course
Ear Training I

Great professor, appeared a little intimidating at first. He's a very sweet man who cares a lot about our learning. Grades on time, organized, and made sure all students participated during class. Had a good experience in this class!

Miller is a fantastic teacher. I have now had him for two semesters in a row, and I can truly say that his classes have been my favorite at Columbia so far. He is not only a brilliant guitarist and a wonderful person in general, but he is a fantastic teacher and really has a way of engaging the entire class. While he can get distracted sometimes (which gets annoying when we need to get through material quickly), he has really done a great job at preparing us for Diatonic II. I am genuinely sad that I won't have him again for a few semesters-- I will miss having a teacher that actually cares about his students.

What a terrible class. Professor Zimmerli had a reclined attitude that consistently mocked his students for not meeting his exceedingly high expectations for a level one class. His vast knowledge for music hindered his teaching ability, where every new concept was introduced poorly as if his students should already know it because it is "so easy." This caused immense frustration and a high feeling of anxiety. I would not recommend this class to anyone because it made me change my mind about becoming a music major.

Ear Training I with PZ was a pleasure. The workload is light, and he is genuinely invested in making sure his students learn the material. Without a real class syllabus, he completely went at his own pace, and we skipped around topics throughout the semester. This however, wasn't detrimental at all to our learning...because PZ was more interested in learning than grades, class was engaging, useful and low-key. I came into the class with a strong music background, and Zimmerli made sure that I was always challenged, regardless of the pace of the rest of the class. Certain topics I fell slightly behind on, and others I was ahead of the other students, and he adjusted accordingly. He was able to individualize the class to our own strengths and weaknesses. If you can, I suggest him! He is funny and caring, and a wonderful professor.

Dr. Susser, as you will read in other parts of this site, is a fantastic pedagogue. His love of teaching and learning styles is unfortunately unmatched at this university. Ear training is a tricky thing to teach but Dr. Susser gives somewhat helpful strategies and is open to hearing your ways of doing things. Most of the students in this class had taken Fundamentals with him so there was a good rapport, but I got the feeling that it wouldn't be hard to build a good relationship with him from the outset. The grading is overly tough for a 1-credit course, however, and if you don't know it, he'll know it. Very valuable skill to have for the musically-inclined!

Victor is a great guy--not, however, the best ear training instructor. While he knows the course material himself, he's kind of confused on how to teach it. When the students find standards too difficult, he lowers the standards. A fun class, but not a terribly instructive one.

I really loved Francicso. Sure, he's a bit quiryky, and sometimes difficult to understand due to his accent, but deep downhe his is very sweet. His class is stress-free, which enabled me to actually learn the material. I also did not feel self conscious in this class, which I did in intro to ET. Most students did very well, even those of us who are not singers, or good at rhythmic dictation. In all, I enjoyed my time with Fancisco.

Brahim's pretty awesome, not going to lie. He does teach a lot of ear-training, but you also learn about cool things like microtones and spectral music along the way. Always arrive early, and ask questions - he tended to get into these interesting and fabulous tangents. I think I learned more from the tangents than I actually did in the class. Very cool guy and great teacher - I highly recommend him.

Francisco is a nice quiet guy who is happy to work with the students one-on-one and will prepare you well beyond the curriculum requires. Good guy.

Max Schmeder made Ear Training an extremely enjoyable class. I had never taken a music class before and Max made me feel really comfortable. He is really funny and really interested in his students, often going on wild tangents about something a student brings up. His classes usually involve him asking students to sing or tap some of the homework exercises and then doing dictations or interval training. His tests are tough but fair and he gives you a lot of time to prepare. He could do a better job teaching intervals because he puts them on the tests but makes you learn them from this interactive website,

Katarina is pretty good. She doesn't quite know what to do with students who don't get the excercises, but she teaches them very well. She's very into what she teaches, and is extremely nice. She'll help with any problems you might have, and she's always energetic and upbeat.

He remains the most effective Ear Training teacher ever. Knows his stuff, and knows how to make you know it. Never rude, but sufficiently strict (bad word, but you get the idea). Also an all-around great person.

What a great guy. A brilliant musician and composer, but never makes students feel stupid, even when they screw up really easy stuff. He knows its a one-credit class and that its not supposed to be a source of major stress. He's very willing to help students achieve their individual goals. Take him- you'll be in for a treat.

Really funny & nice guy who truly wants you to know more about music. Very smart; knows his stuff.