Music · Columbia University
As the title of the class denotes, this is a history of electronic music class and we were taken back to the beginnings of EM in an interesting way using media in the form of tracks, videos, documentaries, instruments, etc. I learned so much that shattered my notion of what I thought EM was and am feeling so much more informed and knowledgeable on the subject.
A quick intro to a lot of music software like Audacity, Max, Ableton, VCV Rack. Some hardware and just physical sound stuff.
Largely up to the student–- there are probably 2 hours reading/week and then independent projects that you will mostly design for yourself––some people probably spend a few hours on these total and some people clearly spend days refining their projects. From my experience, the class works for people on both wavelengths––and the intensity that people bring to given assignments often changes by week//whatever is going on in their lives, which is fine too.
I learned so much and it didn't even feel like school. Super interesting and he allows the students to let their creativity and curiosity lead the course content.
I learned how to use different softwares and about different instruments. I learned a lot of musical techniques too
Seth is one of my favorite professors of my 4+ years at Columbia. His own work is awesome, but he's also really openminded and clearly cares deeply about teaching and learning. He has high expectations for student engagement but is always very accommodating and encouraging in my experience. One of the challenging things about a course like this is how different the interests/expertises that students bring to the class, but he manages to design projects that suit everyone's needs.
learned mostly about electronic music-making technology, avant-garde music, and the history of modern genres.
I learned SO MUCH in this class. Not only about myself as an artist, but how to use Ableton, Max, and Audacity. I have a whole new tool kit to make the music I want to.
learned more about music history, production, musical subgenres and communities, creative approaches to musical creation, technical skills, etc
I learned the process that analog signal takes to become digital and how digital signal becomes analog. Both very helpful. The digital synthesis lectures and applications with VCV rack were also very interesting and compelling.