Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for MUC 170B Winter 2025


Course Number:
MUC 170B
Course Title:
Intro to Ableton II: Analyze, Deconstruct, Rebuild
Credit Hours:
1
Lecture Hours:
10
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Continues delving into the art of beat-making with complex, nuanced drum programming, compelling bass lines, and sophisticated melodies. Audit Available. Prerequisites: MUC 170A.

Addendum to Course Description

In this workshop, students will analyze & deconstruct production techniques of popular & underground electronic music while treading the realms of auditory phenomena, biology of the senses, physics of sound using cutting edge MIDI controllers. This workshop looks at current electronic & MIDI instruments and imagines what designs the future holds, while continuing to study stylistic music production trends in popular & underground cultures. Continuing to develop the art of beat-making, students dive into more complex and nuanced drum programming, recording and editing. 

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

  1. Write and sequence melodies using a variety of scales.
  2. Discuss artistic and aesthetic choices with regard to cultural and historical assumptions, associations, traditions, and conventions and to one's own voice, style and/or identity.
  3. Apply a basic understanding of the history of popular & underground electronic music when creating projects.
  4. Demonstrate more complex drum programming, recording and editing techniques.

Course Activities and Design

  • Interactive, hand-on workshops with trending electronic music technology
  • Critical listening and discussions with peers
  • Embodied rhythm training
  • Building MIDI drum sequences and patterns
  • Evaluation of styles & techniques
  • Instructor demonstration of music technology and place it within historical and cultural contexts
  • Creation of original beats and melodies as an individual and a group

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Grades will be determined by measuring student competency in the related subject matter. Methods used to determine competency might include:

  • Practical Examinations
  • Quantitative/Qualitative Examinations
  • Individual Projects
  • Group Projects
  • Peer reviews/Evaluations

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  • Current & future electronic & MIDI instruments
  • Stylistic approaches with new technology
  • Exercised designed for more complex & nuanced drum programming
  • Critical Listening to tone and timbre of percussive & melodic instruments
  • Intro to pitch and origins of scales