This year I had my first experience with MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Courses). I took four music
classes being offered by Coursera. These
classes were all free, although participants do have the option of paying a fee
of about $50 to receive a verified certificate for the course.
During the summer I took two simultaneous 5-week classes: Fundamentals
of Music Theory by the University of Edinburgh, and Developing Your Musicianship by Berklee College of Music.
The Fundamentals of Music
Theory course had a whole team of talented instructors involved (in particular Zack
Moir and Nikki Moran) and was really well planned out. You can tell that a lot of work went into
creating this online class. They covered
a lot of ground over the five weeks, and I definitely learned some things that continue
to help with my understanding of how music works. The course did delve into more than what most
musicians will need from a practical standpoint, but students who successfully
complete it will have a solid foundation in music theory. I would be most interested in taking
additional courses offered by this team of instructors from the University of
Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music.
While the music theory class was going on, I was also
enrolled in Developing Your Musicianship, Berklee College of Music. This
class took me out of my analytical comfort zone and required a more organic,
aural approach to music. The instructor,
George W. Russell, Jr., is very enthusiastic in his videos. His excitement for music and teaching is
infectious. A good part of the class is
devoted to ear training; bringing out skills I didn’t even know I had! The content of the class was fairly easy and
fundamental, but taking this class has definitely helped me become a better
musician and has started me on a path toward thinking about music more aurally
and less visually. It was great in
combination with the Music Theory course, and vice versa. Developing Your Musicianship included a fun
assignment and peer review component at the end.
During the fall I took simultaneous courses: Introduction
to Guitar and Jazz Improvisation. Both were through Berklee College of
Music.
The Introduction to
Guitar course starts very basic, with the absolute beginner in mind. Although my knowledge of music is beyond novice,
I haven’t applied much of it to guitar so I wasn’t bothered by starting at such
an entry level. It’s nice to have a
refresher, sometimes. The teacher,
Thaddeus Hogarth, has a very clear and precise way of explaining concepts. If you ever plan on teaching music, he would
be a good person to emulate. The class
does progress as rapidly as can be expected over the six weeks. By the end, you’ll be picking melodies and
strumming barre chords, which could prove to be quite challenging for
beginners. This class requires students to
post recordings to Soundcloud each week and also review your peers’ weekly recordings. For this reason, the class took up more of my
time than the classes I took over the summer.
Gary Burton’s Jazz
Improvisation class was the most difficult of the four. It’s the only one where I felt that I was at
risk of not passing. I learned that I was completely ignorant to the thought-process of an
improvising jazz musician. It
will take me a while to fully absorb and implement the concepts taught in this
class, should I choose to do so. This
course does provide a new way of looking at music that could be applied (to
varying degrees of success) to all styles of music, not just jazz. To really understand this class, you have to
grasp each new step along the way, and then work on it for years and years. The videos for this class were shorter
and less detailed than the other classes, leaving it up to the student to fill
in the blanks him or herself. This course
was also the most time consuming – at least 5 or 6 hours a week were spent studying,
practicing, doing assignments, analyzing lead sheets, making recordings, posting
recordings, taking quizzes, reviewing peers.
It was a lot to keep up with for a class that I was taking on a whim,
for no credit or certification. Unlike
the Intro to Guitar class, where I felt like I was more advanced than the
students I reviewed, in the jazz class it felt like everyone was way more
experienced than me, which they probably were.
My musical submissions paled in comparison to most of the students I
graded, although this form of jazz improvisation doesn’t always equate to good
music, especially if it just sounds like aimless soloing over chord changes.
In summary, I was very pleased with my MOOC
experiences. Musically, I feel like I’ve
learned more and grown more over the last 5 months as a result of
these courses than at any other five month period since I took up playing
music. Most importantly, this experience
was the instigator for liberating me from sheet music dependency and opening up
the joys of playing music from the heart.
I would most definitely take additional free online music
courses from Berklee or the University of Edinburgh Reid School of Music
(especially those on the subjects of ear training, composition, non-jazz
improvisation and world music), as well MOOCs on French, Spanish, Creative
Writing, Prose Poetry or Flash Fiction if those were being offered.
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