Music

This course wasn't exactly what I expected it would be... Instead of analyzing music before hitting the notation software, the assignments were pretty vague and basically left you to do anything you wanted as long as you complied to one or two parameters. I spent more time on assignments than other people, but if you *really* didn't want to put in that much work, you wouldn't have to. Quayle's feedback isn't all that helpful either; since most of the class is discussion based, he let the class share their thoughts first and then he'd give some sort of praise and maybe a single comment/critique. The main pressure (in a good way) were the guest musicians; great way to debut our pieces and learn what to tweak and why.

This course wasn't exactly what I expected it would be... Instead of analyzing music before hitting the notation software, the assignments were pretty vague and basically left you to do anything you wanted as long as you complied to one or two parameters. I spent more time on assignments than other people, but if you *really* didn't …Read more

I loved this course! Professor Quayle is an extremely talented professor. He is incredibly passionate about music composition. I found it very useful to meet with him to discuss my pieces. The course was accessible to people with a range of backgrounds -- my classmates all had differing levels of formal experience, which made for very interesting class sessions. All assignments happen outside of class, so the time spent on the course outside of class periods depends on how much effort you put into your pieces. Professor Quayle gives suggestions more often than explicit directions, which makes the course interesting but can leave grading somewhat ambiguous.

I loved this course! Professor Quayle is an extremely talented professor. He is incredibly passionate about music composition. I found it very useful to meet with him to discuss my pieces. The course was accessible to people with a range of backgrounds -- my classmates all had differing levels of formal experience, which made for ver …Read more

This course is primarily designed to teach students how to use Ableton Live 12 to produce music. As someone who wants to produce my own music but doesn't know anything about music theory, I found this course to be very helpful in introducing me to different aspects of the app and equipping me with basic skills of music production. However, as a beginner, you definitely need to spend more time at the start of the course to navigate the app outside of class in the lab, especially during the first project. Grading is mostly based upon projects, and as long as you satisfy the technical criteria in the rubric (eg, not clipping & following exporting instructions), Mclean is quite a lenient grader. There are around 4 simple quizzes per semester on Live/music concepts covered in class. Overall, it's a light course that teaches you a useful skill. However, I did not find class time to be that effective, as they're mostly demonstrations of him using the app (lab-periods where you can get hands-on experience with the computers only occurs once a week).

This course is primarily designed to teach students how to use Ableton Live 12 to produce music. As someone who wants to produce my own music but doesn't know anything about music theory, I found this course to be very helpful in introducing me to different aspects of the app and equipping me with basic skills of music production. Ho …Read more