SPRING 2026

Notice and enjoy more in your favorite music by naming and hearing new qualities of organized sound in time. Topics include fundamentals of music notation and analysis: aspects of pitch and rhythm, staff notation, twelve-tone equal temperament, the circle of fifths, major and minor scales, intervals, chords and their inversions, and harmonic analysis. The course format balances group exercise with self-directed practice in interactive web applications: we will develop our ear through dictation, sight-singing, and rhythmic coordination exercises, and then we will apply our knowledge by attending and reflecting on concert experiences at San Francisco’s world-class performing arts institutions. In lieu of conventional tests and quizzes, we will build a class web site to reflect on our learning.

Prerequisite: a keyboard instrument (a piano or digital keyboard with at least 4 octaves (49 keys)), at least one year of experience performing music, and the ability to read music in either treble or bass clef.

Synchronous meeting requirements:

• Weekly virtual classes: a weekday evening (hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday evenings) 7-8:30pm
• In-person: We will attend three concerts, to be scheduled (hopefully) on weekend afternoons at Civic Center locations like Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco Symphony), the War Memorial Opera House (SFOpera), Miner Auditorium (SFJAZZ), etc.

  UC Approved:  (Music)

About the Instructor

Jeff Treviño – Lick-Wilmerding High School

Jeff Treviño is a pianist and composer working in California’s San Francisco Bay area. His compositions and transcriptions have been performed by some of the most accomplished soloists and ensembles of our time, including pianist Steven Beck (New York Philharmonic), harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, the Arditti String Quartet, carillonneur Tiffany Ng, bass clarinetist Anthony Burr, percussionist Ross Karre (ICE), pianist Rei Nakamura, contrabassist James Ilgenfritz, violinist Batya MacAdam-Somer, and Wild Rumpus, with notable premieres at the International Computer Music Conference, the Oberlin Conservatory Percussion Institute, New York City’s Symphony Space, Germany’s Akademie Schloss Solitude Summer Residencies, South Korea’s Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Mexico’s Visiones Sonoras, SIGGRAPH, the International Conference of the Society for Improvised Music, the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik, June in Buffalo, Portugal’s Vila Real Conservatory, New York City’s Miguel Abreu Gallery, the Carlsbad Music Festival, Freiburg im Breisgau’s E-Werk, and Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Akademie.

Treviño received his PhD in Music from the University of California at San Diego in 2013 and taught from 2013-2020 at Carleton College, Colorado College, and California State University Monterey Bay. Most recently, he taught orchestration and electronic music composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He currently teaches Creative Code and Design at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco.

soundcloud.com/jefftrevino