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!

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.

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.

I took this class cause jazz and its culture seemed cool to me, and in particular Kendrick Lamar's last album was heavily jazz-based, so I thought this class might even help me grasp it better. No.

Harrison literally just spouted random names of people that played some random instrument. That's it, and that's what you got tested on. Literally hundreds of names that mean nothing to you. Incredibly trivial and menial for a university that preaches intellectual vitality, or whatever.

Also, it's not even easy. This is the only GE I haven't gotten an A in, and I've taken plenty of very legitimate GE subjects before, ie Anthro 7, Astro 3, Stats 10, etc. And those I pretty much didn't go to class the entire quarter and still learned a shitton of cool stuff from lecture slides (the ethno department doesn't permit slides to be posted online, btw) and studying myself. For this class, though, didn't learned jack fuckin shit and still got a worse GPA to show for it.

It's just a huge pain in the ass, take Pass/No Pass.

I took this class because I needed a GE, it fit my schedule, and people mentioned that it was a "must take" I honestly wish I had just taken something else. My experience was just kinda ehh in this class. Lecture was 1 hour and 50 minutes. There is no power point everything is verbal notes. I can not tell you how many people would leave the lecture hall, or would be on their laptop the whole time because it just got boring. Taking notes was honestly hard sometimes, he would hop around between musician after musician and instrument after instrument sometimes it would seem like he was just talking to us rather than lecturing. You can tell he knows his stuff but I would have appreciated a powerpoint, I just couldn't keep up with everything. Usually he would show a video after he was done with notes, but honestly even that was boring and trivial. There is 2 Essays, 1 Midterm, 1 Final, and 1 extra credit opportunity worth 3%. You have to memorize a large part of what he says for the midterm and final and read the book because now he puts info from that on the tests. I was sick for a large part of this quarter and I just really disliked how trivial and annoying this class was. A large part of my distaste for this class was my TA, he was a harsh harsh grader and I didn't do as well as I had hoped on the essays. Your TA decides your grade for these and mine didn't grade on "grammar and structure" like the rest apparently did. So honestly nothing against Professor Harrison, but I just disliked this class, I disliked my TA who made a class that could have been enjoyable an annoying adventure. Take it Pass/No Pass if you really do want to take this class and ask around for a good TA.

Selling 50B Course Reader, great condition. Email me at gfaour@live.com to negotiate a price!!

Easy class, but not fun. Lectures are pointless. Textbooks are not needed. Just review study guides given by TAs.

Please. Do yourself a favor and do not take this GE for the grade. Even if you are interested in Jazz, just look up top 30 best jazz musicians of all time and listen to their albums. That is more than what you will get out of this class. If you care about taking GE's for cultural depth and knowledge, look elsewhere. Completely bait and switched by this class-- first two lectures were great with a live concert.... and then the class slowly delved into memorization and meaningless learning. Once again, find. a. different. class.

BEST CLASS AT UCLA FOR A GE! Do not get me wrong, this class has been the easiest class I have ever taken at UCLA, but it was quite enjoyable. I actually found an appreciation for jazz music and up to this day, a lot of the music we listened to in this class, I still listen to today. The class is pretty basic, but if you allow yourself, you can learn a lot and have a new found love for jazz music. The tests are 100 multiple choice questions with a listening section (you have to be able to recall songs and artists). The TA's literally tell you which songs are going to be on the test, so you know what to study for. Also, there are 2 papers you have to write, but they are pretty general especially if you like the artists and music. GREAT CLASS and GREAT PROFESSOR! His key phrase "if you need to talk, please go outside". He hates when people talk in class.