Student Evaluations

From ratemyprofessors.com:

  • One of the most brilliant professors I have ever had. Was an absolute privileged to take a class with him. Highly recommend any student get to know this guy. He is a gem of a human being, genuinely interested in his students, and can speak intelligently on many subjects. Wooster is really lucky to have him!
  • He is one of the best teachers I have ever had. Do not be scared away by the difficulty, because this class was my favorite class of the semester!
  • The class is hard, but Dr. Guez is very invested and wants you to succeed. He is really helpful when you go to his office hours and he is really relatable too. He is really receptive to what you need help with and is very willing and able to find strategies to help you out. I would take his class again (I actually am next semester).
  • Guez is the man, always willing to help. One of the clearest, best teachers I’ve had.

From a letter written by a College of Wooster student on my behalf for my two-year review:

  • Dr. Guez’s passion and excitement for music not only sparked inspiration in me, but also reminded me of the same kind of joy I got from studying the subject. He is a kind and warm professor who encourages development of the mind and soul. He supports students to engage in thought-provoking discussions with him and other students. He is always willing to stay after class or meeting during office hours and does not miss an opportunity to challenge his students to think critically. He always encourages us when we’ve hit a roadblock and [he] has natural charisma, eloquence and energy that make interacting with him totally educational as well as comfortable and relaxed. It is obvious he cares a lot about his students and wants them to succeed.

From Music 101 and 102 at The College of Wooster (2015-2016):

  • I loved that although I was already familiar with some of the concepts that we were learning, the course drilled the basic music theory concepts in a way that challenged me and pushed me to really understand everything in its entirety. There is a mix between written days and skills days. There was a serious but also relaxed atmosphere, which fostered great student-student relationships, but also great student-teacher relationships – The material covered in class was great – loved the tid-bits of information about the history behind certain things.
  • Rewarding manner of learning what is usually thought to be boring.
  • Like, I’ve done it all, but this was completely different and added to my liberal arts experience.
  • It challenged me a lot, but definitely increased my musical knowledge.
  • I am a stronger musician due to this course
  • I’ve always wanted to take music theory, and this was a fantastic intro to the course. Dr. Guez was a very clear, organized professor that not only made the material easy to understand, he made it interesting.
  • I felt comfortable asking questions if I didn’t understand something and professor Guez always made sure he took time to explain things in a way that everyone understood.
  • I love Dr. Guez, he’s funny, understanding and very knowledgeable. He wants you to succeed and he is very willing to help whenever he can. PLEASE keep him, he’s one of the best teachers I have ever had.
  • This course was my favorite part of my mornings.Though sometimes I started feel like I was falling behind, Guez’s teaching style forced me to stay on top of my work. He seems to know where all students stood at all times and was constantly working to push everybody to the same level. This really helped me have successful experience!
  • I loved this course!
  • Guez is da man.
  • The professor connected the material to parts of our life which helped us to understand the material.
  • The class was very discussion based, very comfortable atmosphere
  • Dr. Guez is an exceptional teacher … he made the course great
  • Professor Guez is not only a great teacher of subjects he clearly knows a lot about, he is also a kind, approachable, and helpful person.
  • He was extremely knowledgeable and excited about the material he was teaching, and definitely passed that enthusiasm onto his students. He made the material interesting, and provided ample opportunities in class for students to apply what they had been learning. He was approachable and eager to meet with students outside of class who needed additionally help or wanted to get questions answered.
  • This courses is awesome i love music theery
  • I learned the most from this course than any other i’ve taken this year
  • I love everything about this course. The professor does an amazing job at making the students understand the subject.
  • Despite having class everyday of the week, I was always excited to be there.
  • The musical enrichment and knowledge, the classroom’s attitude in general were what I liked best. Dr Guez makes class interesting and includes us students which makes class a lot better.
  • The classroom environment was fantastic. All of the students felt comfortable with the professor and we could not feel embarrassed asking questions or making suggestions
  • I loved the subject matter and the class dynamic we had and I’m very excited to continue with it

From Music 201 and 202 at The College of Wooster (2016-2017):

  • Truly enjoyed Theory 3, looking forward to next semester!
  • This continues to be one of my favorite courses. The professor makes it fun and educational.
  • Professor Guez is the Bomb.com
  • Class was always enjoyable
  • The way Dr. Guez teaches this course makes it fun, interesting, involving and the classroom’s atmosphere is always relaxed, yet we still learn.
  • The professor is amazing at engaging the students.
  • I loved the dynamic in the classroom between the professor and the class
  • I like how I can immediately apply what I learn in Theory to my own piano playing the moment I leave the classroom.
  • ‘Encyclopedic knowledge’ is still an understatement of Prof. Guez’s proficiency in every aspect of Music Theory, even if he may say otherwise. Connects well with the class, creating a fun environment where we can learn about the fundamentals of music.
  • This course gets you involved, and mixes theory conceptual time with hands on exercises. It blends very well, all while having a very fun class atmosphere and while still learning.
  • I enjoyed coming to this class every day. My favorite professor for sure.

