47 courses found
Not open to students already qualified to elect MUSI 2302 or 3310. Study of the rudiments of music and training in the ability to read music. Prerequisite: No previous knowledge of music required.
When we think about knowing the world through the senses, we are likely to think of the visible world. But sound, hearing, and listening are crucial too. How do sound art, technology, and design create the world we inhabit and our everyday social and political experience? How can vibrations both heal and destroy? We will ponder such questions through theoretical, experiential, and creative explorations.
Survey of jazz music from before 1900 through the stylistic changes and trends of the twentieth century; important instrumental performers, composers, arrangers, and vocalists. No previous knowledge of music required.
Jazz has historically been a male-dominated field. Who are the women artists whose work emerged in jazz, what is their music, and what are their stories of inspiration, creativity, struggles and triumphs? Through our exploration of recordings, scholarship, music journalism, video, film and live music performance we will ponder these questions and gain a better understanding of how the politics of gender have challenged jazz music.
Introductory keyboard skills; includes sight-reading, improvisation, and accompaniment at the keyboard in a variety of styles. No previous knowledge of music required. Satisfies the performance requirement for music majors. Prerequisite: Instructor permission by audition.
Fundamentals of playing guitar, along with rhythmic training, music theory, song forms, and more. This class will start from scratch and is meant for beginners. Experienced guitarists are encouraged to enroll in MUSI 3307 Play Guitar! 2.
This class is designed to teach the fundamentals of healthy vocal production. Classes are designed to improve vocal performance for each student, and to provide a introduction to standard vocal repertoire. This course will also include a look at the anatomy of the voice, resonance and articulation in singing, and voice classifications.
Training in vocal technique and performance skills for popular music styles. Attention to healthy vocal production, confidence, and expansion of repertory.
Study of rhythmic patterns associated with rhythms from West African, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States, through theory and performance.
"Learn to Groove" hand drumming and rhythmic fluency with Robert Jospe. This is the intermediate level of the class. It is a hands on drumming/percussion class using congas, djembes, claves, shakers, etc. This class is designed to enhance ones knowledge of syncopated patterns associated with jazz, rock, African and Latin American music and to improve ones facility in playing these patterns.
Jazz Improvisation
Study of art music in the 20th century. Examines ways in which the aims and functions of European/US musical art were re-imagined, particularly in association with modernism. Explores the century's radical shifts in musical language and their relationship with the pressing cultural, political, and social concerns of the period. Fulfills part of the 'Critical and comparative studies in music' requirement for majors. Prerequisite: MUSI 3310
Studies the range of music that has flourished since the end of the 19th century including modernist and post-modern art music, popular music, and world music, through historical, critical, and ethnographic approaches. Prerequisite: The ability to read music, or any three-credit course in music, or instructor permission.
This course reviews the history of Motown Recording Company beginning with the Great Migration and examines how Motown helped shape today¿s record industry. We will explore topics around artist social responsibility, law, mental health, and technology. Students will also compare how black social movements influenced and reflected the music of Motown, Stax Records, and Philadelphia International Records.
To develop intermediate and advanced guitar skills. For students who have taken MUSI 2307 or who have appropriate skills for the course.
Studies the pitch and rhythmic aspects of several musical styles, including European art music, blues, African drumming, and popular music. Focuses on concepts and notation related to scales and modes, harmony, meter, form, counterpoint, and style. Prerequisite: Ability to read music, and familiarity with basic concepts of pitch intervals and scales..
Lab course providing practical experience with many aspects of musical perception and performance, such as accurate vocal production of pitch, musical memory, identification of intervals and rhythmic patterns, and uses of notation in dictation and sight-singing. Students entering this sequence take a test to determine the appropriate level of their first course. Students enrolled in MUSI 3310, 3320 or 4331 have priority; course open to other students as space permits. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.
Lab course providing practical experience with many aspects of musical perception and performance, such as accurate vocal production of pitch, musical memory, identification of intervals and rhythmic patterns, and uses of notation in dictation and sight-singing. Students entering this sequence take a test to determine the appropriate level of their first course. Students enrolled in MUSI 3310, 3320 or 4331 have priority; course open to other students as space permits. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.
Develop aural, analytic and creative abilities through songwriting. Learn about rhythm, melodic design, harmonic progression, lyrics and song forms. Develop ear training, so that concepts you learn will be sonically meaningful. Examples considered from blues, folk, tin pan alley, musicals, R&B, rock and hip hop. Students must sign up for a required Lab section.
A high-level performing and research ensemble that explores modern experimental music utilizing improvisation. With a focus on music that incorporates composition, technology and/or improvisation, the ensemble will rehearse, develop and perform a diverse repertoire, which may include the work of selected students. Students are encouraged to develop their language of improvisation, ensemble musicality, composition skills, and musical aesthetics.
Make Beats introduces students to technologies, techniques, and histories of beat making. Students practice critical listening to exemplars across genres, and work to reverse engineer what we hear. Key projects focus on creative practice, applying course content to the composition of original beats and tracks.
Students gain hands-on experience with synthesizers, music notation software, and the control of MIDI instruments via computer. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.
Ecoacoustics explores the intersection between ecology and music. It engages with natural systems of change and the unique sonic energy of places. Students learn recording and analysis techniques, and create their own ecoacoustic sound works as we study seminal works from the musical and artistic fields of acoustic ecology, sonology, soundscape composition, sonification, earthwork art, and deep listening.
This course will examine the symphony orchestra in detail, covering the capabilities of every orchestral instrument, and study how they are combined by master composers. Students will create arrangements for string quartet, woodwind quintet, and full orchestra. The majority of these projects will receive readings by ensembles. Students may be asked to bring instruments to class for demonstration purposes.
Third semester of a sequence designed to develop keyboard technique and musicianship skills to an intermediate level. Skills covered include the playing of intermediate-level piano pieces in a variety of styles, the continuing development of piano technique, sight reading, harmonization, score reading, basic ensemble skills, and improvisation. Prerequisites: MUSI 2304: Keyboard Skills 2 or placement by audition, together with MUSI 3310: Theory 1 or equivalent background.