New cohort launching Thursday!

Hello! This week I'll be formally announcing the launch of a new cohort-based version of my Basic Music Theory course. I still have some i's to dot and t's to cross before I can share all the details and open the doors, but I can tell you a little more about what to expect:

• enrollment will begin this Thursday, and the course itself will get underway next week
• we'll be going through the material together over the course of the next 12-15 weeks or so - roughly the equivalent of a full university semester of material
• the pace is intended to not feel too hectic and to provide time to explore topics in some depth, while allowing people to keep up even while maintining the normal busy schedules many of us habe
• we'll be focusing on practical applications like ear training and improvisation, so even if the subject matter itself seems familiar to many of you, the hand-on practice should be vaulable for virtually everyone
• as usual, the course will be available for one-time purchase, but it will be provided at no additional charge for Gold level members, who will also continue to enjoy other exclusive benefits like Office Hours - so I will encourage people to consider the subscription option
• discounts will be available for those who already enrolled in other courses, including the original non-cohort version of Basic Music Theory

I'll send out a followup Thursday with more information, and I'll be talking about it at more length during this week's Music Master Class.

Mastering MuseScore

For the ultimate guide to the world's most popular music notation software, see my online course Mastering MuseScore 4.

MuseScore Café

This week in the MuseScore Café with Marc Sabatella, we revisit the subject of working with individual parts - a makeup session for a recent episode cut short by weather-related technical issues.

The free MuseScore Café is live on Wednesday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.

Notation Project

This month we're starting a new project - a short string quartet piece that you may recognize 🙂. See the full post here.

Tip of the Week

MuseScore 4 currently lacks the ability to select individual sounds within a soundfont, except by changing the instrument itself. One workaround is to use a VST like sforzando that allows you to load soundfonts and select sounds within them. Another option, however, is to split the soundfont into individual files for each sound. This allows you to select the desired sound directly within MuseScore.

I recently shared a ZIP file containing all the sounds from the MS Basic soundfont, split into separate soundfonts to allow you to choose individual sounds in much the same way as in MuseScore 3. Here is a link to a post with information on how to download and use this file.

Musicianship Skills

If you want to learn more about music - theory, composition, improvisation, and more - become a Gold level member and receive access to all of our music courses as well as exclusive benefits like my weekly Office Hours.

Music Master Class

This week in the Music Master Class with Marc Sabatella, we launch our Basic Music Theory cohort - stay tuned for more details!

The free Music Master Class is live on Thursday at 12:30 PM Eastern (16:30 GMT, or 17:30 during the winter months), and you can access past episodes in the archive.

Musicianship Project

This month we'll be doing a set of projects in conjunction with our Basic Music Theory courses. The first project will be announced next week.

In Theory

The phrase "music theory" means different things to different people, and although I have written about this before, this feels like a good time to reiterate some of my own feelings about it.
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At the most fundamental level, I would describe music theory as the study of why music sounds the way it does. It attempts to answer questions like, "why does it sound good (or bad) if I use these notes together", "what does Baroque music tend to have in common that makes it sound Baroque and not Romantic", "how can I improvise on a given song and make it fit the chords", "how can I create music in a given genre that doesn't sound derivative", etc.

For more thoughts, see my full post here.