I took this class under Global Jazz Studies M110B - African American Musical Heritage.

OKAY. I don’t even know where to start. Exactly one quarter ago, I was in your exact position, trying to figure out who Professor Doleac was, and if his class was good, and getting hardly any reviews. As a favor to everyone else, I will do my best to give you my experiences. I took this class Fall of 2022 when this class was online. And, the tests were all online. Therefore, if you are taking this class in person, I would only assume this class is harder. The exam questions are pretty specific and detailed.

Overview: In terms of character, Professor Doleac is incredibly nice. He is clearly passionate about what he does, and he knows the subject extremely well. During class, he will even play his guitar and sing. The issue, however, is that his classes are almost two hours long. That is four hours of global jazz a week. By an hour and a half, I am already squirming in my seat. However, the material is interesting; we learn about the history of blues, R&B, jazz, Harlem Stride, swing, disco, hip hop, etc… We learn about slavery (which plays a huge role in music, surprisingly given that not a single history textbook every mentions this), like how the only thing slaves were allowed to bring on slave ships during the transatlantic slave trade was their drums. Music is possibly the only thing that has been preserved in African culture, throughout slavery.

Grading: We had one midterm (25%), one essay paper (25%) one final exam (30%), and a discussion section (20%). These four things constitute your entire grade.

Midterm: The midterm was a total of 36 questions, with 27 multiple choice, 8 listening questions, and one short answer question. He released the short answer prompt several days before the exam, so you could prepare beforehand and then copy and paste your response during the exam. The 8 listening questions are where you play the audio for 20-30 seconds and it’s accompanied with some questions. This was honestly pretty hard for me, and I usually got the most wrong here on exams. He gives you two to three practice quizzes before the midterm and final to prepare. and then you have to either identify the singer or genre (i.e. is it Harlem stride, southwestern swing, New Orleans jazz, etc..). Those were pretty tricky, not going to lie, because they all sound the same to me, so I advise taking phenomenal notes in class when he goes over each song and writing down every song he plays in class and just keep listening to them.

Final: The final was 120 questions which was flat-out villainous. That should be illegal -- but again, this whole course is online so this is better than taking a 120-question exam in person amiright. Some questions were oddly specific so to do well, you need to memorize everything -- like it's just so detailed. He says he would prefer you do not use your notes on exams, but that we can if we want to, so if that helps you guys then there you go. He gives a study guide which thankfully the TA had the whole class work on a different section so we could get the entire Study Guide done quickly.

Essay paper: You pick one musician from the 1980’s and write on them and how they best embody the spirit of R&B. My advice is to pick one singer/band and focus on their musical background leading up to their fame and three reasons why they are the best embodiment of R&B as the body paragraphs (i.e. maybe they created hip hop, maybe they broke the musical charts with xx amount of singles, maybe they introduced a new instrument into the music industry, etc...).

Discussion Section: Classes are also mandatory, for lectures AND discussion, and the professor takes attendance. If you miss like 2 or 3 lectures, your grade in the participation section drops like a whole letter grade. He is incredibly strict on attendance for some unknown reason, but then after the TA strike, he was more forgiving. Discussion sections were in person, and the TA is pretty chill. She assigned like 2 homework the entire quarter on padlet, and they were quite simple: watch a short film and write a summary.

Homework: The professor (not the TA) assigns SO MUCH reading. Like, I once spent an entire weekend (did not leave the house for two days) just doing that week's readings. By week 5, I was so burned out that I just stopped reading all together cause I literally hated myself by that point. I don’t think the readings are THAT necessary for the exams. Maybe like one question is asked about a single reading amidst the millions, but he encourages you to read them nevertheless. I did fine without reading and also didn't even remember what I read to begin with so there was no point.

Extra Credit: Extra Credit is given. My TA was so awesome and she gives extra credit for certain assignments. Not sure if future TAs will be similar. You can also get EC from attending some sort of musical concert and writing a paper on it or attending a guest speaker lecture.

My advice. Take this class if its online. If its in-person, may the odds be in your favor.