NYU Steinhardt is assigning this blog in its music theory and aural skills core classes

Posted byEthan 5 Comments on NYU Steinhardt is assigning this blog in its music theory and aural skills core classes

Last night I went to a holiday party for NYU Steinhardt’s music education program, where I got my PhD and where I have been teaching the Technology and Pop Practicum courses for several years now. Steinhardt has been overhauling its core music theory and aural skills curricula, and while I am highly interested in this process, I have not been involved in it. I have a lot of opinions about this, but not much credentialing in music theory pedagogy. At the party, a student told me that her theory and aural skills teachers are assigning her a lot of material from this blog. This was news to me. I’m flattered, of course, but also sad, because no one has talked to me about it, much less invited me to teach any of the classes. Like I said, I know my formal CV doesn’t really support that, but if the blog is good enough to assign…

Anyway, I asked the chair of the theory program about it, and she pointed me to the specific classes that are assigning my stuff. The main one is Theory & Practice I: Global Approaches to Music (MPATC-UE 1301). Specifically:

Unit 1-1: Musical Elements

Unit 2-2: Modes

Unit 2-3: Pentatonic, Whole Tone, Octatonic

Unit 6-6: Pop Harmonic Syntax

The other class that’s assigning my stuff is Aural Skills I: Global Approaches to Music (MPATC-UE 1302), specifically:

Unit 4-1: American Pop Beat Patterns

The theory department made the admirable decision to only assign material that is online and open-access. They are drawing heavily on Open Music Theory, and they have also curated a diverse collection of articles, web interactives and YouTube videos. There are multiple different resources for each concept, ranging from formal and “academic” to casual and playful.

There is a reason to care about this beyond my personal career development: it’s representative of larger shifts in university-level music theory. When I went through Steinhardt’s theory and aural skills core as a grad student ten years ago, it was nothing but the European canon. On the rare occasion when someone brought up the Beatles, it was usually as an example of bad voice leading. It was not a positive experience for me. The new curriculum is a massive change for the better. NYU is not way out in front with this, either, other theory programs started desequencing and decanonizing years ago. There is plenty left to figure out: how much Anglo-American pop should these curricula include? How much of the European canon? How much jazz? How much non-Western music, and from which cultures? How do you create a broad and diverse curriculum without just opening up the firehose? How do you move from “basic” to “advanced” if there is no single coherent set of skills you are trying to teach? These are all difficult and unresolved questions, but the only really wrong answer is not to ask in the first place.

5 replies on “NYU Steinhardt is assigning this blog in its music theory and aural skills core classes”

  1. It’s also sad their timid pedagogy asks ‘individualized’ students to do the impossible of translating culturally-grounded theory readings into new musical practices, rather than inviting a living musician who embodies those practices and can create a safe space for students to lose their culturally-ingrained fear of failure and ‘feel’ the difference. ‘Baby Steps’

  2. You got plenty o’ credential and teaching skills; the problem is that NYU — and many, many other schools — like to take from adjuncts and never give back.

  3. “These are all difficult and unresolved questions, but the only really wrong answer is to not ask Ethan Hein in the first place”

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