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one time in class she sang a song she wrote about menstruation and tampons. DUDE,... WTF? who screens these teachers??? hello?? this woman is insane.

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I know for a fact that I'm NEVER taking another one of her classes ever again. She's crazy, she's condesending, and her attitude with our class diminished really really quickly. BAD Teacher.

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Lucy didn't teach me anything. She's crazy. She constantly changed the rules and was inconsistant on the homework. I thought she was cool at first but then the crazy came out. 2days before the last class she wanted me to re-record my final project because she didn't like the guitar tone! What the f***? She made me want to naw through my wrists!

one of the worst teachers I've ever encountered. I had this class my first semester, and now as an 8th semester student I can fully appreciate how truly horrible this woman is. She does not know the material, she cannot teach, and she's just not very talented in any respect. Avoid at all costs

Lucy Holstedt is the worst teacher on the planet. If you don't understand harmony, do not take her. Everything Lucy does is contradictory. She times her tests (who times a test when I'm paying tuition?) and doesn't even give enough time. I had a tutor who couldn't speak english at all who made more sense of 7th chords and modes. I hate Lucy.

DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH LUCY HOLSTEDT!!!! I don't know what's wrong with her and I don't know how she got a job at what is supposed to be the best music school in the world. I learned NOTHING from her! She doesn't teach you and then she blames you for not knowing what to do. Just say no to Holstedt!!!

I couldn't understand anything in this class. She never wrote on the board, and barley used the overhead. She just played the piano the entire time, and expected EVERYONE to know HOW to play the piano. When I handed in my project, she told me it was awful, and that she was just going to give me an F.

Whenever I think about her class, and this teacher, I get the BLUES!!!! I cried in the bathroom because she stressed me out so much....Harmony isn't the easiest topic in the world, but it would be so much easier with someone who was cool (lol) She makes you feel stupid all of the time and has mood swings like crazy....Worst teacher ever!!!!

Worst teacher I ever had at BERKLEE college of music. How on earth did she get a job here? she's basically an awkward, angry woman. She doesn't teach, and then yells at you for not knowing. EVEN IF you did ALL the homework pages.. you still get marked down because she adds things that you were supposed to do on the work page... but doesn't tell you

don't take this teacher....EVER.

You do not want to take her.. She is just the worst teacher I have ever had in Berklee.. The only way you can consider her "ok" is if you already know everything about harmony.. Everytime after class i would gather with a friend who knows a lot about harmony, and he would explain the class to me in 5 minutes and until then i would understand some.

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible...I love Harmony and during this class going was a task. Please avoid her at all costs!!!

The fact that this woman still has a job at the best contemporary music college baffles me. It's been two years since I had her and I am still suffering from her lack of teaching skills. There is no other way to say this except that she should not have a job here teaching music. She's too wacko, too unclear, and just a terrible person to dealwith

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. :(

This woman can't teach and shouldn't teach. She takes 20 minutes just to do attendance and played on the piano without really teaching us anything. She gets super irritated when people ask her questions, give timed quiz and gets mad at the class for not finishing the quiz with the little time she gave us or because we couldn't understand the mater

She stressed me out so much!!!!! Lucy made my Berklee expericence a Big HELL.

The Worst teacher who ever lived KEEEP AWAY!!!!! I am a good student I had 3 study groups for her class and she still fail each one of us on almost every quiz...she it a demon from hell I dont know what her purpose on this earth is but all I know is that no one should ever have to go through what her classes do. SHE IS A HORRID TEACHER!

This woman is by far the worst teacher at Berklee.

if the only class available is her class... wait for the next semester and take a good professor.

She is the worst. She took the cake for all of my professors as the worst one by FAR. I will give her this; she's smart, has a great voice, good at piano, and is very upbeat.. but she's also pretty crazy in a bad way, she's CONDESCENDING like none other! She assigns stupid assignments and assigned a test the last day b4 winter break!!! >:-0

BE AWARE! Avoid Lucy at all costs. She makes you dance, and sing in class. If you don't like embarrassing yourself, and would like to just sit down, learn the lesson, and then get on with your life, then this is the worst teacher for you.

