This class is deceptively easy the first 2 weeks if you have had any music theory before--don't let it fool you. Keep up with the reading, go to lecture (even though he posts the slides), study well for the midterms/final, and make sure you get a good TA (not Jason Kirby). Oh, and do your concert reports. They are basically free points that will help you if you don't do so well on the midterms or final.
If you like jazz and enjoy listening to jazz, going to jazz shows etc... It is not bad at all. However, you will need to live and breathe jazz the entire semester to do well -- meaning listening to the jazz cd set non stop. Listening examples on tests can be tricky and the only way to really prepare is to spend hours listening. Overall a great class if you want to develop your knowledge of jazz and understand history from a different cultural perspective. If you to the listening should be an easy A.
Great class if you enjoy jazz. You are exposed to a wide variety of artists and styles, but do not assume that if you are a musician that you will automatically do well in this class. It requires a good amount of reading and listening to the provided examples, but anyone interested in jazz should definitely take this class. A great way to satisfy the non-western perspective.
Class is not as easy as you may think. Would avoid this class unless you really enjoy music.
This class was more challenging than I thought it would be. Deveaux says you don't need any musical background and that's true but it sure helps if you do have some. If you're interested in jazz music, the personal lives of jazz musicians, and counting 32 Bar AABA and 12 Bar Blues, then this is the class for you. Great way to get non-western and a humanities credit. The history portion of his exam is fairly simple but his listening section is a bit difficult if you can't count. However, it's not as bad as many people say. In the summer it moves fairly quickly. The book has about 19 chapters (560 pages roughly) so about one chapter a day. Decent class overall.
Ta was shockingly aweful, I would rather have stuck pins in my eyes than go to discussion but he was an easy grader. class is good but if you are not musical you need to get the basics of recognizing form down really quickly, deveaux is the man by the way.
Great way to fulfill non-western requirement if you like music at all
DeVeaux is a great professor and really enjoys teaching this jazz course. The course is not entirely difficult, but if you don't read through the book you will run into trouble. A good portion of the tests are listening based so I would recommend really going through the listening examples while reading the chapters and trying to make not of what each player sounds like (the important ones like Davis, Parker, etc.)
I thought this class was going to be an easy A, but Prof. Deveaux made the class a lot harder. There is a lot of reading, and the exams are surprisingly detailed and tricky. The only way to do well is to spend lots of time memorizing. The TA Erik Deluca was TERRIBLE (rude, unhelpful, boring) and Prof. Deveaux was a relatively boring lecturer. Don't take this class unless you have to
Awesome class. Deveaux is really enthusiastic about the material, and if you study and listen to the listening guide included with the textbook, you'll be fine.
