This course will provide an introduction to basic acoustic principles, practical techniques, and working procedures for equipment used in contemporary music production, including microphones, mixers, recorders, synthesizers, and sequencers. Basic sound processing operations (equalization, compression, distortion, reverberation). Operating principles of most popular systems of music production software and hardware. Letter grading. Course Flyer

In this course you’ll examine the life and music of the Beatles within the social and historical context of the 1960’s. Credit for both courses 68 and 168 not allowed. Formerly numbered Music History 68. Course Flyer

This course will introduce you to the development of rap music and hip-hop culture, with an emphasis on musical and verbal qualities, philosophical and political ideologies, gender representation, and influences on cinema and popular culture. Same as African American Studies M107 .  Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course. Course Flyer

In this course you will explore the development of world music or world beat, including its meaning and importance to contemporary culture as well as its history and impact. Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course. Course Flyer   

In this course you’ll survey groove-based electrified dance music from its origins in 1960’s pop and soul to present, covering disco, house, techno, ambient, rave, and jungle. This course will emphasize the interaction of technology, musical structures, psychoactive drugs, and club cultures to induce altered states of musical consciousness; promise (versus reality of) political and spiritual transformation; electronic dance music as new art music. Formerly numbered Music History 8. P/NP or letter grading. GE-approved course. Course Flyer

In this course you will analyze the forms, practices, and meanings of rock and roll music, broadly conceived, from its origin to present. This course will include an emphasis on how this music has reflected and influenced changes in sexual, racial, and class identities and attitudes. Credit for both courses 5 and 185 not allowed. Formerly numbered Music History 5. Course Flyer

Learn and employ the craft of songwriting in this course. Students will examine, analyze, and implement song structure, lyric and melody writing, arranging, orchestrating, and recording techniques. Study the evolution of songwriting in modern society since the advent of phonograph player/radio; how songs and society affect and reflect one another, and how this has informed songs and songwriters. Formerly MSC IND 112. Letter grading. Course Flyer

In this course, you’ll study the development of jazz in American culture. You’ll discuss different compositional/performance techniques and approaches that distinguish different sub-styles of jazz from one another, as well as key historical figures that shaped the development of jazz from its early years through modern jazz. Course M50A is not requisite to M50B. Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course. Course Flyer

In this course, you’ll survey English-language popular music in the 20th century, with a focus on lesbians, gay men, and members of other sexual minorities as creators, performers, and audience members. Formerly Music History M137. Same as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies M137. Letter grading.  GE-approved course.  Course Flyer

This course allows you to explore how music is mediated to people by industry, technologies, and corporations. This course includes a survey of leading theorists of media and an exploration of case studies. Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course. Course Flyer  

In this course, students will explore and demonstrate the various ways in which music is informed by and informs politics. From individual performances to mass demonstrations, music is recognizable as a political act and tool that is not simply representative, but also constitutive, meaning that music creates belief systems (politics). You’ll examine the development and use of music by social movements, political parties, and nations, and critical listening practices to better hear the world around us and sounds that compose its futures. Formerly Music History 69. Course Flyer

Study and performance of gospel music, beginning with Afro-American spirituals, and including traditional and contemporary gospel. There will also be a virtual choir performance. Course Flyer

This course will teach Chinese instruments: erhu, dizi, guzheng, and more, from the beginner to advanced level. May be repeated for credit without limitation. Course Flyer

In this course, students will learn how to play tabla (North Indian drum). The class meets once a week. Starting from basic sound techniques, a few compositions will be taught within the duration of the course. Students will also be taught the rhythmic patterns unique to Indian music. Grading is based on student attendance, practice and sincere approach to the music. Course Flyer

In this course you’ll study traditional and contemporary musical culture. Course M108A is not requisite to 108B. Same as Chicano Studies M108A Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course. Course Flyer  

Course in music fundamentals, including musicianship, theory, and terminology. Letter grading. Course Flyer

This course will provide you with a performance-based introduction to popular music styles, forms, and competencies through immersion in studio performance techniques. Students will play in groups to develop ensemble, create material, and produce recordings. P/NP or letter grading. Course Flyer

This course will provide you with an introduction to the intellectual and theoretical frameworks that form the Music Industry minor and that scholars of music and music industries have developed to analyze, understand, and perhaps judge what happens out there, including how music business works in financial, legal, global, and artistic terms, how music technologies of recording, reproduction, and consumption operate, and how basic music science from acoustics to brain biology to music perception affect how music is produced and heard. Letter grading. Required of Music Industry minors. Course Flyer

With a special focus on the songwriting renaissance of the rock era, you’ll examine the work of important songwriters of the post-World War II generation (circa 1952-1994) and those they have influenced. You’ll also gain practical industry guidance from current and noteworthy practitioners.   In this course you will cover songwriting, arrangement and record production, music publishing, and the recording business in the 20th and 21st centuries. The course also features guest music industry professionals who will demonstrate individual creative processes, discuss their paths to songwriting and their place in world of music. This course is not workshop or tutorial on how to write songs. (See course 112.) (Formerly numbered 105.)   Featured Guests Include: Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman, Mike Posner, and more!   Formerly MSC IND 105. Letter grading. Course Flyer 

Explore techniques, methods and processes of music production and larger issues in the art of making music. You’ll learn how to foster and capture performance and emotion in music using a variety of methods and tools, including artistic direction in studio and choices made in sound, arrangement, and application of technology. No traditional musical training is required. Letter grading. Course Flyer 

This course provides a brief historical survey of film music, with strong emphasis on recent development: Japanese animation, advertising, and MTV, as well as computer tools and digital scoring methods. This course is designed to inspire and inform those interested in movie music. Offered in summer only. Musical experience is helpful, but not required. P/NP or letter grading. Musical experience helpful, but not required. Offered in summer only. Course Flyer

In this course you’ll learn specific skills, incorporating technical description, historical contextualization, subjective reaction, and the certain stylistic conventions necessary in writing about music. Formerly numbered Music History 12W. Letter grading. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Course Flyer