Free online course teaches music appreciation to adults.

Rice University offers a free online introductory music appreciation course that offers adults a new way to learn how to listen to music.

Called "Sound Reasoning," the course comes complete with on-screen audio samples that demonstrate concepts explained in the text and interactive exercises that offer immediate feedback on why a response is correct or incorrect. Designed to be as user-friendly as possible, the course does not require the ability to read music, and the audio samples can be accessed quickly with the click of a mouse.

Sound Reasoning offers 10 learning modules on topics such as "Musical Emphasis" and "What Music is Trying to Express," and they're accompanied by audible examples, such as excerpts from works as diverse as Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 5," Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9" and Schoenberg's "A Survivor from Warsaw." The modules can be studied in sequence or individually at the user's own pace. People who feel more comfortable with a textbook can print hard copies of the lessons.

Although the course concentrates on Western classical and modern music, the concepts taught in each lesson can be applied to jazz, folk music, popular music and other styles.

The various modules in Sound Reasoning teach the listener to analyze changes in speed, pitch, range and duration and to pay attention to orchestration, dynamics, density, fragmentation and other features.

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