Experiencing a bit of insomnia, so I thought I'd get started on what I planned to be a series of short posts on my experiences using The Practice of Popular Music by Trevor de Clercq in my Popular Music Theory Analysis (Theory 4) course for popular music majors.
The basics
First off, the book is somewhat minimalistic compared to other theory texts. We use the Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony in Theory 1 & 2 and TPoP reminds me of it. Definitely not a bad thing.
Right now I'm feeling out student ability based on some curricular restructuring recommended by the program director. This means we're not moving through the book linearly like we ordinarily might do if this were the first class in a two-semester popular-music theory sequence. Currently we've covered Chapters 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
Format and exercises
Each chapter is written in a narrative fashion, similar to the Laitz and Callahan, but are quite trim in comparison. At the end of each chapter are a series of short exercises that tackle the chapter's content in at least two modalities. Usually this includes some sort of analysis/transcription based on a recording or fundamentals drills. For example, Chapter 10 Syncopation has students transcribe vocal melodies like the verse from "Beat It" by Michael Jackson and perform a simple backbeat using their hands on a table. Other chapters focusing on harmony meanwhile require students to spell chords and play them on the piano with both hands (LH bass note, RH triad figuration) using smooth voice leading.
Pedagogical progression
Nearly everything in the first 12 chapters scaffolds to Ch. 13.2 Nashville Number System. However, the text tends to pepper in fundamentals like key signatures (Ch 7) and intervals (Ch 9) between potentially novel subjects like creating drummers charts (Ch 8 Phrases and Hypermeasures). So far this has been fine, but expect to take more time on the latter.
My current plan with the text involves taking students to Ch 16 Melodic-Harmonic Organization before setting them off to compose and perform their own original songs for their midterm project. Afterward, they'll build on this foundation with advanced topics found in Ch 17-27, with a slight detour to Modal Mixture in Ch 41/44, before completing another song project for their final.
I also require students to take a short pass/fail assessment on fundamentals-oriented chapters (e.g., triads in a key, compound meter, pentatonic scales) a week after they are introduced. All students must pass these assessments by the end of the semester to pass the course.
Initial impressions
I'll present the following as a bulleted list of informal observations until I make my way through the entire semester's worth of content. In short: so far so good.
Honestly, I'm pleased at just how fun it has been to work through the book. Our space has a serious professional live sound system complete with multiple speakers, monitors, and subwoofers, meaning playing through the chapter examples on Spotify is incredibly satisfying.
Students seem the most engaged when we do an initial listen of most/all of the song, then zero in on the relevant content and section for discussion.
To ensure they're paying attention, I make students write a form chart and count the number of measures for each section whenever we listen to any song, for any reason. Then depending on what we're doing, we either turn this into a drummer's or Nashville number chart or write out the hypermeasures for just one section. This has been great practice for me, too, and I find myself getting really good at "listening back" to the last four bars or so.
When something is non-paradigmatic, like a phrase extension, I simply mark it with a ! for discussion. Depending on the time remaining, I can go back to this moment if it is relevant.
I don't think I agree with Trevor that piano is the most relevant or accessible instrumental skill for hearing/playing harmonies. If the book is grounded on practice, then students should also have a basic grasp of note positions on a guitar/bass in standard tuning. My ability to look at a guitarist's hand and know what notes they're playing has saved me countless times when stepping in on bass for open mic nights or jam sessions . Especially when the other musicians might not even know what chords/notes they're playing.
There's a strong Ionian/Aeolian bias inherent in the Nashville Number System. It's not necessarily a flaw, but definitely something to be aware of. As I've argued elsewhere, our students are going to prefer to hear chords on downbeats as tonics, especially if we don't encounter a strong closure on1 or 6 until a later formal section. Which is to say, we may be enculturated to hear 1 or 6 as "home" (Ch 13 Triads in a Key) but many other factors can override this. For example, I really struggle to hear "Good As Hell" by Lizzo in Eb major (Ch 11 Diatonic Triads) for a lot of reasons that I'll save for later. I suspect your own students might, too. Be prepared.
Moving forward
Right now we're in Week 6. Some chapters like Ch 7 Key Signatures hardly sustained an entire 65-minute class period, so we moved onto the following chapters ahead of schedule. Others, like Ch 13 Triads in a Key, are chock full of things to do depending on how much class time you want to spend making charts. If we do a deep dive, it never feels like time wasted, but I will definitely be reconsidering the position of certain chapters in future semesters due to how quickly we were able to move through them.
I'll have more soon in a few weeks! Thanks for reading.
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