Classes that I teach at Georgia Tech. Most of these are part of our Masters program in Music Technology.

Graduate level

Computational Music and Audio Analysis — MIR (MUSI 6201)

The course will survey fundamental techniques in the fast-growing area of Music Information Retrieval area (MIR). We will look at ways to extract information, (such as tempo, pitch, timbre) from both audio signals, and symbolic representations of the audio signal, that can be used in such diverse application areas as interactive composition, multimedia search, and automatic recommendation engines. Additionally we will look at how MIR tools can be used to advance the understanding of music theory and music cognition. The course will also give an introduction to the most commonly used pattern recognition techniques for MIR. Weekly homeworks will focus on programming solutions to real-world problems. Each student will select a sub-area to explore in more detail as a final project.

Music Perception and Cognition (MUSI 6001)

The course will examine how humans process musical sound beginning with the basics of the human auditory system and building from this to address the experience of musical sound. The first part of the course will examine how the fundamental percepts of sound, such as loudness, pitch and timbre, arise from the audio signal while the second part of the course will discuss higher-level issues specific to music, such as melody, rhythm, timbre and emotion. Students will also be introduced to research methodology in psychoacoustics and music psychology and will gain hands-on experience through project work. The course will be taught as a seminar. Students will be asked to present to the class on weekly readings which will then be discussed. The course will culminate in a final research project.

Digital Signal Processing for Music Analysis and Synthesis (MUSI 6202)

Research in music, as well as music production and composition increasingly relies on sophisticated digital signal processing techniques. This course will cover elements of digital audio signal processing, such as sinusoids, spectra, digital filters, and Fourier analysis and their application to music analysis problems such modeling, synthesis and analysis.

Undergraduate level

Survey of Music Technology (MUSI 3450)

Introduction to computer music ideas, techniques, and tools. Topics include digital audio, synthesis, editing, and composition using Reason, Max/Msp, Ableton Live, Peak, and MATLAB.

Previously Taught Courses

Seminar on North Indian Classical Music (Visiting Professor, UC Santa Cruz 2003)

Introduction to Indian Classical Music (Stanford 2002)

The approach of these classes was to accelerate the acquisition of real knowledge of ICM, which is typically gained through extensive listening. I emphasized the role of implicity learning and strategies for accelerating the process through supervision. Most of the assignments were designed to build specific listening capabiities, such as recognizing basic phrases in a raag, identifying different tabla forms, following the pulse, etc. The class pages, which are a useful hands-on introduction and include many listening examples and exercises are here.

Music Perception and Cognition (Cogwell Polytechnical College 2001-2002)

An introduction to music perception and cognition for digital media students.