So far my freshman theory classes at SIUE are going very well. We finally wrapped up the fundamentals this past week with the introduction of triads and figured bass. Tomorrow we will deal with the basics of harmonic motion on our way to part-writing sometime at the end of the week or early next.

Figured bass is a funny topic to teach. At its most basic level, it’s simply “paint-by-numbers” above the bass, but since it is almost always taught after the concept of triadic inversion (something I need to re-examine in my own teaching), students always seem to want to make it more complex by skipping the literal understanding of the figures and going directly to the harmony. This is not such a crisis in the early days but when chromaticism rolls around (and especially the +6 chords) this will ultimately come back to hurt the students. I know this from firsthand experience, since I was one of those students who tried to take shortcuts with the figures. I suspect that my problems with figured bass started with long division.

The one constant throughout my life is that I’ve really disliked math and to be honest, have never really been very good at anything beyond pre-algebra. I’m not really sure why, but I suspect it is because I can’t outsmart numbers and formulas, and that irritates me no end. Part of why I like composing is that I can impose my own rules on my music, or if the rules don’t work I can either temporarily ignore them or change them altogether to fit whatever I’m trying to accomplish. With math however, I can’t change the rules, so my solution was to try to find ways around the rules, usually resulting in disastrous grades and endless frustration. For me, undergraduate theory and especially figured bass was simply another set of rules that seemed relatively straightforward, and therefore subject to taking shortcuts. I was fortunate enough to have someone take the time to show me just how simple it really was early enough to save me from myself.

Therefore, to save my students this frustration, I will continue to repeat to my students that they should first solve the figures before applying Roman numeral labels. I will say this every day for the next two weeks and at least once a week for the rest of the semester and probably all of next semester. Some of the students will take longer to get the message, but ultimately I will be more stubborn until I’m sure that they’ve received the message.