This was a great GE for me to take my first quarter at UCLA, it was low stress and was an easy A. Just make sure you listen to the songs in advance, I usually listened to them on the way to class. Although his lectures do get a little boring sometimes, it's still very interesting to learn about. And I really learned to like jazz after taking this class.

Amazing class and very engaging. Had no musical background or knowledge whatsoever and managed to pass the class with an A. The professor is amazing and very helpful.

Selling both course reader and Jazz textbook for $60

310-892-0228

Currently selling the UCLA Course reader for $20.00. Please contact me at skhorshikyan@gmail.com for any additional inquiries.

GREAT CLASS IF YOU WANT AN A.
It's a simple class. Go to lecture, take notes. If you don't go, have a friend go and give you his notes. Me and my friend would both go. I would sleep for the first half of lecture, and then he would sleep for the second half. Then we would exchange notes. His midterm was literally the same as the one in the test bank. His final had like 15 questions that were different.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Listen to the songs that he tests you on early!! It sucks to cram them all in in a week... Get the tests from the test bank!! Start your essays and rough drafts early!! Or you will screw yourself over like I did...Do the extra credit and solidify your A. I literally got an A by 1 point. Thanks you extra credit.

Selling Course Reader & Textbook Jazz in American Culture for $40 together!
Phone : 619-559-4183

Ethno 50A was such an easy GE class but such a boring course... like half of the class didn't bother to show up to lectures. The lecture size is big (240 students) so no one really notices or cares if you show up to class. People come to lecture to take notes on what he's saying which will be really useful for his tests but to be honest you don't really need to take notes for the test. Just go to the test bank to find an old copy of the midterm (hint hint as he would say) and find a really good study guide for the final. The questions on each tests are kind of weird, sort of following what he says in lecture, but some questions are just out of the blue. He says you should read the textbook, but it has a lot of extraneous information you don't really need. Pretty much if you find old tests to practice, memorize the listening list in advance, and study which musician played what instrument or if they were a bandleader or not, you will be fine.
There are two essays- 1 graded draft and two final essays. Usually everyone gets an A and the TAs grade pretty nicely. If you're really worried ask to go meet with the TAs before submitting your paper and they'll tell you everything they think you should revise. Every TA is looking for specific things in a paper but they're willing to let you know beforehand and you'll get a good grade. Also for papers, check out your books early because about 50 other people are gonna wanna check out the same book since everyone is doing the same research paper. Discussions are mandatory (10% of your grade) but not really helpful. You don't need to do much to do well in the class, which is why I'd consider it an easy GE.

Exams: The midterm and final both entirely from Harrison’s lectures, so there’s no need to buy the textbook or course reader. The midterm and final are both worth 30% of the final grade, and the final is not cumulative. Both exams have about 50 general jazz knowledge questions, about 30 T/F or musician-instrument matching questions, and then 20 questions based on songs you have to memorize and recognize during the exam. Overall, the content is very easy as long as you put in the time to memorize basic facts, and the songs are pretty easy to memorize as they’re all pretty distinctive from each other. I was in band in high school, and a music background definitely makes memorization easier, but it’s still easy enough to get an A with a decent amount of studying.

Essays: The essays are pretty easy. You have essay #1 rough draft, essay #1 final draft, and a second essay on Lester Young or Billy Strayhorn. I know everyone else says that these essays are automatic 100s, but it really depends on your TA, because mine didn’t give out automatic 100s. Overall, the essays count for 30% of your grade (10% for each essay assignment). There’s also an extra credit essay performance report worth up to 3% of your final grade. You don’t need to buy the jazz book or the course reader, but the course reader can be helpful as a source for your essays. Otherwise, just attending lectures is fine.

Lecture: First, the lectures don’t have slides and it’s not podcasted, so you have to either attend class or get notes from friends. Second, the material is surprisingly interesting. I didn’t expect the history to be so engaging, but it is. I think that is probably due to professor Harrison’s really engaging lecture style. Some may not like it, but Harrison tells stories from his childhood and makes “short stories long” a lot of the time. I like this better than just straight recitation of definitions. I really like the tangents that he goes on, and you can tell that he’s really passionate about jazz, so it’s always nice to learn from him. Basically take notes on everything he says in preparation for the exams because all the questions come from things he says in lecture, especially the days when he goes over musicians and their instruments. He also likes to play Ken Burns’ Jazz documentary during the second half of class. It’s pretty interesting, but it’s all repeated information from lecture and it doesn’t show up on exams. I still liked watching it though.

Overall: I would definitely recommend taking this class! Before I took this course, I had moderate interest in jazz, but after this class, I absolutely love it! It is also a very easy GE with little work (which is why most people take the class), but I really enjoyed the music and content. This class was very easy, but it actually sparked a great interest in jazz even after the class was over, so I’m very happy with my decision to take the class.

This class was really easy! I took it as a freshman my first quarter and very easy GE compared to other GEs. We had a midterm, 2 essays (both very easy to BS), and a final. Both the final and midterm were so easy as long as you take about two days beforehand to actually go over all the terms and musicians. the midterm is EXACTLY like the test bank I got from the student center. Also, he doesnt have ppt slides but as long as you go to most of his lectures and take down notes and what he says you will be fine. he shows a lot of videos. he was easy to understand. I did not care at all about Jazz before taking it and it was still pretty interesting. Also, i did not buy any of the books. literally not needed at all. The only times i would need to textbook was studying for the exams but I found the book in the music library and just took notes! also, some TAs will give study guides that are really helpful and if yours doesnt, ask around!! OVERALL, i definitely would recommend

I was really grateful to take his class during my first quarter at UCLA. Professor Harrison mostly relied on a jazz documentary, so it does get boring sometimes; but when he does lecture, you can tell that he really loves jazz. One thing to keep in mind is that the TA really matters. My TA was pretty terrible but thankfully I had a friend in a different TA section to compare notes with. The assignments were pretty easy: two really short essays, a midterm, and a final. The final is done a week before finals week, so that can be either a blessing or a curse. MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE TEST BANK BEFORE THE MIDTERM. If nothing's changed since I last took this class, you'll find that taking a visit to SAC's Test Bank will be very beneficial *Hint hint*

Selling Course Reader & Jazz in American Culture for $60 together!
Contact : Jackie Delgado
Email : jacquelinedee16@gmail.com
Phone : 323-301-6935