In college when choosing a class, what is a “survey” style class?
Apr.03, 2010 in
College Selection
Im registering to classes but there is one class which is “survey of music history”. It says it is in the style of a survey, is this like a lecture? or a practice class?
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:33 pm
A survey class is an overview of a large field. It is probably a series of lectures and readings. It’s definitely not a music practice class.
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:30 pm
It could be a lecture or a seminar (less of the prof talking, more discussion). It’s certainly not a music practicum if it’s music history (i.e. you’re not going to learn to play the piano, you will learn about musicians and composers).
“Survey” doesn’t have anything to do with the type of class so much as the subject matter. They are usually intro-level or intermediate classes where you study a very broad range of topics to get a good general background of the subject matter before moving on to more advanced, specialized classes. So “survey of music history” might cover everything from ancient Greek music theory and practice to modern hip-hop, whereas more specialized classes might focus on a single century or musician or style and study it in greater depth.