i'm a first year lifesci student hoping to choose easy and enjoyable electives for next year...i've been involved in music for about 8 years but i never really bothered learning about the music history, etc.

any thoughts, comments about the first year music courses?

If you like to play music, then you can join the McMaster band... they practice weekly and play at concerts. You get a credit at the end of the year.

well, i'm already planning to join the chamber orchestra (although i haven't even thought of a piece to audition with). but, i'm wondering if those two music courses are considered 'easy.' i mean, with all the science courses next year i think i'll need a real gpa booster elective...

I took Music 1AA3 this past year. I found it pretty easy, there are just 3 in-class tests and the exam, no assignments. The prof, Dr. Mitchell is really good.

Originally Posted by Kevin S.

I took Music 1AA3 this past year. I found it pretty easy, there are just 3 in-class tests and the exam, no assignments. The prof, Dr. Mitchell is really good.

thanks! is there are a lot of memorization involved? what kind of formats are used for test/exams?

also, music 1AA3 is considered a humanities course, right? so i need a year of humanities course, does that mean that i have to take both music 1AA3 AND 1A03?

hey, are there any music courses at mac where you can actually learn to read music? I've always wanted to learn how to, but never got around to it. Thanks!

Hey Quester! I took Music 1A03, and I agree with KevinS Dr. Mitchell is really good! But I'm not sure if he is still teaching it for the coming term, but it's still an enjoyable course. 1A03 covers earlier history like how music began and how it evolved from its religious roots (like monk chants) to i believe unitil the baroque era. There is a fair amount of memorization - it is a history course for music so you need to remember all the composers and what happened during the era =P.

When I took it with Dr. Mitchell, the formats for the tests were the same: some Multiple Choice, some very short-answer questions and finally he will play tracks from the CD that you are supposed to listen to and you have to name the Title of the piece and composer and he may ask some small questions about the history behind the piece. Oh and you have to memorize how to spell the title/composers cuz most of them are like in another language and I believe he will deduct marks if you spell wrong. These test never took me long to finish !

Hope that helps.

Hey #Eng!

I took a class with Mitchell as well .. Music For Film and Television. Good course, and he is a really interesting prof to listen to, he really loves music and he appears to be so humble

...and finally he will play tracks from the CD that you are supposed to listen to and you have to name the Title of the piece and composer and he may ask some small questions about the history behind the piece. Oh and you have to memorize how to spell the title/composers cuz most of them are like in another language and I believe he will deduct marks if you spell wrong. These test never took me long to finish !

Hope that helps.

thanks for your reply!

uh oh....i dont' like the sound of that (refer to quote). he DID give you the CD beforehand so that you could listen to them, right?

if i need to take one year of humanities, can i take music 1a03 and linguistic in my first year? or can i take music 1a03 in first year, and take music 1aa3 in year two?

i wonder if i'll enjoy 1a03 more or 1aa3...they both seem very interesting. but for SURE, there are no essays, right? b/c i want to take humanities course that does not involve any essays...

hey, the CD actually comes with the textbook that you buy for the course and the prof assigned weekly listenings and for the test he will pick from that list...soo no need to worry! just do the homework

um if one year of humanities means you need equivalent of 6 units - soo one humanities course per term, then I guess you can just take music 1a03 and linguistic for first year OR you could also just take music 1a03 and 1aa3 all in first year.

and I also despise essays But I do remember Dr. Mitchell saying that before there were written assignments but last year there wasn't any soo I'm not 100% sure there will be no essays for Sept but probably not..sorry i can't give a definite answer.

And lastly, which is more interesting? i really have no idea since I'm just planning to take music 1aa3 in sept but the main difference is the time period each course covers.
-- 1a03 is really early times like the first couple of chapters in the txtbook covers the history as to how 'notes' were invented and the tonal system, also most of the listening tracks are monk chants since instruments weren't invented till later :|...and then you have some opera, and medieval music, etc. it was pretty funny when prof Mitchell would burst out singing opera......
-- 1aa3 I believe covers from baroque to 21st cent music. I actually wanted to take this course instead of 1a03 because most of the composers it covers I learned in Gr12 but it wouldn't fit my sched.
You can check out the undergrad calendar for the list of composers you learn

Does anyone know if any of these music history courses are similar to the Royal Conservatory Grade 3 Music History? I was hoping to complete the RCM exam this year or the next so it would be nice if i could learn a bit during school instead of having to learn it all on my own time.

anyone who s taking music 1a03...? who is teaching this course in 08/09? i couldn't find anything in timetable

Hey everybody,

In order to take Music 1EE06 Solo Performance, do you need to have a background in the insturment you plan to learn?

So I take it they won't teach it to you from scratch, right?

It seemed like a great elective course for political science, I love the piano :-)

Thank-you

Originally Posted by heavenlyspot

Hey everybody,

In order to take Music 1EE06 Solo Performance, do you need to have a background in the insturment you plan to learn?

So I take it they won't teach it to you from scratch, right?

It seemed like a great elective course for political science, I love the piano :-)

Thank-you

You have to be in a Music Program in order to take this course.

What's the process for joining the school band at Mac?