MUSI 2120

Professor Deveaux knows a ton about jazz and is clearly passionate about what he teaches. If you aren't interested in, well, the history of jazz, you probably shouldn't take this class. Also, I think that if you didn't have any music experience it would be overwhelming--technically you don't need to know things about music before taking this class, but you do have to do a lot of listening and some easy musical analysis that would be quite hard if you didn't know musical basics.

Deveaux is definitely one of my favorite professors here - super funny and always engaging. However, the course wasn't what I thought it would be. You have to be very attentive to details and sounds so if you don't have a good ear, you might struggle a bit in this class because it requires a lot of listening. Other than that, it was a good experience and I would ONLY recommend it if you have impeccable listening skills or have some background in music. Try to get a good TA as well!

Everyone raved about this class as the easiest 4 credit music class there was- a GPA booster. But this really is not the case- ESPECIALLY if you have a full work load this won't be your GPA booster. Professor Deveaux is great and he really cares about teaching the history of jazz but it's a 4 credit class for a reason. It is MUCH more work than you expect. Biggest advice is to go to class because you'll actually remember the key information while the textbook is DENSE. It can go on about an artist for 4 pages but if you go to class he'll tell you the 1 key thing to remember from that musician. You have weekly discussion than can help you depending on your TA. Aldona Dye, while really nice and tries to be helpful, isn't helpful at all and her discussion sections did not really help us remember musicians. Take it with Kyle who I learned a lot from one discussion section before I had to switch!

I had a love-hate relationship with this class. I absolutely loved Professor DeVeaux and my TA (Justin Mueller), but I found that I didn't always have time to do the work necessary to succeed in the class. I did well overall, because I put a lot of effort into studying for the final, but the class does have a lot of reading and listening. If you read the textbook/discussion readings and do the listening on time, you'll be fine -- but it's a lot of work to stay on top of. Having experience playing piano helped me out a lot, so I would say some basic music background will really help. Overall, I would recommend this class to anyone -- Professor DeVeaux is really passionate about the material and a great lecturer, and the class itself is incredibly interesting.

Very good and interesting class, but covers a LOT of information, which can be a little overwhelming. Professor Deveaux is very entertaining and makes the class interesting and fun. You also get to listen to lots of music during class and watch live bands play!

Personally I have a hard time with this class, you really have to do the listening and be able to remember different things about certain pieces and distinguish styles. The discussion helps but if you don't have an ear for music it can be really difficult. The other thing that is difficult about this class is the amount he expects you to know about different musicians. I'd say that knowing the music and knowing things about the musicians are the most important parts of the class.
There was usually one chapter to read a week and one to two articles, which you were expected to have read for your discussion sections so you could discuss them. The night before your discussion you were supposed to submit three questions to the TA about the reading to encourage discussion.
There were definitely fun parts to the class, you get to listen to a lot of music but then you are supposed to remember things about the music as well.
One other thing that annoyed me about the class was how hard it was to find information. The syllabus is a separate website so you have to click through the links to find the information you're looking for and it can be a bit confusing. There was also a separate collab page for your TA, a separate website to access the music discussed in the book and another website with links to the music discussed in class.

Note: Numbers given (hours per week) are a maximum estimate.
Professor Deveaux is a good teacher, interesting person, and sometimes funny. His lectures are very clear and passionate, and he knows how to communicate his ideas well. There are many listening examples and he frequently plays the piano to demonstrate.
The course itself is structured well. There are 2 midterms and a final, all of which are cumulative. There are 2 3-5 page essays to write on musical examples, 2 concert reports to submit (after attending 2 jazz concerts) and weekly discussion sections that sometimes require extra reading. Depending on students prior knowledge of music, this course could take a lot of work and preparation, or none at all. There is a big focus on listening (about a third of all exams are listening exerpt based) so make sure you get the hang of listening and analyzing jazz recordings (they will all be provided.) One annoying aspect of the class is that he made us purchase Top Hat, a 25 dollar program, that we basically only used for attendance (and a few other small things). But overall, a worthwile course that will give you a broad and thorough look at jazz. For musicians, this course should be pretty basic, for non musicians, it will be tougher.

I think this class was worth it overall. Deveaux was really engaging and made the class fun by incorporation music examples into his powerpoints. Also, the Free Bridge Quintet came in one lecture to perform for the class which was cool as well. My advice to future students who take this class is to spend a good amount of time on the listening examples and start listening to them at least a week before the exams (examples both from the textbook and online in collab). Deveaux pulls questions from both areas. It can be hard to listen to some of the musical elements but with time, it becomes easier. The discussion section are pretty pointless because we did not really go over the information Prof Deveaux went over in class and hardly listened to any of the music examples. It was just a lot of discussion of articles from Collab. The final was pretty straightforward and all the exams are cumulative. I highly recommend doing the 3rd concert report for extra credit because it adds a boost to the overall grade. I really enjoyed this class and it was a great way to knock out the Non-Western Perspectives requirement.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this class. Professor DeVeaux is an entertaining guy, and the textbook (that he wrote) is beautifully done. It's definitely not an easy A, though. The listening portions for the midterm and final exam are tricky, especially if you don't have a musical background. DO NOT wait until the last minute to listen to the material. It takes time to absorb everything and decipher what's going on.

To be completely honest, this class is 100% not worth it. For the amount of time and effort you must put into the class, it is not necessarily worth it. The textbook is absolutely necessary to read, but it can be hard to read through it all because Prof. DeVeaux throws in so many irrelevant names that you don't know if you will need to know for the final. I have a musical background, but even I found it difficult differentiating and comprehending some of the examples. There were 19 chapters in the textbook and 5 listenings examples in each. On top of that, there were additional listenings that you were expected to somewhat know. That is a lot to ask, especially for a class that claims to not require a musical background. Additionally, Prof. DeVeaux was TERRIBLE at communication during the transition to online classes due to COVID-19. While he was able to send chapter lectures, his lectures went way over the allotted time of 50 minutes, and I found myself having to prioritize the textbook over listening to them. Also, for the final exam, despite the fact that TAs tried to communicate with him asking about the content of the final exam, he did not get back to them until 2 days before. I had asked my TA a week in advance a few specific questions, and he had specifically stated that both him and the other TA could not get the professor to answer their questions. To me, that seems like an unequipped professor. While I did end up with an A- in this class, it was one of my least favorite classes at UVA.