For an introductory music class, Professor Ho covers A LOT of music-theoretical knowledge so if you hate music theory, you would utterly hate this class. The material is incredibly dry and lectures are all pre-recorded except for 5 live sections that you MUST attend. Discussion sections are mandatory because participation factors into your final grade.

You need to write a weekly summary about what you learned, so that's 10 total summaries. There are also 2 listening assignment projects that you have to pair up to do with someone in your discussion section and there's a final music research paper to write.

Coming in with musical knowledge definitely worked to my advantage as there's a huge jargon with aspects of music for analysis and honestly 10/10 would NOT take it again. Professor Ho's lectures are unengaging, dry, and monotonous. Barely any contact and the whole class just seemed disorganized.

Took this as a random GE because I saw it was an easy class. And trust me, it was. Class was a hybrid of asynchronous and synchronous occasionally for live webinars. She will ask you to buy a program called MITA and DO NOT buy it. It's essentially a dictionary of music terms behind a paywall. I genuinely cannot recall anytime being required to use it, it's going to be a waste of your money.

Lecture were mainly recorded videos that were boring. At times she'd go over time and honestly 80% of the videos are just her describing classical music. Out of an hour worth of lecture, you would be fine just skipping around and watching 15 minutes worth. Every now and then the class would require you to be live. I do wish Professor was more prepared since the class would wait 30 minutes for her to properly set up, making everyone late. Live lectures invited guest speakers and we'd basically all watch a recorded video together.

Assignments were weekly summaries of the lectures. No exams or midterms but there are 2 group projects where you write about music. So be prepared to work with others, however the final is the exact same thing but is solo work. Honestly don't be afraid if you have no music background, I didn't know anything and you just have to finesse your writing for the projects.

Professor wasn't too accommodating for extensions or timezones so beware. However the TAs were very nice.

Easiest GE you'll ever take. Don't buy the online software (MITA), I didn't open it once and just wasted my money. Professor Ho is super sweet and she does fun things during lecture, like make us all dance the floss to demonstrate rhythmic meter. We have live performances once a week, which was really great and kept things interesting. Highly recommend if you're looking for an easy GE.

Best and easiest GE I have ever taken. We had live performances every week so that kept things interesting. She tries to keep things engaging while she lectures by playing music and having us analyze them in class, and they were never hard. You basically just use the things you learn in week 1/2 throughout the rest of the quarter and in discussions. Loved this class.

If you're looking for a super easy GE, this is it. However, I found lectures so so so so dry that getting that easy A was almost painful. A lot of the content was redundant, and you technically didn't have to go to the last 8 weeks of class to be able to do the homework.

Don't take this class if you're not a fan of group/partner work, because you'll have 2 assignments where you'll have to work with another person. This wasn't too bad for me because the assignments weren't really hard, but what was kind of bad was that it was hard to meet with my partners because our schedules were so different. You'll also be asked to have a "listening partner", where you'll be asked to watch the lectures with them. I never watched the lectures with them. The final was an individual research project, which wasn't too hard either just make sure you use a lot of vocabulary from the course.
There's no exams, which is good. The class is relatively easy but it can honestly get pretty boring sometimes especially if you're not a music major. The lectures were long and could get boring bc Professor Ho is a little monotone, but the guest speakers were super talented and awesome.
She's gonna ask you to buy MITA. Don't buy MITA. You'll be fine without it, lots of people didn't buy it. Also don't be intimidated by the people who know a lot about music, I was at first but I later realized that I didn't need to know a lot about music in order to pass the class because they will teach you/tell you everything that you need to know.
Lastly, in the syllabus Professor Ho said something about how if we think our circumstances are "special" they're most likely not. So, she's not the most accommodating Professor to say the least.

This class is probably not as enjoyable as you would think. Although some topics covered were interesting, the pre-recorded lectures were really long and not engaging. That being said, it is not a difficult class and you will most likely get an A without having to try very hard. I would definitely recommend taking this course if you have previous experience with playing an instrument or if you are really passionate about music because that makes everything much easier to understand.

While this class was easy and the material was pretty interesting, I did not appreciate the inflexibility of the professor especially given the circumstances in which this class was taken. There was no flexibility for the attendance of guest speaker lectures (even though these lectures were recorded), and while this did not affect me, I could absolutely see it being an issue for people in other time zones. The assignments themselves are easy but if you do not like group work, then it will be annoying to try and coordinate them because they are all group work except for the final assignment. Also, don't buy MITA. Waste of my money.

If you want an easy GE then I recommend taking this class. Although that does come with a price, lectures (pre-recorded) were long and she is very monotone so it makes it harder to pay attention. Occasionally we had webinars with guest speakers which were more interesting than the actual lectures. She says that you'll need MITA, DO NOT BUY MITA, I didn't buy it and still passed the class. Trust me you won't use it, all you really need is the vocab you'll learn in lectures and google (research purposes). I don't have a background in music so I was skeptical about taking this course, but the material was clear and easy to grasp. Also she isn't the most accommodating professor so keep that in mind when you want to ask for an extension.

This class consisted of weekly summaries (based on the lectures) which were pretty easy points and 2 partner/group projects. Our final was easy and straightforward and there are no quizzes/exams.

All in all, this class was pretty easy just boring.

This class was not bad but I didn't enjoy it. The lectures were boring and the professor was inflexible with people not attending live sessions but if you want an easy A, this class is for you.