This course focuses on the chronology of church music from the early Christian era to contemporary times. The various styles of church music throughout history are examined. A particular focus of the course is sacred musical styles from Ghanaian and, more generally, African experience, such as the Dagaaba Mass, Ebibidwom, among others.
The central goal of this course is to introduce the history of music education, the major music teaching methodologies, the psychological foundations of music education and curriculum and assessment in music education.
An overview of the local and global music industry, this course will provide insights into a number of key areas of business related to music. Students will also explore a diversity of music industry career paths in areas such as arts management, music products and merchandizing, public relations, music production and recording, publishing, and online music distribution.
The course provides opportunities for students to acquire skills in the preparation of a repertory for a 30-minute public concert of vocal or instrumental music consisting of African, Western and African-American pieces. The course also assists students to enhance their proficiency on the keyboard and acquire skills in public performance of hymns, their transposition and extemporization.
The course is designed to introduce students to basic research techniques in social science and music studies. It exposes students to qualitative and quantitative research paradigms and helps them to engage in research studies that employ the two paradigms.
The course focuses on the social history of African popular music styles such as Highlife, Jùjú, Soukous, Chimurenga, and Taraab, among others. It looks at the origin and growth of diverse popular, mass-mediated music styles throughout the continent and examines the social, cultural as well as technological factors that contributed to their development.
This course is an introduction to the science of sound for musicians. Topics include the physical basis of timbre, spectral analysis and harmonic series, the physical basis for scales and intervals, vibrations and resonance. The course also covers the science behind musical instruments, the human voice, hearing perception and concert hall acoustics. Digital sound editing will be introduced as a tool for understanding waveforms and spectral analysis (overtones). The course will consist of lecture, laboratory assignments and research projects.
This course enhances students’ music technology skills by introducing them to digital music production software such as Logic, Cubase, and ProTools. Students will also learn about basic production procedures and the hardware used in sound recording. In addition to studio recording and production, the course also covers live sound reinforcement and mixing.
This course introduces students to the use of professional Music Notation Software such as Sibelius and Finale. Students will learn to create musical scores, extract performance parts for single or multiple voices, create graphics, as well as MIDI files.