I just read the wikipedia's definition of 'Harmony' and learned more than I did in an entire semester with this individual. No more questions necessary. A good person that needs to find another occupation. It is vital that you take Harmony with another professor. Period.

Lucy is the worst teacher that I've ever had. I used to love theory, but Lucy makes it very difficult to understand and to concentrate on the material. She's a TERRIBLE teacher and is extremely condescending. If you actually want to learn something and enjoy Berklee core music, I strongly suggest avoiding her wrath at all costs.

The most terrible teacher in my life!!!

Had her 26 years ago. Can't believe she is still teaching

She was very unclear when assigning homework. She would never say when things are due. She would explain information in the most complex way possible. She was very unhelpful.

Lucy is an unfathomably bad teacher. To ever call her a teacher is disrespectful to the art of teaching. Lucy never owns up to her mistakes she makes it is always the student's fault. Her feedback is unhelpful and she doesn't care about her students. Our class is weeks behind where we should be due to her inability to teach. Avoid Lucy Holstedt.

she gave us homework that contains materials that we haven't talked about before. Her explanation is hard to be understood.

I absolutely won't take her class EVER again. The homework she gave us just insanely too much. Bad explanation technique, uses too much nonsense analogy. She always tells us to do paperwork before explaining what the material is about, which is work with some teachers but not for her.

Bad. So uninspiring. It was such a drag.

She's a nice intelligent woman with good intentions, however her teaching skills are out-dated. She doesn't like being asked to explain concepts, connecting concepts together, or language barriers w/ students. Teaching method is not relevant nor helpful to the course. Critical grader on neatness of calligraphy, packets upon packets given at a time.

She is super confusing and doesn't give clear instructions on her assignments, and gets mad when you do them wrong. When you ask her questions, she is very demeaning. She treats her students like 5 yr olds. Her teaching techniques aren't useful at all and she gives so many papers and homework.

Poor communicator, made first semester extremely difficult. Unrealistic amount of homework sheets and projects. Consistently rude to students and did not explain the content matter clearly at all. Avoid unless you are prepared to teach yourself.

I WISH I COULD GIVE HER A 0 RATING. WORST TEACHER IVE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE OF SCHOOLING. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW TERRIBLE OF A TEACHER SHE WAS. NEVER DID I THINK THIS WAS POSSIBLE. GRADES HARSHLY ON THINGS THAT DIDNT MATTER. WASNT OPEN TO ANSWERING QUESTIONS, DO NOT TAKE HER UNLESS YOU WANT A WHOLE SEMESTER OF HEADACHE

She views textbook music theory as law and you will be penalized if you stray from that philosophy. If you do have prior knowledge of music theory, prepare to spend the semester doing a ridiculous amount of busy work while only speaking when spoken to. She also somehow scheduled class on several holidays where Berklee's campus was closed.

She follows the textbook very strictly and is ridiculously specific about the way we write. She takes points off if our stems aren't exactly an octave tall, for example. If you already have an understanding of music theory, you'll find yourself moving at a ridiculously slow pace, where you're penalized for going above and beyond.

Worst teacher i've ever had, I don't know how she's still teaching. Would give a 0 if I could.

She is very picky about minuscule things, and a very harsh grader. She fails to maintain a casual classroom environment because she is always busy explaining material for 50min straight. Lots of homework given.

She is a ridiculously hard grader. She sets parameters for assignments, only to ignore them when grading the assignment. I received an F on a calligraphy project in which I lost points on my treble clefs. She drew a treble clef equal in size next to mine and said "this should be how you write them." There was no difference between our clefs.

