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Jazz Appreciation Student Comments

General Student Comments:

• Thanks for a great semester. I'm glad you were able to give me a greater appreciation for that aspect of culture. I still have some work to do, but at least I'm no longer 100% clueless when it comes to music.
• Thanks for teaching us. You are a cool guy in my book. I like your passion for the music.
• Thank you for everything. It has been enlightening and fun.
• I really enjoyed this calss. Thank you.
• Thanks so much. I enjoyed the class a lot and learned a ton. Even though I have played in jazz bands and all that, I really found a new interest in the music and thanks for making it exciting.

Responses to the question: "What was the most unexpected thing did you learn this semester?"

• I learned a lot more than I expected.
• How much jazz music has played a huge role in today's musical industry.
• I enjoy jazz and no can not stop listening to it. It influences my music.
• I learned that it will only take a little practice and much listening to kindle my interest in jazz anew.I have learned about more artists that I will enjoy in the future.
• I learned that listening carefully and accurately to jazz is an aquired skill.
• When I started, I know nothing about jazz and very little about music. This class has given me an appreciaton of musical artestry for jazz itself. Not only can I hear the instrumentation, I realize how the sound is achieved. Thank you.
• From an evolutionary perspective, it must be more important to be flexible and adaptable than to develop a concrete internal expession. Or, maybe, once you have the concrete eternal sense of expression then you need to learn to retain it amidst a world forever oscilating.
• I learned that I can enjoy avant garde music. I had always thought, from what little I had heard, that I would dislike it. But, stuff like Coltrane, I really enjoy.
• I had no idea that jazz was a multi-faceted genre. I will take what I've learned and continue to build on it.
• I was unaware that so many other styles of music are linked to jazz (like swing and funk).
• I learned how big of an impact as well as how jazz piioneered the develpment of music we listen to nowadays.
• I learned how much I like Duke Ellington and relearned how much I love Herbie Hancock.
• Pop culture in general overshadown the styles and foundations of what and where all of this started. I felt like I was able to hear it for what it was, understand the ideas and passion, and appreciate how music is truely a universal language.
• I learned about the amount and variety of improvisation and interaction in the music. There are many types of jazz, so there is somehting for everyone. The fact that much of the music is improvised gives me a new respect for the music.
• I realized how much more complex jazz is. I always thought of it as background music to my dad's office. Now I am able to identify instruments and I was able to learn about the greates jazz players ever.
• I learned that jazz is something that is not learned like in an an ordinary class. You can pay attention in class but it is more of something you must teach yourself.
• I really learned the styles and what musicians really brought to jazz and how it was formed. It has opened my ears to a whole new style of music that I can enjoy.
• I learned that the avant-garde is a legitimate and respectable art-form and that I can accept and enjoy it.
• I learned that there is an incredible diversity and variety fo jazz styles. I was also surprised to learn so much history in relation to music and the effect culture had on it.
• I think the origins of jazz really surprised me; not necessarily single facts, but the entire evolution. Also, I have a lot to learn about what's likeable and how to dive into what may not be initially enjoyable but still try to understand what the musicans were thinking.