Reviews of professor Matthew Nichols

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Professor Nichols did a solid job at teaching the course. The course was divided into digestible modules with clear cut grading guidelines. The course is VERY time consuming with the reading, however, empirically it is not a difficult course by any means. Read the textbook and you will get an easy A. The group project was a disaster though.

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Took him over the summer and the class was easy even for a beginner. No textbook but had to pay for a website. Assignments are easy if you focus in lecture and the midterm and final were group projects. Overall the class is good and he does touch you a new perspective of music.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Demanding teacher, but funny, laid-back and helpful personality. Gives good tips on how to practice, what materials and supplies to use and what to take into account in different music styles. Masters all the percussion instruments that are used in pop, jazz and classical music, plus some ethnic instruments such as tabla.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
Amazing professor and an easy class that I took over the summer. Reading quizzes are easy as pie and the listening ones are tough at first, but you'll get used to it. He no final as it's a group project that super easy, especially if you're the project manager. 10/10 would take again. (Taken during the whole COVID mess, so every class was online)

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Professor Nichols is super fun and you won't be disappointed to have him as your music teacher.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
It's an organized class, modules were published in advance to work ahead. A drawback was group projects in a 100% online class. I mainly learned from the discussion posts. Quizzes were time consuming but effective. Get the main ideas from reading, take the reading quiz, then listening quiz, and do discussion post. Keep up, or it's overwhelming.