During our Music History/Music Theory monthly seminars students are engaged in not only understanding the theory of how a piece of music was written, but also the time and place from whence it was derived. Students are encouraged to think like the composer as they are studying a piece, which in turn means they create a simple listening log that includes a few representative works along with notes of personal historical importance. Students will understand a difficult technical passage and be able to memorize it if they also understand the rhythmic, harmonic and structural significance it has to the piece as a whole. We believe it to be important to listen to works of music and discuss them as a group, getting past the initial opinions and using the group dynamic to pull apart the more complex ideas of musical form, performance, and historical relevance.