ABSTRACT
Music fundamentals courses offer an opportunity to reimagine what is truly “fundamental” about music theory. These often-remedial courses are critical for shaping learners’ orientation to the discipline and controlling who is permitted to study music in a postsecondary context. This chapter explores options for instructors to expand fundamentals-level approaches to the music of Black composers, with strategies that range from simple diversification of musical examples to whole-scale curricular revisions that encourage a critically reflective orientation to the discipline itself. In doing so, the chapter motivates instructors to take steps toward antiracist pedagogies with flexible suggestions that can be adopted in whole or in part, depending on instructors’ institutional context and personal abilities.
