By Alon ’21
At Harvard-Westlake, there is a tutorial system which transcends the typical confines of classes like electives or Directed Studies. Tutorials offer a terrific opportunity for students to explore a specialized focus of a discipline through individualized instruction and inventive curriculum. Tutorials often occur in class sizes of 1-5 students. They are also a chance for faculty members to focus topics in their wheelhouse and to test educational material to potentially expand into a larger course in the future. These courses tend to primarily teach through interaction and examples rather than following a strict textbook structure.
From my own personal experience, a large bulk of the tutorials I have heard of or witnessed have occurred under the HW Performing Arts Department, particularly as it pertains to music-making. Over the course of my time at Harvard-Westlake I have managed to enroll in the following tutorials myself: Sight Singing, Vocal Technique, Vocal Repertoire, and Choral Conducting. These classes have certainly guided me in accelerating my growth as a musician technically and have equally been quite the challenge for me, which I feel can be credited to the individual attention received from such a small class size. There is significant value in having these quasi-private courses which can often be shared with another student or two: the strengths and weaknesses of one student often will contrast nicely with that of the other student and will lend to a lovely dialogistic synthesis in the classroom which benefits all parties. These tutorials have also greatly expanded my own comprehension of the repertoire of the cannon, given the musical idioms I’ve studied (namely vocal and classical music).
Other tutorials exist, such as Vocal/Choral Arrangement & Composition as well as lyric-writing. There is also a great degree of flexibility inherent in the tutorials that ought to be recognized: both in scheduling and in lesson plan, the fact that there are fewer participants enables things to be changed more freely based on the student’s own trajectory, so the course will actually “calibrate” to be as successful as possible. If there is a specialized course which does not already exist, but a student wishes to focus on, they are often able to propose this to an instructor or department head who can often aid in making such a course reality specifically for you.
If it isn’t already clear, I have learned a great deal from taking tutorials at Harvard-Westlake. These courses are great for deepening knowledge and refining your skills in a very precise and detailed approach. I. I’d recommend enrolling in such a course for any student who wishes to take initiative in their own learning and enrich themselves in a very organic and stimulating educational experience.
