Class Info and Syllabus
WELCOME
I am looking forward to working with you in Private Instruction Laboratory Classes and honored to work as an adjunct music professor with the Music Department at Metropolitan Community College.
Metropolitan Community College is the oldest and largest public institution of higher learning in Kansas City, Mo., founded in 1915 as the Kansas City Polytechnic Institute. The Junior College of Kansas City, as it was known starting in 1919, was one of the first schools in the country to award an associate degree. Today, MCC offers more than 130 associate degree and certificate programs.
Classes will be individualized for each student according to initial and progressive assessments of your individual musical skill sets.
We will assign study materials that will be due as determined each week, with the expectation that the material will be progressively mastered.
We will establish our meeting day(s) and time(s) that is mutually convenient. During Summer term, I only teach on Thursdays because course size is generally small. During Spring and Fall, I open other days to teaching because there are more students taking the course. See the scheduling matrix below.
Our individual class meetings will start during the first week of the term.
SUMMER 2017 SCHEDULING
The first order of coordination each term is to set up individual instruction times for each of you.
Student(s) contact me by telephone or text message to coordinate scheduling your weekly evening class.
Following is the cohort for this term, with the student first name(s) and class meeting day(s):
MONDAYS(available for Fall Semester only)TUESDAYS(available for Fall Semester only)WEDNESDAYS(available for Fall Semester only)- THURSDAYS – Suzanne (1)
- PLEASE NOTE: My office hours are by phone (audio or video chat):
- 5 pm; and, 5:30 pm; during the day on Fridays. Text or call to set up an office hours appointment.
LOCATIONS OF LESSONS
We will meet on the MCC – Penn Valley campus within the Music Department spaces at the appointed lesson time.
GRADING POLICY
MCC – Penn Valley Woodwind Studio grades will be issued in keeping with established parameters of the MCC Music Department.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
- This is a laboratory course and requires regular attendance and our policy parallels that of the Music Department.
- Absences will inherently affect your ability to learn the requisite assigned materials, and thus, your grade.
- Excessive absences will be brought to the attention of the Music Department Coordinator for further disposition.
- If you know in advance that you must miss your Private Lesson Class, 24-hour written notice is required (via text or telephone).
- If you must miss your Private Instruction Class due to an emergency or illness, written notice is required if you have the physical capacity to do so (via text or telephone).
PRACTICAL FACTORS OF MUSIC REQUIREMENTS
Each member of the laboratory course will master the following Practical Factors of Music in order to be deemed successful in this course:
- 12 major scales – ascending and descending (two octaves as applicable)
- 12 melodic minor scales (two octaves as applicable)
- 12 major triads – ascending and descending (full range of instrument)
- 12 minor triads – ascending and descending (full range of instrument)
- Whole Tone scales (full range of instrument)
- Diminished scales (full range of instrument)
- Assigned mechanism studies
REQUIRED MATERIALS
- A properly functioning instrument in a good state of repair condition, and neck strap
- An adequate supply of new and serviceable reeds, so as to allow for a rotation of 4 reeds for each mouthpiece set up
- A metronome or metronome app
- A tuner or a tuner app
- A classical mouthpiece such as Selmer C* for classical literature
- A jazz mouthpiece such as Vandoren’s V16 series for jazz studies
- Trevor Wye’s Practice Books for the Flute: Omnibus Edition Books 1-5 by Trevor Wye (Spiral-bound)
- Celebrated Method for Clarinet by Hyacinthe Klose (paperback)
- Universal Method for Saxophone (spiral bound)
- The Real Book: Sixth Edition by Hal Leonard Corporation – Eb or Bb versions
- How to Play BeBop – Volume 1 by David Baker
- How to Play BeBop – Volume 2 by David Baker
- How to Play BeBop – Volume 3 by David Baker
- Blank Manuscript Paper (spiral bound)
- A Sharpened Pencil with an Eraser
- Download: *NEW* Repertoire and Song Form Study Guide
RECOMMENDED MATERIALS
- Also, I recommend that students have a suitable bag to carry study materials in, rather than inside of the instrument case. As you see by the materials that we will study from, that even pockets on your instrument case will also not provide sufficient room.
- The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine
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CLINIC: PRACTICING AT HOME
How to practice effectively…for just about anything – Annie Bosler and Don Greene
Mastering any physical skill takes practice. Practice is the repetition of an action with the goal of improvement, and it helps us perform with more ease, speed, and confidence. But what does practice actually do to make us better at things? Annie Bosler and Don Greene explain how practice affects the inner workings of our brains. Lesson by Annie Bosler and Don Greene, animation by Martina Meštrović.