From MUSI 210, Yale University, Fall 2014:

  • Absolutely fantastic. Very charismatic, appropriately humorous, and clearly in good command of the teaching material. Every class is extremely well prepared, and well structured, and time-sensitivity is well adhered to. At the end of every 1hr15min, it always feels like the end of class has arrived at just the right spot. He made the class interactive by having us sing harmonies and by putting our own compositions and other bits of homework on the board, but it never once felt awkward or uncomfortable. As a senior I can confidently say that he is one of the best instructors I’ve had at Yale.
  • Jonathan is the man. He made learning all the material entertaining and was very accessible for help.
  • He was really passionate about the class and I think it made everyone enjoy the class. He also made the material easy to understand and was willing to help everyone.
  • Jonathan is a great instructor. First of all, his class is very enjoyable. He prepares a lot of examples from real music, both from classical and recent pop/jazz etc., which really helped me to understand the theory in practical context. Also, his class is so fun in general, with some random Latin and philosophy lessons. And he encourages students to ask questions and have discussions. Second, he can explain music theory in very simple and understandable words. When I read the textbook before class, I sometimes felt confused, but in class I really came to understand what the textbook meant and why the rules and theory make sense.
  • Jonathan is AMAZING and super clear and helpful. Class was so much fun with him.
  • I thought that Jonathan Guez was an extremely good teacher. He managed to make the classroom environment lighthearted while still making clear that we understood all of the concepts being taught. He did a very good job of teaching the material, and never forgot to demonstrate how fluid and nuanced musical analysis can be. (i.e. the idea that different people can look at a given piece of music and while they will agree on most of the analysis, they may disagree on certain elements and neither person has to be incorrect.)
  • Jonathan is an excellent instructor. He can make even the dullest class material really humorous, and our class had a lot of fun singing songs, cracking music jokes, and laughing. Don’t expect him to go easy on you though. He has high expectations and his grading standards are tough, so be prepared to do a lot of studying, and make sure you put time and effort into the assignments.
  • Definitely one of my favorite teachers, Jonathan made the class fun and interactive while at the same time teaching the material in an engaging, easy-to-understand way.
  • Jonathan is great and I wish him the best for next year! He always promoted a positive, friendly attitude in class and treated even very basic or off-topic questions with respect and patience. He clearly really loves music and will be a great teacher wherever he ends up.
  • Jonathan is a fantastic teacher who knows his material front and back. He helps students learn with open discussions during class and through having students post solutions to homework assignments on the board. These solutions are then analyzed by the class as a whole, allowing for the easy identification of common errors. Jonathan is also simply a great person, who always makes himself available for his students and who makes the content fun to learn.
  • This was a really cool class that taught me to see music in a different way.
  • It was a very fun course -the small number of students in class really allowed me to feel free to ask question and to become friends with other students. After taking this class I feel that I understand more about how harmony works, what the structure of music is, etc.
  • I thought it really shed light on the workings of music. Coming from a performance background, I think it made me a better musician.
  • Jonathan Guez was great, I learned a lot from the class and it felt challenging but I always enjoyed the class.
  • MUSI 210 is a great introduction to counterpoint, part-writing, and 19th century analysis in music. However, it’s not easy, and you definitely need to know some basic theory before going in to the course. I am a serious musician but I had little theory background, and if you’re planning on taking this course, make sure you’re comfortable with chord analysis and progressions before taking it (this is easy to self-study though!). Overall, it’s a great course and by the end you will definitely walk out with a better understanding of the foundations of music.
  • I personally really enjoyed this class– I thought it was taught very well and the course material was engaging.
  • Music 210 is an interesting course for people who want to learn the basics of music theory. If the professor is good (Professor Guez was great), he or she will let you sight read or vary the curriculum. My only critique is that I’m not sure the placement was correct- there was a lot of review in this course from AP Music theory and I felt like the class had a lot of variation in terms of what students already knew.
  • I definitely recommend other students, both music majors and non-music majors, to take this class. I myself is a science major and I didn’t know much about music theory before. I took this class just because I play an instrument and I wanted a humanity credit. But this class ended up being one of my most favorite classes. If you enjoy listening to and playing music, and want to understand more about music, this is a great course to take. The homework is not too much, and the class is very interactive and fun.
  • If you’re taking a course with Jonathan Guez, you are bound to enjoy yourself. He is humorous, well prepared and teaches excellently. As for the class itself, it’s a great way to get started on properly understanding harmony. We build up from the fundamentals of counterpoint up until the subtleties of modulation, leaving the really atonal stuff for 211. Definitely worth it if you are considering it.
  • Take it, especially with Jonathan Guez if you can. You won’t regret it and you’ll appreciate music on a really great level!

