V1002 Fundamentals of Western Music

Prof. Susser can be a little intimidating and a bit scary to those who know little to nothing about music theory. Fundamentally, the course is not a fundamentals course, but rather an intense examination of music theory. Prof. Susser presents this dry material often in a witty way, but be prepared. If he calls on you, and you don't know the answer, you will be scorned with three words.

Aiiiieeee! A lot of the kids in my class had already had tons of experience with music theory, so they, of course, found it easy. I'm a singer, so I didn't [and still don't to some degree] know what the hell I was doing. A lot of times, the professor would go around the class giving verbal pop quizzes: "Bobby, we're in Eb major. Can you give me a dominant seventh chord in second inversion?" When he got to me I would always want to crawl under my desk, because I didn't know the answers off the top of my head. Let's just say that if you are not a music theory buff before you take this class, it is going to be slightly intimidating. I seem to be doing okay in Diatonic, though, so I guess it was worth it.