This teacher will insult your intelligence with her grading on menial assignments. We spent the first two weeks doing calligraphy. I came to learn music not take an art class. She should be fired. Find any other harmony class and you will get graded reasonably! If you agree, complain to George Russel. I got listened to + got waiver out THANK GOD!!

(MAT) I wish I could write something nice, truly. But she's the most -condescending, passive-aggressive, picky with the freaking color of a piece of paper, careless if the entire class is struggling, extremely confusing with directions with everything (even the tests)- annoying person I've ever met. Pls save urself from this class. REVIEWS R TRUE!!

i wish i had something nice to say about this professor. this being my first theory class at berklee i felt like i had to teach everything to myself. she didnt teach productively and was extremely condescending. the only reason i passed this class was because i had countless other people teaching me the material prof. lucy failed to teach.

Very condescending. Professor Lucy would get extremely frustrated if you didn't understand something, but typically this was only an issue because she didn't actually teach the material. She assigned multiple "creative projects" but ended up changing everything to fit her musical preferences. I definitely wouldn't take her if you can avoid it.

This girl hella moody, gives hella homework, hella picky grader, overall terrible teacher. You have no freedom when it comes to projects, she makes it her own with her suggestions. Disregards student academic accommodations, is super rude, and hates technology. DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS.

Her lectures are her talking so much and not even teaching what the homework is about. She also does that high school teacher thing where she likes to embarrass and publicly humiliate students as if we are not paying too much money to be here. Avoid her if possible.

Her grading criteria changed very often, so it was impossible to figure out what she actually wanted, and she graded very harshly. Even though she has good intentions, I cannot recommend any of her classes.

Frustrating. Mindless work, that teaches nothing and is way too time consuming. Hostile toward students asking questions, (but will humiliate you if you ask your peers during class). Treats you like kids. Will nitpick your homework and projects to give you a little points as possible. Overall, the WORST experience I have had at Berklee thus far.

The class that i did not look forward to the most.

One of the worst teachers I have ever had. Even though she tries to be a good teacher she is not. She knows music theory well but cant explain. She is very confusing with her explanations and gets mad when you ask a peer a clarifying question. She was extremely strict with calligraphy and overall a very bad teacher. Avoid her if you can.

Lucy Holstedt allowed for a toxic learning environment, did not use course textbooks, and often used demeaning terminology to humiliate students in front of the class. There are no clear grading criteria for projects, and points may be taken away without explanation. Be aware that weekly coursework is graded based on accuracy and not completion.

Assessments were too long (4 pages) for the allotted testing time! The professor often deflects her students' questions. Please know that she is looking for absolute perfection regarding her calligraphy exam, as the slightest inaccuracies (overslanted sharps or long stems) will result in significant point deductions. Get out before it's too late!

I think there is a problem with her expression ability. She can talk for a really long time about things that can be said succinctly, and it is also important to note that her requirements for so-called "notation" are extremely strict that anyone who is different from her will be judged wrong. Besides, she always presumptuously to lecture students.

very very nitpicky about caligraphy and will dock points for eraser marks. i remember we had a whole class dedicated to writing "fine double bar lines" and she had us all take out our id cards and count together 3 lines to create the thick line. she would call out those who did not to embarrass them

No time to think. Be creative? Dead. Bad handwriting? Dead. Want free time? Forget it—5 hrs of homework daily, weekends too. Submit after 9 AM? Half credit. Her queues take forever. Tests are brutal. One wrong move ruins your grade. No mercy, no balance. International students? Don't even bother.

Can't admit she's wrong is so picky about calligraphy and hates when anyone has a different idea.

awful teacher transfer out while you can.

If you see this professor on your schedule, switch out if you can. She is extremely picky, takes things at a PAINFULLY slow pace, and if you're an international student... don't even bother. No matter what you do, she'll find a way to give you a hard time. Endless/pointless papers every day, and if you try to be creative, she marks down your grade.

Her writing standards are extremely high; points are deducted if she's not satisfied. Homework is always due by 9 AM.