From MUSI 210, Yale University, Spring 2014:

  • Jonathan was an amazing teacher. He went out of his way to go above and beyond to help me out by meeting with me outside of class and giving me helpful and constructive feedback on all of my assignments. I would strongly recommend for anyone who takes this class to take it with him.
  • Jonathan is one if the best teachers I’ve had at Yale. He genuinely cares for students and puts in the time and effort to meet up with students outside the class and make sure that students understand everything. His teaching is always interesting, with just the right amount of humor and he definitely knows what he’s doing. I would absolutely love to take another class with him. Another thing that impressed me is that he would remember questions that people asked in previous classes and come prepared the next lesson with specific examples to answer the student’s past question. I can’t think of anything he can improve on, I’m sorry.
  • I would definitely take this class with Jonathan Guez because he puts in a ridiculous amount of time to meet up with students individually outside class and he’s just an awesome teacher. The course itself is less composition and more drilling of techniques and analysis. A LOT of analysis but it’s cool because afterwards you just have so much I say about a musical piece and your understanding of music goes to a new level. I would definitely recommend this class because it has les work load (everything you learn is cumulative so in the final you hardly have to review anything as you’ve been practicing the same techniques of voice leading etc. the whole semester.) and what other class can you take that allows you to listen to such beautiful music?
  • Professor Guez is absolutely fantastic. He exhibits a tremendous command of the material and is not only able to make the material accessible for his students but also very exciting. He is always willing to meet with students if they need extra help and is very approachable.
  • Take it with Jonathan. You won’t regret it.
  • Jonathan is a wonderful teacher. His passion for the material (especially the composers/compositions introduced in class) and his sincere desire to get his students excited about music is evident in all he does. His class never failed to interest and inspire, even though it was at 9 am. I also very much appreciated his availability and willingness to help students outside of class. Take this with Jonathan if you possibly can!
  • The course is a very successful overview of analyzing and composing contrapuntal music within specific sets of rules governing the style. As a non-music major, I enjoyed the course very much and the amount of material covered each week was very manageable. Jonathan Guez is an excellent teacher and the music department is lucky to have him. I hope that future iterations of the course might discuss form in a bit more detail—possibly the beginnings of sonata form? Regardless, a very positive experience.
  • Jonathan Guez is so talented. He is an excellent pianist, a talented theorist, and a great teacher. He was willing to make time for all of his students when they struggled and happily answered questions in and outside of class with frequency. He was reasonable with assignments but also made sure that students were learning things. I usually try to give constructive criticism in this box but frankly I can’t think of any. It was a pleasure.

From MUSI 455, Yale University, Fall 2013 (Co taught with Patrick McCreless)

  • Jonathan is one of the most devoted teachers I’ve had at Yale. His unending willingness to lend his brilliance to our independent projects and genuine interest in our thoughts and analyses was refreshing and so generous. While leading seminars, he was consistently both clear and captivating. He’s truly an unbelievably talented teacher, and the department is lucky to have him.
  • YES! An amazing class. Schubert is the best, this team of teachers is the best.
  • Jonathan Guez is without a doubt the best TF-professor I’ve ever had. Not only was he so willing to meet and talk about issues I was having with my work but he was also willing to meet and discuss other music unrelated to Schubert. His charisma and enthusiasm for music and the study of it are contagious and genuinely made me feel excited to engage with Schubert. It’s so refreshing to hear someone in the department speak about music with awe and constant wonder. Studying under Jonathan renewed in my soul why studying any of this matters.
  • AMAZING. The seminars themselves were fruitful and consistently fascinating …  The highlights of the semester, for me, were our large papers/presentations. I found it extremely fulfilling to write up and present my own analysis/ research— it might have been nice to do more of those, perhaps on a smaller scale throughout the semester. I’m convinced that any seminar co-taught by Prof. McCreless and Jonathan Guez must be incredible— what a fantastic team.
  • Jonathan is one of the most helpful and brilliant graduate student instructors I’ve ever had. He’s always willing to meet or provide advice at any hour of the day or night and truly wants his students to succeed. He is an articulate and insightful teacher, and does a great job of fostering productive discussions. He knows more about Schubert (and about music) than I could ever hope to, and I feel privileged to have studied with him this semester.
  • Jonathan is a highly impressive and energetic scholar. His comprehensive knowledge of history and theory is truly inspiring, and his lectures were well crafted, and he deftly lead the class into some fascinating areas of discussions. I would welcome any opportunity to work with him in the future!

From MUSI 210, Yale University, Spring 2012:

  • Jonathan is an amazing instructor – he is thoughtful, well-spoken, and incredibly fair. He really care that everyone understands the material and will never assess us on something he feels he hasn’t taught well enough. That being said, he teaches everything so thoroughly and creatively that this will almost never be an issue. If Jonathan is teaching, take this class! He will give you an amazing foundation and wonderful passion for a style of a music that if taught poorly can seem dry.
  • Jonathan was amazing. He was always there when I needed to run my ideas by and was always willing to offer help. Great instructor. I just wish we could have had more time to get into more things, but the way he approached the subject matter and taught my class was just right.
  • Jonathan is a knowledgable instructor who could channel his love for music into his students. Studying with him has been a pleasant and eye-opening experience.
  • Jonathan Guez was absolutely wonderful to have as an instructor. He was always very well-prepared for class, taught and showed us interesting material, and allowed for an open discourse with all understanding that any idea or opinion was valid to be discussed. He made sure there was a balance between group discussion and personal analysis, and there was a good mixture of compositional and analytical work to be done in class. I hope he teaches other classes in the future, so that I or someone else can have a pleasant musical experience awaiting us throughout the semester.
  • After a semester with Jonathan, I can say that he’s in the top 5 college instructors I’ve had (that’s after 6 semesters at Yale). He takes his teaching incredibly seriously – he puts a lot of thought into feedback on assignments, and I think it must really bother him when he doesn’t know the answer to a question off the top of his head, because you can always bet he’ll have looked it up by the next class. And he makes class fun too, because his love of music is so infectious. I’ve rarely felt more gleeful in a class than collectively raving over Ein Deutsches Requiem or Urlicht, with Jonathan leading the charge.

From MUSI 211, Yale University, Fall 2011:

  • Jonathan loves music and loves teaching it, and he’s great at both to boot. 5 stars.
  • Great professor, very passionate and really knowledgable. Very reasonable and gave great help one on one. Cool guy.
  • Jonathan continually excited and impressed the class with his knowledge and enthusiasm. He clearly knew the material (both the concepts and a plethora of musical examples) inside and out, and his passion and interest were contagious. He also did a skillful job of mixing pure theory with aesthetic considerations and extra-musical contexts/considerations.
  • Jonathan’s enthusiasm for the topics covered by MUSI 211 is infectious. He was very approachable, and was open to meeting individually for either homework help or futher exploration of concepts.
  • Jonathan is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. Not only is he knowledgeable and able to explain the concepts in a very relatable and understandable way, but he cares so much about each and every one of his students. He works very hard to make sure every student is comfortable and that his/her questions are answered (even sending the class long emails with more research on a topic a few days after a question is asked). He is always willing to meet outside of class. He also brings the perfect amount of humor to the class. The only thing he might have to work on is being too concerned about his students and their questions – to the point at which we spend a little too much time on a small question or move at a fairly slow pace. But this is not a big problem and didn’t really affect how much I learned in the course!
  • Jonathan Guez is a brilliant teacher. He explains concepts clearly and thoroughly with excellent use of music examples. But what sets his teaching apart is the level of thoughtfulness he displays. He’s not afraid to dig in and discuss ambiguities or difficult passages. (also, Jonathan always has awesome music examples, including Mario themes and Charlie Chaplin…)
  • Jonathan was simply a fantastic teacher. Really knew his stuff, organized, passionate about the material he was teaching, engaging classes, willing to work with you outside of class, very understanding and flexible — really a joy to have him for class.
  • Great professor. He puts in a lot of time and efoet into each student. He is very passionate about the class.
  • Jonathan did an excellent job. I really enjoyed his enthusiasm and his willingness to work with students. He was very helpful and approachable. I like that he was very conscious of our needs and students and constantly evaluating himself to make sure we had the best learning experience possible. We also covered *a lot* of ground – much more, I think, than previous Music 211 classes. I also like that Jonathan engaged us in a variety of activities. We did listening (including listening quizzes), practiced part writing and the new tools we gained over the semester (e.g. augmented 6ths), and had days where we learned about opera, both in lecture style and actually working through pieces together in class.
  • Jonathan is a great teacher- he really knows the material, and his passion for the subject shows. His pacing always matched how comfortable we were with whatever we were studying, and he tried to spend more time on the things we were more interested in.
  • Professor Guez was very engaging and approached the material with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. He was very generous with his time outside of the classroom, if one needed extra help. He also had many very incredible insights into many of the analyses that we did.

