Music

• Description: A study of Western music and its place in civilization. Selected listening and readings from the masterpieces of music of Europe and the Western Hemisphere with an emphasis on methods of comprehension, listening techniques, the elements of music, primary musical forms, and a wide range of concert repertoire. Includes a study of how social, political, philosophical, and other artistic developments outside of music influenced compositional thinking and how these were integrated into the different periods of Western musical history. A variety of media consisting of slides, videos, recordings, and lecture will be used. Live performance used when possible.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory:
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 60 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:Arts & Humanities
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Introduction to the great composers and music masterpieces of Western culture. Includes composer biographies with emphasis on how composers synthesize or transform the aesthetic ideals of their time. Examines how composers' music reflects their own lives as well as mirrors contemporary social, political, and religious events. Historical periods include the Classical period up through early Romanticism. Composers include Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Weber.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 2BH.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 3 hours lab per week. 84 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:Arts & Humanities
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Introduction to the great composers and music masterpieces of Western culture. Includes composer biographies with emphasis on how composers synthesize or transform the aesthetic ideals of their time. Examines how composers' music reflects their own lives as well as mirrors contemporary social, political, and religious events. Historical periods include the Classical period up through early Romanticism. Composers include Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Weber. The honors section offers deeper theoretical content, assignments that require more sophisticated cognition/critical thinking, more rigorous assessment, and additional creative and summative projects.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 2B.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 3 hours lab per week. 84 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:Arts & Humanities
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Continuation of common practice procedures in music and their application to composition and music literature. Seventh chords, an introduction to two-part counterpoint, secondary dominants and leading tone chords, modulation, and voice-leading techniques in four-part chorale writing. Musicianship skills to include melodic dictation with leaps from the I, IV, and V7 chords, rhythmic dictation in both simple and compound meters, harmonic dictation of typical chord progressions including notation of outer voices and Roman numerals, and sight-singing melodies with leaps from the I, IV, and V7 chords.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: MUS 3A proficiency or equivalent.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 3 hours lab per week. 84 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: A comparative and integrative study of American music, this course explores the music traditions and styles of Native Americans, European Americans, African Americans, Chicano/Latino Americans, and Asian Americans, from their historical roots to the present. It includes a wide variety of genres, such as folk, spirituals, gospel, soul, blues, jazz, Cajun, zydeco, salsa, Tejano, hip-hop, and rap. Students will look at these musical traditions from a technical and a cultural perspective as they develop listening and descriptive skills.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 8H.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 3 hours lab per week. 84 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:Arts & Humanities
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: A comparative and integrative study of American music, this course explores the music traditions and styles of Native Americans, European Americans, African Americans, Chicano/Latino Americans, and Asian Americans, from their historical roots to the present. It includes a wide variety of genres, such as folk, spirituals, gospel, soul, blues, jazz, Cajun, zydeco, salsa, Tejano, hip-hop, and rap. Students will look at these musical traditions from a technical and a cultural perspective as they develop listening and descriptive skills. The honors course offers an enriched and challenging experience for the more talented student, including deeper content, more rigorous grading, and more demanding and creative assignments requiring application of higher-level thinking, writing, and communication skills.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 8.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 3 hours lab per week. 84 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:Arts & Humanities
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Introductory study of the history and development of popular music from 1964 through the present in the U.S. The course examines the development of media delivery systems after The Beatles' first appearances on television through the growth of rock and alternative styles. Styles to be studied include punk, ska, the rebirth of country music, and the rise of hip-hop culture, examining artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Prince, The Police, Chuck D., and others. The course considers race and its impact on the production, distribution, and performance of music in the United States. The course studies the development and growth of music videos as an art form and the delivery/promotional systems developed for them, such as MTV.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 85B.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 60 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Beginning theory course, in which the basic elements of musicianship and harmony are explored through lecture, listening, and written assignments. Rudiments of music such as pitch, rhythm, harmony, style, and form will be examined as rock and roll is analyzed through classical music theory.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory:
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 60 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: History and analysis of funk, fusion, and hip-hop styles from 1969 to the present. An introduction to the instruments, performers, composers, compositions, and recordings that defined/define funk, fusion, and hip-hop. Presentation of recordings, videos, and print resources. Major artists include Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, James Brown, Sly Stone, Weather Report, Wayne Shorter, George Clinton and P-Funk, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Africa Bambaataa, Chuck D., and Dr. Dre. Style periods include early jazz fusion, early funk, East Bay funk, groove and smooth jazz, modern fusion, early hip-hop, and commercial rap.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in MUS 64B.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 60 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: The impact of emerging electronic music styles on instrument development, recording technology and popular culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Incorporation of electronic music and instruments in new music, television and film soundtracks and live performance, creating a market for the development and sales of portable music synthesizers. Analysis of the impact of emerging musical styles including ambient, techno and trance on the composition of contemporary music and youth culture. Comparison of analog and digital music synthesis techniques in the recording and performance of electronic music. Advances in computer technology in relation to the compositional needs of the emerging electronic musical styles. Students will analyze historically significant electronic works from experimental academic compositions to popular music from the era.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory:
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 4 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 60 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:Arts & Humanities
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Group instruction in piano for those with no previous training. Emphasis is on finger technique, note reading, and performance of simple piano literature. For music majors as well as the general student.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: Concurrent enrollment in MUS 10; this course is included in the Piano Class Applied Performance family of activity courses.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 2 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 36 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Continuation of MUS 12A with increased emphasis on independence of hands, proper hand position, building repertoire in different genres, variety in rhythmic figurations and articulation.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: MUS 12A or equivalent skills; this course is included in the Piano Class Applied Performance family of activity courses.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 2 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 36 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note:

• Description: Continuation of MUS 12B with greater emphasis on building a repertoire, varied styles of performance, and ensemble playing.
• Prerequisite:
• Corequisite:
• Advisory: Advisory: MUS 12B or equivalent skills; this course is included in the Piano Class Applied Performance family of activity courses.
• Repeatability: Not Repeatable.
• Hours: 2 hours lecture per week, 1 hours lab per week. 36 hours total per quarter.
• Foothill GE Area:
• Transferability: Both
• Transfer GE: Information regarding how this course is applied toward CSU GE/Breadth or IGETC certification is available at:
• Foothill Transfer GE Guide

Department Note: