Schedule: The lecture content is subject to change and this list will get out of date because I adapt the course along the way to try to best meet the learning needs of my students. The course Canvas site is the best place to stay on track. All required readings will be posted to Canvas. Check Canvas frequently to make sure you don’t miss any additional readings.
| Week | Day | Wehr Chapters | Sacks | Levitin | Additional | HW Due12 pm | ||
| 1 | Day 1 | 30-Mar | Music and the Brain Introduction. — No reading | none | ||||
| Day 2 | 1-Apr | Musical Space — Reading Ch. 1 | Ch. 1 | Prob set 1 |
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| 2 | Day 3 | 6-Apr | Perception of Tones — Reading Ch. 2, Levitin Ch. 1, What is Music? | Ch. 2 | Ch. 1 | Prob 2 |
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| Day 4 | 8-Apr | Tones continued (Loudness & Timbre)Consonance and Dissonance 1 — Reading Ch. 3 | Ch. 3 | Prob 3 |
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| 3 | Day 5 | 13-Apr | Consonance and Dissonance 2 — Reading Thompson, “Music of the Hemispheres” | Thompson | Prob 4 |
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| Day 6 | 15-Apr | Tonality — Reading Ch. 4, and Machlis & Forney, “The Organization of Musical Sounds” | Ch. 4 | Machlis & Forney | Prob 5 |
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| 4 | Day 7 | 20-Apr | The Ear — Reading Ch. 5, Sacks Ch. 10, Pitch Imperfect: Cochlear Amusia [Paper Topic Due] | Ch. 5 | Ch. 10 | Prob 6 + topic |
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| Day 8 | 22-Apr | Neurobiology of the auditory system 1 — Reading Ch. 6 | Ch. 6 | Prob 7 | ||||
| 5 | Day 9 Midterm | 27-Apr | Midterm exam in class | midterm | ||||
| Day 10 | 29-Apr | Neurobiology of the auditory system 2 No reading | none | |||||
| 6 | Day 11 | 4-May | Rhythm — Reading Ch. 7 Levitin Ch. 2, Foot Tapping | Ch. 7 | Ch. 19 (opt) | Ch. 2 | Prob 8 |
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| Day 12 | 6-May | The Missing fundamental in infants — Reading Ch. 8, and He & Trainor, 2009 “Finding the pitch of the missing fundamental in infants” [optional: Levitin Ch. 3, Behind the curtain] | Ch. 8 | Ch. 3 (opt) | Prob 9 | |||
| 7 | Day 13 | 11-May | Grouping mechanisms in music 1 — — Reading Ch. 9, Deutsch, “Grouping Mechanisms in Music” | Ch. 9 | Ch. 9 Deutsch | Prob 10 |
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| Day 14 | 13-May | Development of music perception – Guest Lecturer – Jenny Mendoza | Hannon | Prob 11 |
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| 8 | Day 15 | 18-May | Brain damage and brain activity in music — Reading Ch. 10 | Ch. 10 | Ch. 16 | Prob 12 |
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| Day 16 | 20-May | The topography of tonality — Reading Ch. 11, and Janata, “The cortical topography of tonal structures underlying Western music” [Term Paper Due] | Ch. 11 | Janata | Prob 13 + paper |
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| 9 | Day 17 | 25-May | No Class – Memorial Day | none | ||||
| Day 18 | 27-May | Musical Imagery — Reading Halpern, “Cerebral substrates of Musical Imagery” | Ch. 4 | Halpern | Prob 14 |
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| 10 | Day 19 | 1-Jun | Songbirds — Reading Brenowitz, “An Introduction to Birdsong and the Avian Song System” | Brenowitz | Prob 15 |
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| Day 20 | 3-Jun | Musical Hallucinations — Reading Zimmer, “Neuron network goes awry, and brain becomes an iPod” | Ch. 6 | Zimmer | Prob 16 |
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| Final Exam Open | 4-Jun | Final exam becomes available. | ||||||
| Final Exam Due | 8-Jun | Final exam due by 5 pm on the Monday following Day 20 (Due Monday June 8th, 5 pm) | final due 5:00 PM |
Problem sets are always due at 12 pm on the day of lecture.