1. PAMU 333
Varieties of Musical
Experience

2. General course goals include:
• Exposing students to new and diverse musical experiences,
including the musical styles of various human cultures and
historical periods.
• Understanding the importance of music in various human cultures,
and knowing the functions and usages of music throughout history.
• Developing focused, concentrated listening skills.
• Learning to notice and identify important musical details and
elements, when listening to music.
• Learning basic musical terminology, which will help you to more
accurately to describe musical events to other people.
• Learn the conventions of concert etiquette.
• Becoming more knowledgeable about a wide range of music, and
being able to demonstrate this through WRITING and DISCUSSION.

3. The ART of LISTENING
• Learn to LISTEN in depth to music, with focus and
concentration. Listen with a clear mind.
• Music is around us all the time. But how often do we really
completely and consciously listen to music?
• Listen for the details in the music (large and small), and listen
for the multiple musical events which are occurring
simultaneously in the music.
• In order to truly experience music, we have to be able to
concentrate on the matter at hand. Turn off all the
distractions: phones, TV, computers, Facebook, etc.
(Important!)
• Approach new music with an open mind. Give new music
several hearings before forming an opinion.

4. • MUSIC is: Sound organized in time.
• Music is the human organization of sounds (much like language).
Musical sound generally has perceivable and measurable
pitch/sound frequency – (vibrations per second). Musical sound is
also perceived at a certain volume, and with a quality known as
tone color, or timbre. Timbre distinguishes the sound of one
instrument from another.
- Can random noises/sounds, or the sounds of nature, be classified as
music?
• Music occurs linearly over time, much like a verbal sentence
unfolds within a time dimension.
• Music is experienced a little bit at a time, as the piece unfolds over
a duration of time. (unlike a painting) Our evaluation of a piece of
music can only be made after the piece is completely finished.

5. Sensing the organization in music:
• Listen for REPETITION of musical ideas.
– Creates unity and structure in the song/piece by repeating
previously heard events, and familiar points of reference.
• Listen for VARIATION of musical materials.
– Creates a sense of evolution and mutation of the musical ideas.
Introduction of new ideas gives a feeling of forward motion.
• There exists a careful balance between
Repetition and Variation in music.
– Too much Repetition loses the sense of forward progress in the
music, and can get boring.
– Too much Variety lacks unity, and may sound unorganized.

6. Introductions –
Getting to know each other.
Introduce Yourself:
• your Name
• your Major
• any musical training?
• If so, what instrument or voice? How many years?
• any dance, or theater training? Studying film making?
• What other music courses have you taken at CI, if any?
• Name some of your favorite music to listen to.
• Why are you taking this course? What do you hope to learn?

7. Your current Musical Tastes
• Think about how you acquires your musical
favorites.
• Several factors could have contributed, such as:
• Your environment when growing up
• A sibling or parent’s music collection
• Friend’s music collection
• Music experiences in school
• Mass media, Other factors

8. ASSIGNMENT: “My musical tastes.”
• Write 1 or 2 pages about the music that you enjoy and like to
listen to the most. Discuss some specific artists and/or
composers whom you like. What do you specifically like
about their music? Describe what do you feel and think when
you hear their music. Exactly why do you like this music?
• Discuss the factors which led you to discover and enjoy your
musical favorites. Possible factors might include: the
place/time/culture where you grew up; the musical tastes of
siblings, parents, and/or friends; exposure to media or live
concerts; personal experiences while growing up; dancing;
your own musical training, etc. (many other possibilities exist)
• Of your favorites, will the general public still be listening to
those artists 10 years from now? Why, or why not? Will they
still be remembered 50 years from now? In 200 years?

9. ASSIGNMENT Part 2:
• Next Tuesday, be prepared to share with the
class a summation of your “Musical Tastes”
report. You may either read your paper, or
give us an overview/ highlights.
• Read Chapter 1 in our textbook.

10. CHAPTER 2 – Listening to Music
• The place of music in culture.
– Historically, music has been a part of most human
cultures. This suggests that the human mind, which has an
inclination to organize and synthesize, is naturally
attracted to ordering sounds.
– Each culture or society creates music of a distinct quality
that arises from, and expresses the needs and customs of
those people. There exists an anthropological relationship
between the characteristics of a culture’s music, and the
particular ethnic/cultural group that created the music.