By Julia Grimaldi

Though the music department used to offer only a general music minor, making a change in spring of 2015. They will be offering three new minors in addition to the already existing music minor: audio engineering, music history and jazz studies. A new track has also been added for music majors, the commercial music track. This track will focus on the industry and performance of more recent popular music.

All three of the new minors can be taken by students from any major. “The audio engineering major is proving popular with electronic media majors, but students from any majors that have an interest in music industry and the tools and techniques involved in both audio recording and production are encouraged to find out more. The music history minor could be of interest to any student wanting to learn about various music genres, but that may or may not have a background as a performing musician. The jazz minor is heavily balanced toward the performance of jazz. Thus, it is only open to students that have a performance background and want to perform in the university jazz groups regardless of major,” said Dr. Justeson, chair of the department of music. Both the audio engineering and music history minors do not require students to know how to sing or play an instrument.

Many prospective music students asked if KU offered programs in music technology or jazz, which made an impact on the university’s decision to include these three new minors.: Dr. John Metcalf developed the audio engineering minor curriculum, Dr. Todd Rober developed the music minor, and Dr. Kevin Kjos developed jazz studies. As the Department Representative of the University Curriculum Committee, Dr. Rober looked over all of the course proposals and check sheets to ensure they were acceptable.

The first course of the audio engineering minor will be offered in the spring of 2015: MUS 121—Fundamentals of Music Business. This course is open to all students, regardless if they are in the music minor or not.

To fulfill requirements for the music history minor, a student may register for the following classes in spring of 2015: MUS 010CT—Introduction to Music, MUS 106CD—History of Rock and Roll, MUS 113VL—Introduction to Film Music, and MUS/WGS 209CDWI—Women in Music.

There are several courses for jazz studies that are already being taught this term and will continue in the spring. Other courses will start a new rotation in the fall of 2015.