What to Listen For

Abstract

This chapter is a reflective narrative. When the author took music appreciation as an undergraduate music major, it was still taught in the “traditional” style: an overview of the rudiments of music, followed by a chronological mad-dash through as much of the history of classical music as could be crammed into a semester. In her later experiences as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer, the approach she chose was similar. Many online versions of music appreciation courses rely on this format. Such a course favors only the most ideal student. This chapter focuses on addressing the needs of typical students in music appreciation courses, and offers suggestions for making online, hybrid, and traditional courses more useful to both students and instructors. If future online courses hope to succeed in giving students a thorough background in academic musical skills, then they will need to address the digital divide as well as the musical divide between their resourced and under-resourced students.