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I have been teaching straight European-style theoretical subjects - harmony, counterpoint, analysis -- for a number of years. Because a few of my students are, at any given time, preparing for Royal Conservatory theory exams (or end up taking them at some point), some of what I teach is addressed to that curriculum. At the RCM, the harmony-etc stuff (after the rudiments level) is broken down into levels 3, 4, & 5, the implication being that it will take three years to finish it. My direct experience with the RCM system shows that it leaves much to be desired. Without going into detail, my sense is that a lot of what goes on at the RCM and similar schools is entirely too directed towards the short-term preparation of students to pass exams,and not nearly enough towards producing people who are excited about music in general, or who have a sense of what it might mean, in a general way, just to be a musician, period. In my view, the exam business constitutes one of the biggest pedagogical traps in the book. When a teacher's focus is such that exam preparation becomes the sole or principle goal of the lessons, the quality of the training can easily drop through the floor. Yes, it is a two way street: if silly little grades are what the student really cares about, then I guess they just get what they deserve. But why not take up baseball? For the rest of us, just a little something to keep in mind when you are checking out prospective teachers: whenever the topic of exams comes up, proceed with caution. And if it comes up in the first couple of lessons, I advise you to run, and fast. A few years ago, I was asked to teach an introductory harmony course at the RCM. What I found was that the students had not been prepared, either in terms of their ears, or in terms of their understanding of basic concepts such as the cycle of fifths, to deal with the subject. It was sort of an emergency, since the class was supposedly geared toward the RCM Grade III harmony curriculum. In response, I came up with what I thought they most needed to know, cut out some useless "exam" fodder, and gradually assembled things into a book format. Over the intervening years I have continued to use this book, which I somewhat casually entitled "Basic Harmony -- a survival guide for music students" in both private and classroom situations. The main thing that separates my book from most of the harmony texts I have seen is that it is realistic about where my students are. For one thing, voice-leading and chord progression, traditionally at the very centre of things, are not introduced until about forty-odd pages in. Up to that point, we are dealing only with the cycle of fifths and spelling chords, either in the traditional conservatory Roman numeral method (which does zero to develop the ear) or in the manner of pop music, according to the sound of the chord, as in "D major seventh", etc. (which does). Currently, this book is 109 pages long. For your interest, I have included the table of contents here. If you are interested in talking about this part of the music theory world, please contact me. I can also send you my book. |
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