Minors & Certificates

The Playwriting minor focuses on principles and techniques for the composition of creative works in theatre, as well as possible exploration in different writing genres (i.e. screenwriting, fiction, and poetry). The minor includes in-depth instruction in the craft of writing, analysis, script editing/reading, and possible creation of full production(s). The minor is open to all undergraduate U-M students.

Applying and Advising: Students interested in the Playwriting minor should contact Professor José Casas. Students in the playwriting minor must adhere to any prerequisites that are required of any given class.

Conditions & Exclusions: Up to six credits earned outside of U-M or its sponsored programs may be used to fulfill requirements for the minor; No more than one course fulfilling a requirement in the Playwriting minor may simultaneously be counted to cover another degree requirement.

Students will follow requirements for the year in which the Minor was declared.

Minor in Playwriting: 2024-2025 Requirements

Minor in Playwriting: 2023-2024 Requirements

Applying and Advising: Students interested in the Popular Music Studies minor should contact Professor Carlos Rodriguez. At this time, the Popular Music Studies minor is only available to students in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Students will follow requirements for the year in which the Minor was declared.

Minor in Popular Music Studies: 2024-2025 Requirements

Minor in Popular Music Studies: 2023-2024 Requirements

Applying and Advising: Students interested in the Theatre Design and Production minor should contact Professor Jess Fialko.

Students will follow requirements for the year in which the Minor was declared.

Minor in Theatre Design and Production: 2024-2025 Curriculum

Minor in Theatre Design and Production: 2023-2024 Curriculum

SMTD students are given the option of electing one or more academic minors offered by other Schools/Colleges at U-M (listed below). Students who declare and complete an approved academic minor will receive a notation on their student transcript but not on their diploma. Students should meet with an advisor in the School/College or area of discipline to discuss minor requirements and declaration.

Schools/Colleges offering Minors available to SMTD students:

College of Engineering

College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA)

Ford School of Public Policy

Ross School of Business

School of Information

School of Social Work

Stamps School of Art and Design

Taubman College

The Graduate Certificate Program in Musicology is designed to prepare a Music DMA/PhD student to teach introductory courses in musicology and ethnomusicology at the undergraduate level. The Certificate requires 15 credits – including Musicology 501, 502, and 509, one Musicology 500level elective, and one Musicology 600-level elective – as well as a 50-minute teaching presentation followed by an oral examination. Required coursework taken to fulfill Musicology curriculum requirements for SMTD DMA and Rackham PhD programs may double count towards fulfilling the Certificate coursework requirement. Any additional coursework taken by DMA/PhD students to satisfy the Musicology “Coursework Alternative” (to the Musicology General Preliminary Examination) is not required for, and does not apply to, the Certificate coursework requirement.

In keeping with Rackham guidelines, students must apply separately to the graduate Certificate Program in Musicology. Applicants must demonstrate aptitude for historical and ethnomusicological study of music by submitting a brief statement of interest, CV/resumé, grade transcripts, and a sample of their written work to be reviewed by the faculty director (or faculty committee) that oversees the Certificate Program in Musicology.

Certificate Curriculum

A core of three required courses designed to augment and refine students’ understanding of the methods, materials, and approaches available to scholars and teachers in the field of musicology:

• Musicology 501 (Musicology Research Methods: Historical Musicology), 3 cr
• Musicology 502 (Musicology Research Methods: Ethnomusicology), 3 cr
• Musicology 509 (Musicology Pedagogy), 3 cr
• One additional Musicology 500-level elective, 3 credits (double counted)
• One additional Musicology 600-level elective, 3 credits (double counted)

In order to guarantee a sufficient mastery of the skills developed in each course, students will be required to attain an average grade of “B” or higher in courses chosen to count toward the Graduate Certificate in Musicology.

