Syllabus
MUS 130 Fall 2011
Drum Circle/Improvisation Rotation
Dr. Eric Edberg, Professor of Music (cello)
0119 GCPA ext. 4384 cell 765-719-0140
The purpose of this rotation is to engage you in a set of experiences and introduce you to a number of ideas that present alternative models of music making than the typical classical-music model. It’s also designed to enhance your ensemble-playing skills, your self-confidence, assertiveness, and leadership abilities, as well as your musical creativity.
Every class is different, goes at a different pace, enjoys different tangents, etc. Therefore, I don’t set an exact schedule of activities and readings. I’m teaching you, not a timeline. Plan on 2 hours or more of work outside of class for each hour in class. At the end of each class, I’ll give you the assignment(s) for the next session.
There are, though, set materials we will be covering, so you can get into them right away (and I expect to go through them in this order):
Reading List
Listening (on the Moodle site for your section of this course)
Every class is different, goes at a different pace, enjoys different tangents, etc. Therefore, I don’t set an exact schedule of activities and readings. I’m teaching you, not a timeline. Plan on 2 hours or more of work outside of class for each hour in class. At the end of each class, I’ll give you the assignment(s) for the next session.
There are, though, set materials we will be covering, so you can get into them right away (and I expect to go through them in this order):
Reading List
- “Change the World” (Interview with Babatunde Olatunji) http://www.drumcircle.com/
articles/baba.html “Arthurian Philosophy” http://www.drumcircle.com/
articles/philosophy.html “Rythmaculture” http://www.drumcircle.com/
articles/rhythmaculture.html - Music for People Bill of Musical Rights http://www.musicforpeople.org/
rights.html -
Musicking: A Ritual in Social Space http://www.musekids.org/
musicking.html - Citizen Musician Project Website http://citizenmusician.org/
Listening (on the Moodle site for your section of this course)
- Drums of Passion The famous Babtunde Olatunji album
- The Darling Conversations Commentary by David Darling, co-founder of Music for People, and Julie Weber, a MfP staff member, with lots of great improvised musical
excerpts.
This rotation is primarily experiential. The readings, while presenting alternative (to most classical musicians) and for some people life-altering models of music making are fairly short. Writing about your experiences during the rotation, about the readings, about how
experiences and ideas connect, and about other things in your musical lives is an important process. You form ideas and insights in the act of writing that do not occur otherwise.
In this rotation we’re focused more on spontaneous, flowing writing than on formal academic writing. To that end, we have a class blog. Blogs by their nature foster quick, spontaneous writing--which can, nevertheless, be quite profound at times.
Information on how to register to post on the blog will arrive via email. The game for the two weeks we are together is for you to:
- write at least one original post per week, and
- write at least five comments on other people’s posts per week.
At the end of each week, send me an email with the URL for your orignal post and the comments you’ve written. Those lists are due at the end of each week, by 7:00 AM the following Monday. For your section that is:
- 7:00 AM M Oct 10
- 7:00 AM M Oct. 17
Besides the blogging, there is also a final essay. The purpose of the essay is for you to link the ideas from the readings with the experiences you have in the class sessions. In the essay:
- Describe two experiences that particularly stand out for you;
- Quote passages from at least two difference readings and explain why they stand out for you; and
- Discuss how they relate to each other.
Everyone should have an “A.” Actually, I believe everyone should have no grade, because I don’t believe in grades (well, I acknowledge they exist). Maybe I was born too late; I would have loved teaching in one of the grade-free alternative colleges more popular in the 1970s and 1980s than now.
Come to every class, do the blogging, and write the essay and you have an A.
And since there has to be an official policy, this is it:
Class participation 70%
Blogging 20%
Final Essay 10%
Absence Policy: Because this is a seven-session, class-participation, group-dynamic experiential course, there are no "free absences." You may be excused from class for illness or off-campus performing opportunities sponsored by the SoM. Contact me as soon as possible if you need to miss a class session. If illness necessitates absence of more than one class session, you will need to provide documentation from Health Services or your own private physician.
Miss a class (unexcused), your grade goes down 10% (i.e., each class = 10%). Do less than a required for a week’s blogging, same thing. Etc. Let me know if you have any questions.
A 90-100
B 80-89
C 70-79
D 60-69
F Below 60
This is the “easy A” class (well, rotation) that can change your life. What more do you want?
This is the “easy A” class (well, rotation) that can change your life. What more do you want?
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