Professor
John Hall
Most Helpful Review
Hall is such a fun professor. He really cares about student learning. Everyone in the class had different strengths and weaknesses in music, and he knew them all. The quizzes and tests were fair. It's a great interactive class. He really works you though. You can't afford to slack off because your grade and career could depend on it. Still, going to class is so much fun because we got to sing and tap rhythms on the desk, and definitely learned valuable information.
Hall is such a fun professor. He really cares about student learning. Everyone in the class had different strengths and weaknesses in music, and he knew them all. The quizzes and tests were fair. It's a great interactive class. He really works you though. You can't afford to slack off because your grade and career could depend on it. Still, going to class is so much fun because we got to sing and tap rhythms on the desk, and definitely learned valuable information.
Most Helpful Review
The Art of Listening is the university's way of calling it Music Appreciation. For a class that you just appreciate music, it was definitely harder than it sounds. Hall is so weird. He is blunt about a lot of things and makes a lot of funny remarks that are probably inappropriate. His lectures are kind of scattered but just take nokes on what he says because they do come in handy. His class is a lot of little details that come from his lectures and the book. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE BOOK! Especially the little dark gray boxes that talk about composers. On his midterm and final, he has a lot of questions about the composers like "Where was this composer born?" He also loves questions about the musical periods and the songs they play. In his class, there was a performance every Wednesday during the last half of class. Make sure you go because he likes to test off of the performances like what instruments were played during so and so's performance or who was the composer of this song. His midterm is 100 multiple choice/true and false questions and his final was 200 of those. read the book and listen to the songs. make sure you know who they are by, what the sound like, what period they are from and things like that. he usually gives 3 multiple choice questions about every song on the CD and some that he plays in class! It is crucial you go to discussion. I had a TA where you just show up and write your name on her roll sheet and you got 5 points for the day. Those are 50 easy points! There are 3 music critiques for the quarter. You need to go to 3 performances throughout the quarter and write what you liked and disliked about it but you also have to add musical terms from the book so you look like you know what youre talking about. It is a straight scale class! NO CURVE! It is based on total points. 450-425 is an A+, 424-400 is an A, 375-399 is an A- and so on. Don't worry if you dont do so well on the midterm just do well everywhere else and you'll be fine. I got a C- on the midterm but got an A- in the class. (I got 171/200 on the final) If you know a lot about music, like facts and composers, this class will be a breeze. If you're not so musically inclined, it will be harder.
The Art of Listening is the university's way of calling it Music Appreciation. For a class that you just appreciate music, it was definitely harder than it sounds. Hall is so weird. He is blunt about a lot of things and makes a lot of funny remarks that are probably inappropriate. His lectures are kind of scattered but just take nokes on what he says because they do come in handy. His class is a lot of little details that come from his lectures and the book. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE BOOK! Especially the little dark gray boxes that talk about composers. On his midterm and final, he has a lot of questions about the composers like "Where was this composer born?" He also loves questions about the musical periods and the songs they play. In his class, there was a performance every Wednesday during the last half of class. Make sure you go because he likes to test off of the performances like what instruments were played during so and so's performance or who was the composer of this song. His midterm is 100 multiple choice/true and false questions and his final was 200 of those. read the book and listen to the songs. make sure you know who they are by, what the sound like, what period they are from and things like that. he usually gives 3 multiple choice questions about every song on the CD and some that he plays in class! It is crucial you go to discussion. I had a TA where you just show up and write your name on her roll sheet and you got 5 points for the day. Those are 50 easy points! There are 3 music critiques for the quarter. You need to go to 3 performances throughout the quarter and write what you liked and disliked about it but you also have to add musical terms from the book so you look like you know what youre talking about. It is a straight scale class! NO CURVE! It is based on total points. 450-425 is an A+, 424-400 is an A, 375-399 is an A- and so on. Don't worry if you dont do so well on the midterm just do well everywhere else and you'll be fine. I got a C- on the midterm but got an A- in the class. (I got 171/200 on the final) If you know a lot about music, like facts and composers, this class will be a breeze. If you're not so musically inclined, it will be harder.