Zach is a teaching fellow in the Reid

School of Music at the University of Edinburgh.

He has a strong research interest in music pedagogy, in higher education.

He also has interest in musical improvisation, popular

music and the musical experience of cochlear implant users.

He's also an active musician and composer.

Richard has a PhD in composition from the University

of Edinburgh, and is also a teaching fellow here.

Throughout the 90s, he lived in New York,

performing and recording with his band, Groove Collective.

Since then, he's lived in Scotland, studying and teaching.

In this first lecture, we're going to start

with music at it's most basic level, sound.

We will look at how music can

be created by exploiting the relationships between sounds.

As we're interested here in music literacy as well as theory, we

will be looking at how written

notation can graphically represent these musical sounds.

Now, as is this is the first lecture, there's just

one thing I want to underline here before we start.

All kinds of superb musicians get by just fine without reading or writing music.

Being able to read and write musical notation does not make you a composer or a

musician any more than not being able to

read and write means you can't compose or play.

Understanding musical notation doesn't necessarily

even make you a better musician.

In fact you could argue that placing emphasis on reading and writing can

come at the expense of listening, which is what music is really all about.

At best then, understanding music notation makes you a more rounded musician.

It certainly does give you access to the amazing riches of centuries of

notated music, and allows you to express,

analyze, record, and symbolically develop musical ideas.

Music notation is an amazing development that's had

an astounding impact on Western musical culture and thought.

But there's nothing particularly challenging or difficult about notation.

Mastering it is just a matter of familiarization and practice.

It's generally a tool, not an end in itself.