Professor Bryan Reichert
breicher@bw.edu

Have you ever wanted to learn to play the guitar, but didn't know where to start? Or maybe, you play already, but don't know where to go next? Then Guitar Class is the place for you!

Guitar Class at BW provides students of all backgrounds and majors the opportunity to learn the guitar in a supportive classroom environment. We start playing from the very first class meeting and by the end of the semester, leave with a confident understanding of popular guitar playing styles and the tools to continue playing long after. Please contact Prof. Bryan Reichert, BW Conservatory of Music faculty, for more information!

Professor Bryan Reichert
breicher@bw.edu

Intermediate Guitar Class is a lab and lecture combined class instructed by Prof. Bryan Reichert that reviews and builds-on popular guitar playing techniques: fundamental to intermediate. Throughout the semester, we will identify guitar playing styles commonly found in your favorite popular music genres (rock, classical, jazz, blues, etc.) and learn the characteristics that define each style. You will be encouraged to bring music examples from your favorite artists to the group, which we will then play (step-by-step) and analyze as a class. Not only will we learn to play the techniques used in various guitar styles, but also discuss the history of guitar music and the incredible musicians that play it. In addition, we will identify apps, websites, and devices available to help take your playing to the next level!

Staff Members of Cleveland Play House
bbowser@bw.edu

Learn more about how to use your skills as an artist to create change and impact in your community as a teaching artist; taught in partnership with the Cleveland Play House.

Professor Josh Ryan
jryan@bw.edu

MUC 324 introduces musicians to the system of complex musical counterpoint of Sub Saharan Africa and its descendants in the African Diaspora. The purpose of this course will be to provide students with the ability to decode the dense layers of this music and incorporate it into their own musicianship. Both an applied and an analytical/historical approach will be employed. While the ample rhythmic elements of West African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American music will the primary focus, the melodic and harmonic components of these traditions will also be studied.

Dr. Gene Willet
gwillet@bw.edu

Prerequisite: ENG 131

How do we engage with music in video games? What does this music mean- both in a game and beyond? And what is the status of such music within broader notions of modern music culture? This course will answer these questions by engaging directly with video game music through play and listening, discussing the design and functions that define this repertoire within this media form. We will also step outside of games to discuss contextual and sociocultural issues that surround such music and those who engage with it- particularly in ways that traverse the spectrum of serious to trivial. Students will be given the opportunity to engage with the emerging field of “Ludomusicology,” the study of music and/in/as play, and to create trade level sound design documents for a video game concept of their own creation using art provided by the professor.

Dr. Carolyn Borcherding
cborcher@bw.edu

This course examines the history and practices of experimental electronic music, highlighting the development from analog technologies into the digital. We will experiment with basic digital audio technology, signal flow, and digital audio processes, and discuss historical and modern musical examples of experimental electronic music.