practice the concepts by playing on a piano keyboard and singing.
- Check your answers with the included answer sheets. Re-do any lessons where the student didn't get 100% correct.
- Test through included online quizzes with automatic grading.
Are there any Prerequisites for the Beginning Music Theory for Teens course?
No. Everything you need to learn will be taught in this course. If you've never taken any music lessons, you'll be fine starting with this course.
If my student has been taking music lessons for many years, will this course be too easy?
That's a hard question to answer because every music teacher (for piano, choir, violin, band, drums, guitar, orchestra, musical theater, etc.) is unique and puts a different emphasis on how much music theory they teach. It's never a bad idea to get back to the basics and make sure you have the foundation you'll need for any future music or music theory course/college class in music, etc. And, this course IS a prerequisite for the Advanced Music Theory course which you can find inside the Music in Our Homeschool Plus membership.
What prep work should be done before beginning the course?
- Print the music theory worksheets ahead of time so that everything is ready to go each day. Put all the "Answers" sheets in the back behind a divider, so they'll be easily accessible to check your work.
- Obtain a piano keyboard. (This is optional, but will be extremely helpful. A full-sized (88 keys) piano or electronic piano keyboard is fine, as is a shorter electronic keyboard. But, don't get the kind that has miniature-sized keys. Check resale and pawn shops or borrow from a friend for the semester.)
- Get these two apps: Flashnote Derby ($2.99 in Google Play Store and $4.99 in Apple App Store) and MyMusicTheory (free)
Flashnote Derby:
Self-Grading Quizzes:
There is a quiz at the end of each "lecture", and it's self-grading. Please study before taking the quiz because you only get one chance.
(If you'd like me to reset the quiz so you can try again, leave a comment right there on the lesson with that exact quiz. The comment won't show up for anyone else to see, but I'll get an email notification and can reset the quiz for you.)
Parents, contact me when your students finish the course so I can give you the student's quiz grades.
Grading the Course:
The students are to repeat each lesson, worksheet, ear training exercise, flashcard and app practice session, etc. until they have mastery of those. That will give them an "A" for the first 75% of the course. The final exam of 50 questions (2 points each) will contribute 25% of the final grade. The very last "lecture" has the answers to the final exam, so the parent or teacher may want to grade it instead of having the student do it.
What is the Copyright information?
© 2016-2023 Gena Mayo | Music in Our Homeschool MusicinOurHomeschool.com
All rights reserved. No portion of this course may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted outside the immediate household in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
How many copies can I make?
Photocopies of lessons and notebooking pages may be made for only one household or classroom of students.
Can I use the course to teach at a school or co-op?
Purchase of the course is only for one classroom at a school or one family in a household. To obtain a license to use in multiple classes at school or a homeschool co-op, contact Gena Mayo at [email protected].
Is this course only for teens?
Not necessarily, but it was specifically written for teens. Some younger students might be fine following the material. And, it is certainly appropriate for adults as well. I do have a Beginning Music Theory for Elementary course inside the Music in Our Homeschool Plus membership.
Frequently Asked Questions
By the way, are you looking for a Music & Fine Arts Membership experience?
The Music in Our Homeschool Plus (MIOH+) Music and Fine Arts membership experience for Preschool - High School is open for enrollment in January, May, and August of each year.
Beginning Music Theory for Teens
Launch Sale: 20% off now through September 7, 2023
with coupon code THEORY20