From MUSI 210, Yale University, Spring 2011:

  • Music 210 was one of the best courses I’ve ever taken. Although I took music theory throughout middle and high school, until now I didn’t have a sense of how intellectually satisfying music theory can be, or of how much it can contribute to my listening and playing experience. I think the strengths of this course include the chance to regularly compose music (even if just in short snippets), the chance to receive regular feedback on written work, and the challenge of the two long composition projects. The only major weakness of the class, in my opinion, was the reading from the Aldwell and Schachter textbook, which I didn’t find very engaging or helpful. (I found that I usually learned the concepts much better in class or on homework.) Consequently, I think the course could be improved by requiring less reading and more composition.
  • Jonathan is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I thought he did a perfect job of making the class interesting and accessible to all of his students, regardless of our previous musical experience (which, I gather, varied widely). In my opinion, Jonathan’s teaching strengths include an incredible ability to thoughtfully answer difficult questions, his selection of musical examples from many different genres to demonstrate the concepts we were learning, his meticulous preparation for each class (there was never a “lull” in class, and I’ve never felt a one hour and fifteen minute class go by so quickly), his thorough and thoughtful comments on even the most mundane homework assignments (but especially on the larger compositions), and a particularly well-written and challenging final analysis project for which we were very well-prepared. The only area of improvement that I can think of for Jonathan is to discuss composition techniques and helpful hints prior to assigning the first major composition. He discussed these things with us after we submitted the first draft of our string quartet composition. I found this discussion very helpful, and I wish he had done it earlier.
  • Music 210 is an awesome way to get a sense of the intellectual beauty and power of music theory. The course begins a bit slowly, with a review of counterpoint writing, but you soon jump into four-part voice writing, an exceedingly careful study of chord progressions, and large-scale compositions of your own (a piano theme-and-variations, and a string quartet). I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to both see the more intellectual, scholarly side of music and begin to compose real music. Note that the course requires regular homework assignments (mostly small-scale part writing), which can sometimes require a good bit of time.
  • Jonathan is the best music theory professor I’ve ever known. I can’t imagine his level of helpfulness ever being matched, and his grading always focused on how to improve your grasp on the concepts important for composition (i.e. he always offered a suggestion of how to improve minor issues, rather than just pointing them out). He did a great job of not moving on from a concept before the entire class had an idea of what they were doing. He is one of the most accommodating and friendly professors I’ve had in any subject.
  • Jonathan was great! He took the job very seriously and always seemed really well-prepared and on top of the material. He really took the time to make comments on our assignments so that we would be able to improve and learn from out mistakes. He was always available to answer questions, and he never lost sight of having us enjoy the music we were analyzing. He even got together a string quartet to play our minuets on the last day of class.
  • Music 210 was one of my favorite classes this year! It was always a thoroughly enjoyable class to attend, and I learned a lot about theory and composition. While I felt as if much of the beginning part of the semester was spent reviewing what we learned in 205, I really loved the opportunity to compose real music and have it critiqued. The three major assignments, especially, taught me a lot about what it means to be a composer (in terms of theory and otherwise).
  • Jonathan was a phenomenal teacher. He is so concerned about his students and really wants them to learn. He is extremely articulate and always expresses his ideas clearly. He answers questions effectively and with little hesitation. He’s also obviously well-versed in music theory and history and finds ways to make the course material really fun.
  • Jonathan Guez is very passionate and knowledgeable in what he teaches. He is a very dedicated and excellent teacher.
  • I really loved this class. Workload was reasonable (on the lighter side, for the most part). The concepts were challenging at times, but they definitely never felt completely out of reach. Class discussions were generally engaging and worthwhile, and helped to further the understanding of the curriculum. I have no suggestions for improvement.
  • I have no advice; I found that this class was instructed excellently on all counts.
  • Jonathan was a wonderful instructor. He was attuned to the rigor of the course and would cut back on the reading when he realized he had assigned too much. He was flexible and understanding and always willing to help students outside of class, particularly regarding our two big composition projects. In class, he made sure to show us concrete examples of the theory we were learning, which I really enjoyed. He struck a great balance between lecture, group activities, and full-class activities. The classroom environment was comfortable and casual.
  • Fantastic.
  • Awesome.

 

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