Music Appreciation (5 Weeks)
- Course Description
- Learning Objectives
- Who should take this course
- Textbook
- Instructor
- Instructor Biography
To better understand why vinyl record sales have reached $1 billion for the first time in 35 years, students will listen to, learn about, and discuss music that is exclusively played on records. Each class will feature a dynamically engaging lecture presentation to contextualize selected songs that will range from the extremely rare to the uniquely enchanting. Students are not required to do anything other than come to class and enjoy listening to and talking about fascinating music from a vast vinyl collection that spans 100 years of musical genres and styles from around the world.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Listen to an eclectic array of music on vinyl records and learn about the contextualized history of selected songs.
2. Demonstrate a deeper understanding of sociocultural shifts in society through discussion focused on musical examples featured in each class.
3. Understand and analyze the taxonomic relationships between different genres of music.
4. Develop new musical knowledge and perspectives to enhance their listening experience.
English Language Learners of at least intermediate proficiency as well as native speakers who are interested in learning about the fascinating, deep histories of selected songs and music on vinyl.
No required textbook or recommended readings
David Phillips
David Phillips earned his MAT in Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern California and has been working as an Academic English Instructor at Temple University Japan since 2016 and started working at Seikei University from April 2023. In addition to his university work, he also serves as an examiner for the Eiken Foundation of Japan throughout the year. Prior to living and teaching in Japan, he taught sociocultural anthropology to first-year undergraduates at the University of Washington and Intensive English courses at Seattle Pacific University for 5 years. David is focused on continuing to apply a sociocultural approach to every class lesson as a way to utilize student background knowledge and build co-created classrooms in which every student has opportunities to contribute and actively participate. When he is not teaching or publishing works on adapting materials for cultural responsiveness and autonomous learner development, David is working toward completing a doctorate degree in English Pedagogy at Murray State University and producing episodes for his YouTube channel called, "The Rhythm Circuit," which features a global listening base.