Selling Books and Course reader !!! brand new! never used! great price! text me at **********
- will include my notes

Let me just start out by saying that I'm very disappointed in how this class was approached. Memorizing random facts from the textbook and lecture, along with the 100+ musicians for both the midterm and the final is just plain ridiculous. Sure, this class should be an easy GE if you make notecards from your notes and just quiz yourself a day or two before the exam (which is what I did and I got an A in the class). The problem is that many of us want more than just an easy A.
Personally, I'm a south campus major who is pretty passionate about music, and, upon seeing that this was a class I could take that could satisfy my arts GE requirement, I felt extremely intrigued to take this class. I knew going into it that there would not be really any discussion on music theory per se, but I was deeply interested in the culture and history of this great artform, and I was hoping that I'd be introduced to some good music. Both of these wound up occurring by the class was over, but really it only happened because my TA supplemented Harrison's rubbish lecture so well.
Without going into too much of a rant, the big question you should ask yourself is this; you're spending a ton of money to get an education at this wonderful university, so why waste a portion of it on something that is merely just an easy A? If that's what works for you, then fine, boost your gpa, and don't fret about it. But if you're a south campus major who really wants to learn something out of their GEs and have fun with them, this class will just be an absolute drag.

This class is not easy at all. The facts can tell you
Mid term average 71 after curve 78 and the final is easier than the midterm but you still need to memorise more than 100 musician names with their instrument. To the people below saying the class is easy and straight forward, I want to ask you are we(all the students in the class) all stupid thats why the average is so low? And the worst thing about the class is he will test you on random facts that you don't know what to study. Some may be in the book, some you just don't know where they come from. Also I don't really like his teaching style. He often throw out 20 + musicians name a lecture and just mention their name and instruments.
Whats the point of memorising all the musicians name and instrument ?
I thought this class teach you how to understand and appreciate jazz instead of crazy memorising names and facts.

I don't know what the bad reviewers are talking about. I'm a south campus major too with very little experience with music. I didn't have to consult music theory majors or whatever to write my essays. I also DID NOT READ THE BOOK. I only used the course reader as reference for the papers.

Also, for the midterm, Harrison gave us +2 pts because he messed up the printing of the exams and forgot 2 questions on two version of the test. The other 5 were indeed for curving purposes.

Don't listen to the naysayers, Harrison's class is one of the EASIEST GEs at UCLA. Yes, you do need to memorize a hundred names and which instruments each musician is linked to for each exam. But really, you don't need to worry. Harrison's grade break down was:
80 pts for discussion
100 pts for first essay draft
100 pts for first essay final draft
100 pts for second essay
100 pts for midterm
100 pts for final

You want your A? Go to discussion, don't be dumb, easy 80 points. Then if you don't read the book, you'll miss like 15 pts tops from the exams. For the essays, they're super easy. Just cite and write. Should be fine.

The class is straightforward. Its pretty much all memorization. You have to memorize musicians by the time periods they played in and what instrument they played. You also will have to read the book to get more facts for the midterm and final because the professor didn't cover them in class. Essay wise, the grading will vary, sometimes greatly, depending on which TA you have. I recommend AJ Kluth or Alex Rodriguez. They will help out a lot. I am almost certain the negative reviewers below had a bad TA. Overall, this is definitely one of the easiest GE's.

I needed to take an art GE, so I decided to take this class because I read the reviews, and I was interested in learning about jazz. What a huge mistake I made. This has got to be the most difficult class I have ever taken at UCLA. Don't take this class if you have no knowledge whatsoever in music. I never played an instrument in my life before nor studied music theory, so I would get lost in lecture whenever he went in-depth on chords and rhythm and lord knows what. I struggled so much in the class that I decided to do P/NP. Everyday you go to class, Professor Harrison throws a bunch of names at you and starts talking about each person. It was okay at first, but then he would get technical, and I would just get lost. Omg don't get me started on the papers. I had to ask my friends who have some knowledge in music theory, so that they could help revise my papers. There's no way you can write a paper without mentioning the musical style of the musicians and making it seem like you know what you're talking about. Also, I don't know what people are talking about when they said you don't have to read the book. READ THE DAMN BOOK. Everyone bombed the first midterm because it was sooo hard, as you can see in the review below. Perhaps I'm biased because I'm a south campus major, but I know one thing for sure: never in my life will I ever take an ethnomusicology class again!

The distribution above for 50b is absolutely not true for this quarter. The average of the midterm is around 70 (C-) and he eventually have to add 7 points for everyone and raise the average to around 79(B-). Note that your final grade is not curved according to him you need 93 pts to get an A. I don't know if you still think this class is easy. Regarding the midterm, there are a lot of stuff he didn't mention in class or just slightly talk about it.He will test you on the details from the book that he never mention in lecture. You basically have to memorised everything he taught in class about ~40 names their instruments ,period and also the book.

Harrison obviously cares a lot about the material and usually makes it interesting to learn, it's an easy A as long as you take notes in lecture and learn all the names of composer and musicians. Don't bother buying the textbook, you won't need it. Course reader is helpful for writing papers.

I'm selling my course reader for $15 in good condition, if interested let me know! *************

His lecture is quite interesting but siting in the dark music hall for 2 hours each lecture is not a cool experience. Fair exams but TA largely decides your destiny for grading your 3 papers. Some of them are as F**k strict as mine and some of them even give you the final questions in discussions. I got a shitty TA names Doleac, B.G a disorganized and meddlesome guy. He never really know what he was to do. The third paper was due 3 weeks later and he suddenly ask everyone to bring the draft to the Friday discussion by email on Wednesday night!! Nobody even started!!He always concentrates on my grammar mistakes even if after the modification of writing center. The mean of the first draft was 70 out of 100 and every other section has probably 80.

This class is overall really good. One midterm, one final, two essays, and the first one has two drafts. You have one optional extra credit project which is worth a maximum of 3%.

Professor Harrison is a jazz guitarist, so he clearly knows what he is teaching. This class covers the history and development of jazz from 1940s onward. Lectures are two-hour long. In the first half, he introduces names of musicians, instruments they play, what are their contributions, and why they are important. Basically you have to copy down all of what he says. It’s not a bad idea to take notes alternatively with friends, if you really can’t go to the class. In the second half, he plays documentaries, and some of the information from it will be tested. Some students choose to leave and some others choose to stay and sleep. However, as previous comments say, this class relies on pure memorization.

Personally I think taking notes and remember them is the fastest way to learn a subject you have never encountered before, but it gets boring. Sometimes he throws more than 20 names and each of them has only very little description. If you start to memorize these facts earlier, you will be fine.

Regarding the textbook and the course reader, it is obvious that they are not important (See the ads below...). However, the course reader can be used as a source for your essays, and Professor Harrison puts something from the textbook on the exam. The midterm was a shock to the class and the average was 80, which is far away from the past record of more than 50% A. Professor Harrison tested some facts from the documentaries and some from the textbook. Many of my friends chose PNP. The final was much easier. But still, don’t be fooled by that past record.

I knew nothing about jazz before, but still managed to get an A in the end. The workload is alright.