Two takeaways: this class is an easy A but very boring. Participation is required (you have to attend 40/50 hours of lectures and discussion to get 100%) and Tramo is not the greatest lecturer. The first hour of every class is spent repeating what was covered last time. He plays videos and audio clips at an ungodly volume level, even though part of the class covered how loud noises damage our ears. Even more, he will try to talk during the videos, but nobody can hear a word he says, even from the front row (keep in mind, he's yelling into a microphone at this point). Fortunately, there are no exams, so you can get through the class without ever taking notes. The real learning happens in discussion sections (shout out to Rachel Scott, amazing TA). Be aware that 50% of your grade is a group final paper and everyone gets the same grade. The paper has to be 7000-8000 words, but it's split among up to 5 members. The rubric is very straightforward and it's easy to get a good grade as long as your group members do their part. The weekly assignments are straight from the textbook and are pretty easy. There are also readings from a book called Musicophilia which are actually pretty interesting.

This class definitely has upsides and downsides. On the ups - it's an easy A as long as you show up and put a small amount of effort in. The TAs were SUPER lenient with grading, it was split between attendance/participation, homework sets, and a final paper. The homework sets are from the textbook and super straightforward. As someone who learned zero (0) things from the class, I still had no trouble faking my way through the homework lol. Downsides - Professor Tramo was really brutal in my opinion. He is completely disorganized, he would frequently send out homework a few days before it was due at random (sometimes on a Monday due Thursday, other times on a Friday due Tuesday morning - very inconsistent). There's no assigned reading or assignment schedule included in the syllabus, so it really felt to me like he was making it up as we went. And, it made it a pain to do homework only when he assigned it, I found myself annoyed with not knowing when I would need to dedicate time to this class. Attendance is also mandatory. He does not record lectures. He does not post slides. He is VERY strict about this and I found that to be extremely frustrating (especially during COVID). I actually had to leave town for a death in the family and he refused to give me the slides from the class I missed and made me send "proof" of my family emergency to get credit. I found this to be insensitive... I understand he needs to do due diligence and make sure I'm not lying, but he went about it in an extremely rude. Prof. Tramo is also so unclear. I would go to lecture and literally not write a single thing down because I didn't even know what he was talking about or what to take notes on. You can get an A in this class without listening to a single lecture (because the final paper is based on a topic of your choosing, very broad), BUT you have to be there anyway so I really just felt like I was wasting my own time by taking this class... But we did have some dope guest professors (like the guy who did surgery on John Mayer's vocal cords, etc.) and that was entertaining. All in all it isn't horrible and is a good GE to take especially if you aren't looking for heavy science concepts, but be prepared to be frustrated/annoyed.