Music

College of Fine Arts

Music Education

  • Arts Engagement as Active Hope: Attuning, Reflecting, and Writing Our Way Towards a Sustain Future

    CFA ME 377

    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CAS WR 100 or CAS WR 120). Online offering. Explore the arts and writing to contemplate nature, identify unsustainable practices, and propose viable alternatives. Learners of all ability levels in the arts are welcome. Effective Summer 1 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Creativity/Innovation. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

    Summer 1 (May 13-June 27)

    Summer 2 (June 30-August 15)

    BU Financial Aid: Summer Term HUB Courses

    Financial aid may be available to BU need-based scholarship recipients for certain HUB courses in summer 2025, including this one. For more information, please contact BU Financial Assistance at 617-353-2965 or finaid@bu.edu. Check out Summer 2025 HUB Course Scholarship eligibility requirements to see if you qualify.

    For information about technology requirements for online courses at Boston University, see bu.edu/online/online-learning/technology. BU Virtual can be reached at buvirtual@bu.edu or 617-358-1960 for additional information.

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  • Rock & Pop Performance & Pedagogy

    CFA ME 638

    The course is designed both to introduce learners to, and to develop existing expertise in, skills and techniques for making, teaching, and learning popular music; providing learners with a range of learning and music-making experiences germane to and typical of a range of popular music contexts. Informal, nonformal, and mentoring pedagogical practices are normative components of learning popular music, along with more formal teaching learning approaches, so students are encouraged to embrace all of these approaches, as learners and as co-teachers and peer mentors. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

    Summer 2 (July 14-August 22)

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  • Creating Music in The Classroom

    CFA ME 658

    Students will explore forms of creating new music in classroom settings including graphic composition, group improvisation, tech-based exploration, and songwriting, among others. The class will include hands-on music-making alongside discussion and writing focused on developing purposeful pedagogies for music creation. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

    Summer 2 (July 7-August 15)

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  • Special Topics: Advanced Conducting Institute

    CFA MU 535

    This course offers immersive, hands-on instruction for aspiring and experienced choral conductors, including current music educators and conductors, seeking to refine their skills in leading vocal ensembles. Students engage in intensive score study, conducting technique, rehearsal planning, and ensemble leadership, with a focus on technically sound, expressive conducting. Through a combination of podium time, faculty coaching, and private lessons, students will develop advanced gestural vocabulary and explore strategies for achieving cohesive ensemble sound. Pre-course readings and assignments will be provided in preparation for the in-person aspect of this intensive course. Available for graduate conducting credit in consultation with student advisors.. Variable cr. Tuition: $815 per credit

    Summer 2 (June 30-July 21)

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  • Music History

    • The Poetics and Politics of Hip Hop

      CFA MH 410

      Students in this course will engage with a history of hip hop music, including major trends, changes in technique and musicianship, some important artists and albums, regional styles, and relationship with the larger sociocultural context of African-American and US politics, cultural production, and daily life. Students will examine and critique the construction of canons of hip hop greatness and engage in remaking them. They will identify how hip hop is shaped by the politics of race, class, and gender issues in ways that have ramifications for a broader appraisal of the role of these factors in US society. Students will reflect on their own positionality as social and political actors and global citizens. Students will interpret both primary sources (recordings, music videos, films, album art, reviews) and secondary sources (scholarly and journalistic texts), applying the listening, viewing, and reading skills necessary to assess these sources critically, and bring their analyses of these sources to bear in discussion and in- and out-of-class assignments.¿No prerequisites or prior skills required. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

      Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

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    • R&B, Motown, and Classic Funk: Soundtracks of Empowerment and Civil Rights

      CFA MH 430

      Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Motown, Soul, and Funk are seminal in the development of rap, hip-hop, fusion, and contemporary urban and R&B styles. These styles provided the soundtrack for African American identity, empowerment, and protest from the civil rights struggle of the late 1950s and early '60s to the Black Power commentary of the 1970s, and, eventually into the hip-hop era. This course places these styles within their cultural and historical contexts and examines their musical characteristics in detail. This course does not require previous training in music. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

      Summer 2 (June 30-August 8)

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    • Music Theory

      • Elements of Music Theory 1

        CFA MT 105

        A creative introduction to the foundational principles of musical structure. Uses a multi-modal approach, combining in-class performance exercises, listening, composition, keyboard, and aural (and oral) learning. Students acquire an analytical vocabulary and the basic knowledge to support the exploration of musical repertoires, to enhance their own performances, and to develop their own musical compositions. Analytical and music-composition projects engage concepts of musical space, time, pitch, rhythm, and harmony as employed in tonal music. Course may not be taken by CFA music majors. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. 4 cr. Tuition: $3260

        Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

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      • Applied Music

        Applied Music Lessons

        Private study in applied music is offered during both sessions of Summer Term. The Summer Term office can assist with any registration questions. Once registered, instructors will reach out to students via email to schedule lessons. There is an Applied Music fee during Summer Term of $1000 for seven one-hour lessons and $500 for seven half-hour lessons per session. Lessons also carry a standard undergraduate tuition charge of $815 per credit. Students taking hour-long lessons must register for 3 or 4 credits; students taking half-hour lessons must register for 1 or 2 credits. Music lessons are available in the following:

        Summer 1 and Summer 2: Voice
        CFA ML 507: 7 one-hour lessons
        CFA ML 508: 7 half-hour lessons

        Summer 1 and Summer 2: Guitar for Non-Music Majors
        CFA ML 565: 7 one-hour lessons
        CFA ML 566: 7 half-hour lessons
        • Applied Voice (Half-Hour)

          CFA ML 508

          Seven half-hour private lessons provided by CFA faculty. Students should make personal arrangements with the School of Music for private lessons. There is an Applied Music fee during Summer Term of $500 for seven half-hour lessons per session for CFA ML 508. In addition, standard tuition rates also apply. Register for 1 or 2 credits. Variable cr. Tuition: $815 per credit

          Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

          Summer 2 (June 30-August 8)

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        • Applied Guitar for Non-Music Majors (Half-Hour)

          CFA ML 566

          Seven half-hour private lessons provided by CFA faculty. Students should make personal arrangements with the School of Music for private lessons. There is an Applied Music fee during Summer Term of $500 for seven half-hour lessons per session for CFA ML 566. In addition, standard tuition rates also apply. Register for 1 or 2 credits. Variable cr. Tuition: $815 per credit

          Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

          Summer 2 (June 30-August 8)

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        • Applied Voice (Hour)

          CFA ML 507

          Seven one-hour private lessons provided by CFA faculty. Students should make personal arrangements with the School of Music for private lessons. There is an Applied Music fee during Summer Term of $1000 for seven one-hour lessons per session for CFA ML 507. In addition, standard tuition rates also apply. Register for 3 or 4 credits. Variable cr. Tuition: $815 per credit

          Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

          Summer 2 (June 30-August 8)

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        • Applied Guitar for Non-Music Majors (Hour)

          CFA ML 565

          Seven one-hour private lessons provided by CFA faculty. Students should make personal arrangements with the School of Music for private lessons. There is an Applied Music fee during Summer Term of $1000 for seven one-hour lessons per session for CFA ML 565. In addition, standard tuition rates also apply. Register for 3 or 4 credits. Variable cr. Tuition: $815 per credit

          Summer 1 (May 20-June 27)

          Summer 2 (June 30-August 8)

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