Music Appreciation

[pofa]

Made this thread on kind of a whim. If you had to take a music appreciation class, what would you want to learn?

I'm about to teach one for the first time and I'm trying to figure out the direction of my curriculum. My department is requiring me to take them through the history of Western Classical music briefly, but these aren't music majors, so for the rest of the time I'd like to find a way to raise their appreciation of music using other genres that they probably actually like.

So you college-age people, is there anything you're curious about? Classical or popular or otherwise. Or if you don't like classical or pop or any music at all, why not?

If you've taken a music app class before, what did you like/hate?

[queenmisanagi]

I took an art studies (focusing on music) elective back in college and we studied about the history of music and different instruments different countries or cultures play.

Oh, and like that the Chinese had these scales, or these many notes, as opposed to the Western one.

But if it's just appreciation, maybe don't go into too much details on the history. Maybe just a general idea would do. But the instruments were cool cause my professor brought them in class and he knew how to play most of them

[ProfParanoia]

I like learning about the musicians themselves, but I doubt others would.

[pofa]

I like learning about the musicians themselves, but I doubt others would.

Well, a lot of people don't respond to the biographical information that well, but Western Classical composer bios are one of the things I have to do as per the department syllabus, so I'm trying to find ways that will make it less boring for people who don't like learning information for its own sake. (Since I think a lot of that stuff is interesting just by itself. )

[Kor]

Well, I'm studying at Berklee College of Music, so I already have some experience with this stuff. Just for the sake of knowing, what exactly is a "Music Appreciation" class? I don't need to take something like that, so I have no clue.

[pofa]

Well, I'm studying at Berklee College of Music, so I already have some experience with this stuff. Just for the sake of knowing, what exactly is a "Music Appreciation" class? I don't need to take something like that, so I have no clue.

It's an elective that non-music majors who are interested in music take. Usually, one "arts" elective is required, so you have to take art appreciation or music appreciation or an option like that. The purpose is to give the students a brief introduction to the scholarly world of music as well as to increase their love for it, presuming that if they know more or experience more they'll like it better.

[ProfParanoia]

Well, I'm studying at Berklee College of Music, so I already have some experience with this stuff. Just for the sake of knowing, what exactly is a "Music Appreciation" class? I don't need to take something like that, so I have no clue.

Well, in highschool it's nap time/study hall. But idk what it's like in college.

[pofa]

Well, I'm studying at Berklee College of Music, so I already have some experience with this stuff. Just for the sake of knowing, what exactly is a "Music Appreciation" class? I don't need to take something like that, so I have no clue.

Well, in highschool it's nap time/study hall. But idk what it's like in college.

This is also the case.

[Kor]

The last time I had to learn History of Western Music was in my last semester, and even though it was about the third time I had to learn this stuff, it was the most interesting one. For once, the teacher didn't only talk about the material all the time. 20 minutes of the classes were usually spent on him telling us weird and/or funny stories about the composers, so I think making the class a bit entertaining might make the students listen more. Though then again, I know there were a lot of people in the back who didn't listen so I guess I was just more interested in the class than the others.

Since we're talking about non-musicians, I suggest to not focus too much on modern classical music since it's a heavy music for people who don't like music, but still some minimal stuff on the huge changes that happened at that time.
As for modern "modern" music, my best advice is to not talk about jazz.

I'll try to think on some more ideas, but then again I might not be helpful cause I'm already a musician and we're talking about non-musician people...

[Toast]

Depends. A lot of people like to listen to the music THEY like and they also like to talk about it. I've learned that you can't make someone like any kind of music, and in some cases you can't even make them realize how important it is. One thing I loved in one of my music classes is that we were always discussing our modern musical interests and how it ALWAYS roots back to classical music.

Then again, that's just me.

[ranger]

Well, I'm studying at Berklee College of Music, so I already have some experience with this stuff. Just for the sake of knowing, what exactly is a "Music Appreciation" class? I don't need to take something like that, so I have no clue.

Well, in highschool it's nap time/study hall. But idk what it's like in college.

pretty much the same thing.  Easy gen ed/ elective that you can blowoff for an easy A

[ConansSideWalk]

This is my experience with my music class. It was the most expensive purchase as of this moment in my college life! Classical Music I don't remember the full title. The required materials were the text book + 6 CD set + DVD. It was more intense than I expected. Our lectures consisted of learning about a variety of composers by time periods then we would go into their pieces then dissect them (am not a music major though a majority of the class was lol). Our only homework was to attend two concertos then review them in detail using all them musical terms. For the tests we had a listening portion where we had to remember the title of the piece, the composer, time period, key, instruments played and some other stuff and a written portion that was worse. xD

[Kleene Onigiri]

Eh.. I dunno D: I wouldn't be interested at all XD
But maybe showing all kinds of different genres (pop, rock, jazz etc) with some of the under-categories, since there is different jazz etc. D:
Showing some instruments too maybe? D: If that's even possible xd

[ProfParanoia]

Well, I'm studying at Berklee College of Music, so I already have some experience with this stuff. Just for the sake of knowing, what exactly is a "Music Appreciation" class? I don't need to take something like that, so I have no clue.

Well, in highschool it's nap time/study hall. But idk what it's like in college.

This is also the case.

So make your class really hard and bust them up .