Fall 2026

Musica Practica 1

MUSICA PRACTICA 1 teaches strategies for composing, understanding, and writing about music.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Jared SierraNick LahamPayam Pahlevanian +1 more

Summary

1 / 7

Historical reviews of Brian Hyer: The course assumes strong prior theory knowledge, including melodic singing and accurate ear training, creating a steep learning curve. Some reviewers found the assignments and papers to be a significant time commitment or a waste of time.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Declared in Music, Music: Performance or Music: Education

  • Declared in Music, Music: Performance or Music: Education
MUSIC 121 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Declared in Music, Music: Performance or Music: Education

Professors

Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.83 GPA, 89.1% A/AB (n=92 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.62 GPA, 85.9% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Brian Hyer: Brian Hyer is described as highly knowledgeable and helpful, with clear lectures that outline expectations. However, reviewers disagree on grading and flexibility; some find him a harsh grader who expects students to mimic his specific thinking, while others report arbitrary grading and an unwillingness to consider counter-arguments.

BRIAN HYER is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RUKA SHIRONISHI is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction44 / 440
DIS 303Classroom Instruction22 / 220
DIS 305Classroom Instruction23 / 230
DIS 301Classroom Instruction22 / 220
LEC 002Classroom Instruction23 / 440

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Ruka Shironishi instructs this course. Historical reviews for Brian Hyer describe him as highly knowledgeable and clear, though some students found his grading harsh or arbitrary.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.73 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=80 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.83 GPA, 89.1% A/AB (n=92 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.62 GPA, 85.9% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Brian Hyer: The course assumes strong prior theory knowledge, including melodic singing and accurate ear training, creating a steep learning curve. Some reviewers found the assignments and papers to be a significant time commitment or a waste of time.

Historical reviews of Brian Hyer: Students report that success requires mimicking the instructor's specific analytical perspective. However, some found it difficult to navigate grading criteria, noting that the professor could be dismissive of counter-arguments or assign grades based on personal opinion.

Topics

  • Music composition
  • Music theory and analysis
  • Music writing and criticism

Skills

  • Composing music
  • Understanding music
  • Writing about music

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.18 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1320 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
MUSIC 121 · Fall 2026

Musica Practica 1

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:660:012923",
    "course_id": "MUSIC 121",
    "course_uid": "course_ab5647b2efd6589bc4f4be9a",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "012923",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Musica Practica 1",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "9947a3943a06bfbba99f9c60cb7be9e12ac3da51803c568c02b9fcb34656df2f",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}