Music 115 - History of Jazz On-Line

                           Syllabus  Fall 2008
Instructor:  Tom Almli            

Course Outcomes

Successful students in Music 115 - The History of Jazz will be able to:

1. Identify “swing feel”, improvisation and instruments common to Jazz.

2. Be able to identify the different styles and types of Jazz by ear.

3. Recognize and relate prominent Jazz musicians to their style and era.

4. Appreciate Jazz music as it relates to American history.

5. Appreciate the uniqueness of Jazz in world music culture.

6. Listening to Contemporary Jazz, students can trace its development from earlier styles.

7. Appreciate live performances of jazz groups and musicians, acknowledging the skills involved in the performance

8. Demonstrate their knowledge of coursework in successful Midterm and Final Examinations.

Texts and CDs required

Jazz Styles – History and Analysis  by Mark Gridley, 9th ed. Including DEMO CD AND Jazz Classics CD set.

 

Course Organization

            The course will be presented as a series of seventeen chapters of Jazz Styles – History and Analysis dealing with a progression of knowledge from an introduction to jazz style in written and aural examples, followed by an application of these examples in a more or less chronological approach. Beginning with its roots in the blues and field cries of African-Americans, and Ragtime; Stride Piano, Original (Dixieland) jazz, Swing bands, Bop, Cool Jazz, into the more  contemporary styles will each be covered through reading and listening . Each Chapter will have its own Chapter Quiz.These contain Multiple Choice, True-False, and occasional Short Answer essay questions. Questions are chosen and presented randomly from a Data-Base, so are unique for each student. IMPORTANT! These are intended to be OPEN-BOOK quizzes with no time limit for completion other than the closing of their module.  Listening assignments feature selections from the Jazz Classics CD series and should be completed BEFORE the chapter quizzes..  

Chapters One through Nine will be covered on the Midterm Examination and Chapters 10 to 17 will be covered on the Final Exam, though the Final may have some “comprehensive” questions from earlier chapters.Both Midterm and Final Exams are TIMED, and must be completed within two hours. These are intended to be CLOSED-BOOK Exams!

Course Grading

            The course grade will be averaged from four parts:

1. Quizzes & Listening for Chapters 1 -9 (called Pre-Midterm Average)

2. Midterm Exam (2-Hour Exam in Vista)

3. Quizzes & Listening for Chapters 10 to 17 (called “Post-Midterm Average”)

4. Final Exam (2-Hour Exam in Vista)

           The grading scale is as follows: All numbers are percentages.

100 - 90% = A

89 – 85% = A-

84 – 80% = B+

79 – 75% = B

74 – 70% = B-

69 – 67% = C+

66 – 63% = C

62 – 60% = C-

59 – 57% = D+

56 – 53% = D

52 – 50% = D-

49 – 0%  = F

Students may calculate their Daily Work grades at any time by totaling their scores and dividing by the total number completed.  All required quizzes and listening should be completed before Midterm or Final Exams are taken.