Easy A. I have the textbook that is required for Ethno 50B. The textbook is really helpful when writing the papers. HMU **********

Winter 2013 Ethno 50B

Good GE to take. 2 essays (4 pages, double spaced) which are really easy considering they are on material which is covered in lecture. A midterm/final which is multi choice. And an extra credit paper which can add 3% to your final grade.

Lectures: If you dont know anybody, go. Take notes because that's pretty much all youre tested on. If you know friends who have taken it recently with him or are in your class, not really a point in going. Just get the notes from them. He's not a boring lecturer, but (as a GE) if you have other things to do then by all means...

Exams: Multi choice. Basically just fact checking. Matching artist to instruments and stuff like that. It shouldnt be hard to do if you make flash cards and dont wait til the night before. The TA will probably help you focus on stuff you need to know.
Theres also a listening portion where he plays some songs off a list he tells you and you have to know artist or some other things. Again... just dont wait til the night before the exam.

Extra credit: go to a jazz concert and write about it. There are jazz concerts on campus which are free.. just go and write a 3 page double spaced review if you feel like your other essays were bad (mine werent too great). Jazz concert was actually pretty interesting (i went to the big band concert) and review took about an hour to write..

No need to buy any books/coursereader.
My TA (Katie) helped us by pointing out stuff which we should know what wasnt covered in lecture (there wasnt much tho). And for the songs you have to know... youtube.

Summary: Good GE to take. Im an engineer who doesnt write well and had no knowledge of jazz. Obviously youve got to put in some work but this isnt bad compared to other GE's you might have to take. Plus, you learn a bit about jazz, which was actually surprisingly interesting to me.

Class was just memorizing his notes, but super easy. You need to know everything he talks about, however. The midterm was easy, but the final was a bit more difficult because it was almost entirely people memorization. He would also show us a video during the last half of every class.

The professor is a good lecturer. He is easy to follow, and his tone keeps you up and interested.

Selling course reader and book for this class.
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SELLING

1. Ethno50A UCLA Course Reader Solutions- Jazz in American Culture- $20

2. DISCOVER JAZZ By John Edward Hasse and Tad Lathrop-$25

Selling Ethnomusicology 50B course reader 'Jazz In American Culture' for $15.00 If interested please email me @ *************!

selling his textbook and coursereader of 50A for 25$. Please contact *************

This class is overall really good. One midterm, one final, two essays, and the first one has two drafts. You have one optional extra credit project which is worth a maximum of 3%.

Professor Harrison is a jazz guitarist, so he clearly knows what he is teaching. This class covers the history and development of jazz from 1940s onward. Lectures are two-hour long. In the first half, he introduces names of musicians, instruments they play, what are their contributions, and why they are important. Basically you have to copy down all of what he says. It’s not a bad idea to take notes alternatively with friends, if you really can’t go to the class. In the second half, he plays documentaries, and some of the information from it will be tested. Some students choose to leave and some others choose to stay and sleep. However, as previous comments say, this class relies on pure memorization.

Personally I think taking notes and remember them is the fastest way to learn a subject you have never encountered before, but it gets boring. Sometimes he throws more than 20 names and each of them has only very little description. If you start to memorize these facts earlier, you will be fine.

Regarding the textbook and the course reader, it is obvious that they are not important (See the ads below...). However, the course reader can be used as a source for your essays, and Professor Harrison puts something from the textbook on the exam. The midterm was a shock to the class and the average was 80, which is far away from the past record of more than 50% A. Professor Harrison tested some facts from the documentaries and some from the textbook. Many of my friends chose PNP. The final was much easier. But still, don’t be fooled by that past record.

I knew nothing about jazz before, but still managed to get an A in the end. The workload is alright.

His lecture is quite interesting but siting in the dark music hall for 2 hours each lecture is not a cool experience. Fair exams but TA largely decides your destiny for grading your 3 papers. Some of them are as F**k strict as mine and some of them even give you the final questions in discussions. I got a shitty TA names Doleac, B.G a disorganized and meddlesome guy. He never really know what he was to do. The third paper was due 3 weeks later and he suddenly ask everyone to bring the draft to the Friday discussion by email on Wednesday night!! Nobody even started!!He always concentrates on my grammar mistakes even if after the modification of writing center. The mean of the first draft was 70 out of 100 and every other section has probably 80.

The distribution above for 50b is absolutely not true for this quarter. The average of the midterm is around 70 (C-) and he eventually have to add 7 points for everyone and raise the average to around 79(B-). Note that your final grade is not curved according to him you need 93 pts to get an A. I don't know if you still think this class is easy. Regarding the midterm, there are a lot of stuff he didn't mention in class or just slightly talk about it.He will test you on the details from the book that he never mention in lecture. You basically have to memorised everything he taught in class about ~40 names their instruments ,period and also the book.