Music 84A
Course Syllabus

Professor:
John Hanks
jhanks@duke.edu
919-622-2997

Description: In conjunction with theory and history, performance is an active
way of understanding music literature, facing questions of style, and honing one's
technical and expressive skills. This course is designed to develop the student's
abilities as a performer, including technique, articulation, and musicality. The
course aims to increase the student's knowledge of representative repertoire and
styles, and aid the student in achieving their musical goals. Equipment selection
and maintenance, where appropriate, will also be covered. This is a course
designed to cover instrumental technique in a logical sequence, especially for the
beginner-intermediate student. The integration of repertoire and technique is
designed to make the course comprehensive; these aspects of playing are rarely
separated in practice. Experienced instrumentalists tell us that they spend from 4
to 20 hours of practice for each hour of performance. In signing up for this
course, you are expected to practice, as a minimum, 3 hours per week. Come to
each lesson prepared to play assigned material.

Course Requirements and Policies
1. At your first two meetings, your teacher will develop or discuss a repertoire list
which he or she expects to cover with you during the semester. Students
registered for one-hour lessons (0.5 or 1.0 course) will have 14 one-hour
lessons. Students registered for half-hour lessons (0.25 course) will have a
minimum of 10 meetings per semester; some of these meetings will be for one
hour, some for one-half hour, to equal a total of 7 hours.
2. Regular attendance is required. Your teachers will inform you of their policies
regarding the relationship between the number of lessons taken and your grade.
Instructors may require a given number of lessons for consideration for a passing
grade. See attendance policy below. If you must be absent for any important
reason, call your teacher prior to the absence. We ask you to give your teacher
24 hours notice of lessons to be missed, if possible. In emergencies see or call
your teacher immediately afterward to explain fully.
3. Make-up of lessons. If your teacher cancels a lesson for any reason, he or she
will schedule a make-up time. Your teacher will make every effort to make up
lessons cancelled by you for which you have excused absences (dean's excuse, religious holiday, etc), but unexcused
absences will not be made up.
4. Evaluation. Your progress in this course will be evaluated at each lesson
through oral comments. Do not expect written evaluations of your progress. Your
grade (A,B,C, etc) will reflect:
a) your ability and progress on your instrument relative to other students at
your level of playing and experience, and
b) your personal level of improvement and diligence in preparation and
attendance (note that your attendance will influence your final grade)

5. Required Materials: for drumset students: supplies and music as assigned. It is
expected that you will purchase music as assigned by the instructor; it is the
equivalent of the text for the course. Bring you own sticks, books, etc to class.
Do not use chewed up/chipped sticks in class; save a pair of of "clean" sticks for
this purpose, if necessary. Persistant borrowing of sticks and books will
contribute negatively to your final grade. You do not need to bring a metronome
or practice pad, however you may want to bring an iPod or other recording
device for playback of music and/or recording the lesson for review at a later
date.

Practice

We are working to develop interpretive abilities and appropriate
techniques. Therefore, daily practice is a must. Since playing is also physical,
some students will naturally have to practice more than others. The goal for the
course is to make you a competent instrumentalist. This implies achieving a
certain standard. How you practice is much more important than how much you
practice.
Some suggestions:
1. Slow rote drill, by memory, is most helpful. Concentrate on developing
one skill at a time, and on making what sounds good feel natural for your body.
2. When you are practicing for a particular assignment, look at the music
BEFORE you practice. Identify potential problems for slow drill as described
above.
3. Isolate specific problems. Practice small units repeatedly (e.g. in units
as small as 3 or 4 notes). Exaggerating desired gestures will help "groove" your
muscle memory and form desirable habits. Practice while watching yourself in a
mirror to monitor hand position and posture. Tape recording yourself is an excellent way to check tone
quality and dynamic range.
4. With intelligent practice, you should be able to make good progress with
a minimal time commitment. When you find difficulties, THINK about what you
are doing and be creative about ways to practice.
5. As an applied percussion student, your Duke Card will be enabled to
access room 037 in Biddle Music Building. Please note:
a) no one allowed in the room except students enrolled in Music
84. Do not loan out your card for others to use!
b) Do not borrow or remove anything from 037, including drums, PA
equipment, etc. This is property of the Music Dept and is not to used for any
purpose other than practicing in 037.
These rules are in accordance with Duke Music Dept. policy. Security is always
an issue on campus. Be sure the door is locked when you practice and when you
leave.

Requirements and Assessment
You are required to attend class and participate fully.
You are responsible for the material assigned in class.
There is no final exam, however you will be assessed on your overall and/or
specific improvements over the course of the semester.

Grading
Daily grades will be averaged from three categories:
Attendance - 50%
*Degree of Preparation (1-4)- 25%
*Degree of Improvement (1-4)- 25%
* 1=below level, 2= approaching level, 3=at level, 4 =above level

Your class participation and attention will also affect the final grade. Preparation
and Improvement are intrinsically linked. You will be assessed for each as:
exceeds, meets, approaches or falls below. These 4 degrees will be averaged
together based on the number of lessons you attend and then factored in to your
final grade.

Attendance
Two absences are allowed. Any more than two absences will affect your final
grade.
Class will begin at the scheduled time. Even 5 minutes late is about 17% of the
lesson.) Therefore, three late arrivals will now count as one absence.
If you are more than 15 minutes late, the lesson is cancelled and you will be counted as absent.
Overall attendance will be counted as one grade and averaged in. The absence
schedule is as follows:
0 to 2 absences = A to A -
3 to 4 absences = B+ to B-
5 absences = C
6 absences = D
7 absences = F

Textbook
TBA - method books and other texts will be discussed during the first couple of
lessons. Do not buy anything until we have met.
Generally, for beginning students, we will start with snare drum studies. You will
need to purchase a practice pad (preferably with gum rubber/or similar surface),
Pair of sticks (5A, 5B, etc - not too thin or too heavy), metronome, and a snare
drum method book, like "Vic Firth level 1" or similar. For Intermediate students and
higher, books are TBA. Generally I will want you to become proficient in a
number of styles, including: rock, jazz, and "latin". There are 100's of books
available, so this will best be determined during the first couple of meetings.

Office Hours
TBA