Final Teaching Presentation

Students will prepare a 50-minute teaching presentation on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the faculty director (or faculty committee) that oversees the Certificate Program in Musicology. The aim is to put the student into the sort of situation that a future teaching position might involve on a daily basis. Department faculty and students as well as guests invited by the certificate student may attend the teaching presentation. The teaching presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session with a Musicology faculty committee about the preparation, design, content, delivery, and teaching objectives of the presentation. Faculty guidance in teaching is an important component of the Certificate program. In addition to completing Musicol 509, a required three-credit course on Musicology Pedagogy, students must consult with a Musicology faculty mentor of their choice while designing and preparing the teaching presentation. It is not required that the student enroll in an independent study course such as Musicology 581 to prepare for the teaching presentation.

Sample Path to Complete All Musicology Requirements and Graduate Certificate

Music Bibliography Course

• MUSICOL 503 (or petition for a waiver to satisfy MUSICOL 503 with prior coursework)

Basic SMTD/Rackham Musicology requirements

• 1 course in MUSICOL 500-level or above (excluding MUSICOL 501, 502, 503, 509)
• 1 course in MUSICOL 500-level or above (excluding MUSICOL 501, 502, 503, 509)
• 1 course in MUSICOL 600-level or above

SMTD/Rackham Coursework Alternative (or test out of coursework alternative to satisfy requirement)

• 1 course in MUSICOL 500-level or above (excluding MUSICOL 501, 502, 503, 509)
• 1 course in MUSICOL 500-level or above (excluding MUSICOL 501, 502, 503, 509)

Certificate Requirements (beyond all other courses above)

• MUSICOL 501 (Musicology Research Methods: Historical Musicology)
• MUSICOL 502 (Musicology Research Methods: Ethnomusicology)
• MUSICOL 509 (Musicology Pedagogy)
• Final teaching presentation with oral exam component

Admission Procedure

In keeping with Rackham Guidelines for Certificate Programs, students apply separately to the Certificate Program.

In order to qualify for consideration for admission to the program, students must be enrolled in one of SMTD’s doctoral programs and have satisfied all of the elements of the Transfer Proficiency Examination, including the 20th-century component. This may be accomplished by taking the exams, or successfully completing the appropriate courses.

To add the Certificate Program in Musicology to your degree:

• Complete the SMTD Artistic Profile application

  • Upload your academic transcripts (including SMTD transcripts)

  • Personal Statement explaining what you hope to achieve in the program

  • Recommendation letter from a current Musicology faculty member (optional, but recommended)

• Complete the Rackham Graduate School’s online Add a Degree or Certificate Program.

In order to be accepted into the program, students must demonstrate particular aptitude for musicology. This may be demonstrated by:

• Sample of written work on a musicological topic

The SMTD and its faculty in Music Theory offer a Graduate Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy to students enrolled in the doctoral (DMA, PhD, and EdD) programs. This program consists of five courses plus an examination. It is designed to enrich the student’s knowledge of the foundations of music theoretical study and prepare the student for teaching music theory and musicianship at the undergraduate level.

A significant professional benefit of the program is its certification of the student to teach music theory and musicianship courses at the undergraduate level, in addition to the area of his or her doctoral degree. As most students in all of the doctoral programs of the SMTD will be spending at least part of their careers in academic positions, and given the increasing need for broadly based teachers with interdisciplinary skills in institutions of higher learning, the faculty believe a Graduate Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy, in combination with a doctoral degree, will broaden the range of possible career choices.

Additional professional benefits may be accounted for in two ways. First, an expanded knowledge of musical structure will enrich the student’s repertoire of tools and techniques for dealing with the challenges of his or her primary endeavors, be they performance, composition, or scholarly research. Second, a study of techniques for teaching music theory will enhance the student’s approaches to teaching in general.

The Program

The Graduate Certificate is overseen by a committee drawn from the graduate faculty of the Theory Department. The program consists of five courses totaling 15 hours of graduate credit, plus an oral examination. Four courses are required, while the fifth is elected in consultation with the student’s Graduate Certificate advisor.