*Download my Practicing At Home Clinic Matrix organization system.
– – –
*Please note that the hyperlinks to materials are provided as a convenience and courtesy only. You may purchase materials from any suitable retail vendor of your choosing.
PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
I want all of my students to have a firm grasp of the fundamentals and practical factors of music performance, along with a basic set of technical skills that will successfully allow them to perform music on their respective instruments in most any ensemble context.
Having the opportunity to reach private students at this level of their training, I am primarily trying to teach students to play their instruments well by getting the fundamentals ingrained. I want my students to know their scales, know how to count rhythms and be exposed to representative literature on their instruments.
My job is to primarily help a student find their weakness and assist toward making them strong. I also want those students who do leave my studio and go on to further study at another college or conservatory to be able to start doing those college-level studies from their first semester in a professor’s studio.
And, I don’t want any student leaving my studio whom I didn’t diagnose weaknesses and provide a coherent process for them to be corrected. My position is that this entire private instruction process is actually about what is best for the musical growth and development of each individual student.
– Christopher L. Burnett, Adjunct Professor of Music
[Teaching Philosophy: 1983 – present]
Music – Faculty :: Metropolitan Community College
Credit Classes – Metropolitan Community College
Class # 50841, 50842 – Instructor: Christopher Burnett, Topic: Woodwinds …
ACADEMIC CALENDAR
Summer Semester, 2017
| SUMMER SEMESTER, 2017 | |
|---|---|
| SUMMER ENROLLMENT BEGINS | Monday, APRIL 10 |
| FIRST DATE FOR CLASSES, DAY AND EVENING | Monday, June 5 |
| INDEPENDENCE DAY, MCC CLOSED, NO CLASSES DAY AND EVENING | Tuesday, July 4 |
| LAST DATE TO WITHDRAW WITHOUT ASSESSMENT | Thursday, July 6 |
| LAST DATE FOR CLASSES, DAY AND EVENING | Thursday, July 27 |
| GRADES DUE NOON | Monday, July 31 |
| FALL SEMESTER 2017 | |
|---|---|
| Fall Enrollment begins | Monday, April 10 |
| New adjunct faculty orientation | Saturday, August 19 |
| New full-time faculty orientation | Tuesday, August 22 |
| First date for day and evening classes | Wednesday, August 23 |
| Campus In-Service, Noon -3:30 p.m. | Friday, August 25 |
| First date for Saturday classes | Saturday, August 26 |
| Labor Day holiday, no classes | Monday, September 4 |
| Midterm | Friday, October 13 |
| Second 8-week classes begin | Monday, October 16 |
| District In-service, no classes | Tuesday, October 17 |
| Last date to withdraw without assessment | Friday, November 10 |
| Thanksgiving holiday, no classes, offices open | Wednesday, November 22 |
| Thanksgiving holiday begins at 4:00 p.m. | Wednesday, November 22 |
| Classes resume | Monday, November 27 |
| Last date for Saturday classes | Saturday, December 9 |
| Last date for day and evening classes | Monday, December 11 |
| Final exams, day and evening | December 12, 13, 14, 15, 18 |
| Grading day | Tuesday, December 19 |
| Grades due noon | Wednesday, December 20 |
| Holiday break, offices closed | December 23- January 1 |
| SPRING SEMESTER 2018 | |
|---|---|
| New full time faculty orientation | Friday, January 12 |
| New adjunct faculty orientation | Saturday, January 13 |
| Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, no classes | Monday, January 15 |
| First date for classes, day and evening | Tuesday, January 16 |
| First date for Saturday class | Saturday, January 20 |
| Faculty Convocation | Tuesday, February 27 |
| Midterm | Friday, March 9 |
| Spring break | March 12-16 |
| Classes resume | Monday, March 19 |
| Last date to withdraw without assessment | Tuesday, April 10 |
| Last date for Saturday classes | Saturday, May 5 |
| Last date for classes, day and evening | Monday, May 7 |
| Final exams, day and evening | May 8, 9, 10, 11, 14 |
| Grading date | Tuesday, May 15 |
| Grades due noon | Wednesday, May 16 |
| Commencement | Thursday, May 17 |
| SUMMER SEMESTER 2018 | |
|---|---|
| First date for classes, day and evening | Monday, June 4 |
| Independence Day holiday, no classes | Wednesday, July 4 |
| Last date to withdraw without assessment | Thursday, July 12 |
| Last date for classes, day and evening | Thursday, July 26 |
| Grades due noon | Monday, July 30 |
