Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of Music Theory by The University of Edinburgh
About the Course
Top reviews
SS
Aug 23, 2017
It was a very nice course. We were able to understand the basics of music theory and how the notations and chords work. Thank you so much to the entire staff of Edinburgh University and Coursera..:-)
SO
Jan 22, 2024
Difficult but very thorough, I feel my understanding of music to much deeper now. I definitely found rereading and rewatching the course material super helpful to complete the course. Thank you!
376 - 400 of 596 Reviews for Fundamentals of Music Theory
By Ruarai M
•Jan 30, 2019
Excellent!
By Daniel W
•Aug 24, 2018
Very nice.
By Eugene E
•May 17, 2018
Excellent!
By Vaida C
•Aug 21, 2024
very good
By JAVIER R A
•Jul 31, 2023
Genial!!
By Marta N
•Jan 27, 2023
MUY BUENO
By Vicente B
•Apr 27, 2022
excellent
By Emmanuel c o
•Mar 22, 2018
i love it
By Guillermo Á M C
•Oct 27, 2017
¡Gracias!
By Wam R
•Jul 3, 2017
Loving it
By Yvonne C
•Mar 31, 2017
仔细、认真、全面。
By Sarah G
•Feb 25, 2019
Exelent!
By Stella K
•Dec 21, 2017
Thank yo
By Антон Ю
•Jun 25, 2017
Perfect!
By Pyro
•Nov 4, 2021
Amezing
By Maria V C
•Sep 19, 2018
amazing
By Nomit N
•Jun 15, 2017
superbb
By andres b
•Jan 20, 2017
Gracias
By Mrs. B
•Sep 10, 2016
Super!
By Gabriel A
•Apr 11, 2023
great
By Akhil V
•Jul 28, 2019
good
By Hai y
•Jun 8, 2018
TQ
By Gregor M
•Jan 6, 2021
What began as a passing interest in improving my scant knowledge of music theory became a full on obsession by the end of this course. I was staying up until 9pm over my Christmas break, taking and re-taking quizzes and studying cadences, secondary dominants and modulation. Who would've known? Certainly not me when I began!
For me, playing music is a hobby. I've never studied it, taken graded exams or anything of that sort. I saw 'fundamentals of music theory', free of charge, and thought it would be a good place to start. A word of advice: this is certainly not for beginner musicians.
My only criticism of the course would be that the end of unit quizzes, and final exam, are a VERY steep climb from the comparatively pedestrian level of instruction (barring the rhythm section, which required a lot of further study to get my head around).
The formula seems to go: crawl (teach concept), baby steps (watch demonstration of concept), Olympic 100-metre sprint (answer university level questions). If you have the time and dedication to put into this course the rewards are plenty. You can take end of unit quizzes as many times as you would like, meaning the challenge just about meets the pace of learning.
I am thoroughly pleased with the time I put into this course, and I am excited to go back to my instruments (saxophone and guitar) armed with a greater understanding of these fundamentals, and indeed more complex concepts, of music theory.
By Alison C
•Jul 7, 2020
Most of the course was delivered at a suitable pace, with plenty of examples. The one week where my eyes glazed over was week 3 (I think) which was all about time values of notes, etc. Fortunately, I already read music, and so managed to pass the assessment. Otherwise I think I'd have struggled. Even so, some of the questions really stretched my brain - many of them were NOT normal rhythms!
I felt that one or two of the questions in the final exam were quite complicated - cases where we were to disregard "passing notes" for instance, which was something I felt wasn't really covered in the course, and the one about "phrasing structure" (but that may have been in week 3).
In short, I'm not sure it's the FUNDAMENTALS (which to me means the basics) of music theory, but after well over 40 years of being able to read music, and over 20 singing in choirs, I finally understand the structures and names of chords, and simple progressions, and can work out an accompaniment for a simple tune, which was absolutely what I wanted to achieve. Thank you!
By Răzvan M
•Nov 27, 2016
I am absolutely delighted to have had the opportunity to study the fundamentals of music theory from a prestigious university such as The University of Edinburgh for free online. I extend my most sincere gratitude to Coursera and the professors teaching the course for making this possible. The course makes it very easy to build knowledge going from week to week. The assignments are all challenging. In this way this course encourages studying to understand the concepts. I have attended the course as a beginner in music theory, having encountered only some very elementary concepts earlier. I have found all the teachers to be very pleasant and very clear in their explanations. I have given 4 stars to this course because I would have liked to learn more from the professors on some topics which were very briefly mentioned. Some of the courses have external links to Wikipedia instead of a more clear explanation. This are however the exception and not the rule. The majority of the course is well taught and presented.