The required courses include:

• THEORY 531 (Schenkerian Theory and Analysis I)
• THEORY 534 (20th Century Music: Theory and Analysis)
• THEORY 542 (18th CEntury Counterpoint I)
• THEORY 590 (Teaching Tonal Theory)

These courses are chosen to augment and refine students’ understanding of the various theoretical systems and methods that are the backbone of the entire undergraduate and graduate theory curriculum. These include the theories of harmony, counterpoint, form, and more, not only in music of the common practice period but of the past century as well. Though Heinrich Schenker’s method is the only one here identified by name, all of these are recognized systems of thought in the field. Schenker’s approach synthesizes hands-on skills like figured bass realization with more intellectual tasks, and it is thus a suitable culmination to studies in music theory.

The fifth course may be elected from:

• THEORY 532 (Schenkerian Theory and Analysis II)
• THEORY 537 (Proseminar in the Analysis of Music)
• THEORY 540 (Species Counterpoint I)
• THEORY 543 (18th Century Counterpoint II)
• THEORY 552 (Tonal Composition)

or other suitable courses, such as:

• THEORY 560 (Special Studies) Recent offerings have included Analysis for Performance, Advanced Schenkerian Analysis, Gender and Popular Music, Tonal Harmony as an Expressive Resource, ‘Difficult’ Music, and Writing about Music.

Any of these courses may supplement the four required courses, depending on the particular special interests of the student.

While the four required courses need not be taken in any order, it is highly recommended that THEORY 542 be taken concurrently with, or before THEORY 531. The fifth course may be elected at any time in the program, with the exceptions of THEORY 543 (which must follow THEORY 542) and THEORY 532 (which must follow THEORY 531).

In order to guarantee a sufficient mastery of the skills developed in each course, students will be required to attain a grade of “A-” or higher. Additionally, students will be subject to evaluation of all necessary skills during the final oral examination.

Final Oral Examination

The final oral examination will consist of a presentation of a class on a topic chosen by a Faculty Committee of the Music Theory Department, plus a subsequent question and answer session with the committee on any and all of the skills studied during the course of the program. This oral examination serves as the final requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy; students who pass this exam and satisfy published requirements for coursework and grades will earn the Graduate Certificate.

Requirements
Teach a lesson (50 minutes); Ten days prior to the exam, the examinee will receive the topic for the lesson and a general description of the course for which the teaching should be imagined. The teaching will typically be in one of the following areas:

• a topic in harmony at the first or second year level
• a topic in analysis
• model composition

The examinee will be asked to present (a) a written course outline showing the position of the lesson within the semester curriculum and (b) a 50 minute lesson on the topic. The lesson must include the following elements:

• a lesson plan
• a handout
• an assignment for the previous class, due the current one
• an assignment to be given during the current class, due at a later class meeting
• satisfactory posing and answering of questions

Evaluation of student work (20 – 30 minutes): The examinee will be asked to evaluate a student exercise in writing (model composition or part-writing) or tonal analysis, noting technical and stylistic flaws, making suggestions for improvement, and answering questions on pedagogical issues that arise from the student exercise.

The examination will be evaluated by a committee of members of the Music Theory faculty, and will be graded on a pass-fail basis. The judgment will be collective.

Admission Procedure

Students apply separately to the Graduate Certificate.

In order to qualify for consideration for admission to the program, students must:

• be enrolled in one of the SMTD’s doctoral programs (DMA, PhD, EdD)
• have satisfied all of the elements of the Transfer Proficiency Examination, including the 20th century component. This may be accomplished by taking the exams, or successfully completing the appropriate courses

In order to be accepted into the program, students must demonstrate particular aptitude for music theoretical study. This may be demonstrated by:

• samples of theoretical work, including both analytical or theoretical papers and samples of music writing, such as part-writing or counterpoint exercises
• interview by a Faculty Committee from the Department of Music Theory

Application forms may be obtained from the Chair of Music Theory and are due January 2 of each year.