Moot Thoughts & Musings

Well, today was my first day back wearing the "professor" hat. Next week, I'll don the "student" hat, too.

I'm teaching Music Appreciation at a local university. This is a class for non-music majors to introduce them to the elements and history of music, as well as concert-going and such. I think I'm going to enjoy teaching this class a little bit better than last semester's class, which was a semester review of all of music history for incoming graduate students. I always felt behind then and inadequate in my knowledge base. This semester's class is a little simpler technically, and thus a little more straightforward. We don't have to cover everything in music history and take quality time on a few things.

Today I taught about the process of listening to music. How it's more intentional than just turning on a CD. How you have to listen for tunes and structure and keep track of them, like you keep track of characters in a story. I talked to them about genre, and how really fairly simple it is to distinguish it by ear. I played a little Nas and asked them to tell me what genre it was. They all said "rap". Of course it is. Then we talked about what things specifically led them to that answer: the kind of beat, spoken, rhymed lyrics, etc.

Then we talked about why we like certain music and not others. I played a track from the new Bjork CD, which is just terrific. Upon first listening, though, it is definitely...different. Some people liked it, some hated it. I said this class will give them the tools and the vocabulary to describe and explain why they like some things and not others, which has some good in developing a critical, thoughtful person overall, not just with music.

The class went well. I'm excited, and I hope this semester is a good one.