Music Theory Instructor

Teaching a Music Theory III class at The Ohio State University.

Teaching a Music Theory III class at The Ohio State University.

Instructor of Record

August 2015—December 2018
The Ohio State University

As a graduate student, I taught the entire range of required undergraduate music theory and aural skills classes. As the primary teaching instructor, my responsibilities included leading class five days a week, performing piano & vocal demonstrations, delivering course content, conducting assessments, and grading assignments & performance skills. The classes were comprised of undergraduate students either majoring or minoring in music. I have taught the following classes:

Music Theory I Music Theory II Music Theory III Music Theory IV
Aural Training I Aural Training II Aural Training III Aural Training IV

Curriculum Development

Music Theory III
The Ohio State University

I worked with Anna Gawboy to restructure the Music Theory III curriculum at OSU. During this curriculum development period, I focused on how to best teach musical form to undergraduate music majors. I conduced a series of formal analyses of a diverse set of musical works, selected appropriate repertoire for the curriculum, and developed assessment tools to be used in the classroom.

In addition to the above tasks, I developed an example syllabus for an upper-level undergraduate class, entitled Formal Analysis of Tonal Music. I selected appropriate musical excerpts and full works, ranging from simple binary & ternary form, through basic sonata form and inner movements like rondos and themes & variations. The sample syllabus ended with more advanced topics like slow introductions, monothematic sonatas, continuous expositions, trimodular blocks, failed expositions, and sonata-rondo form. I also created example homework assignments, lesson plans, aural quizzes, composition projects, and group projects to go along with my curriculum.

Teaching Philosophy

I aim to do the following things when teaching music theory:

  • Integrate aural skills into music theory

  • Make the classroom a space where students feel safe to ask questions and to try learning in new ways

  • Include repertoire selections which are relevant to students—like current popular music and works from their performance repertoire

  • Engage students’ inclinations towards musical narrative