Music is so vast that we must constantly ’start over’ as we progress. So this ‘advanced’ ear training class will return to basic musical fundamentals as realized in highly developed non-western traditions. We will examine rhythmic organization where polyrhythm and ‘feel’ are internalized before any attempts at notational symbolism are considered, notably in Africa, India and Korea. We will also look at harmonic systems outside of equal temperament and consider the costs of necessary quantization when those traditions are forced into keyboard tuning. At the same time we consider how many of the musical elements of these traditions appear - transformed or not - in classical music and jazz. The course will be a subjective tour of a few of the many fascinating ‘rabbit holes’ of world music traditions - Pygmy drum and voice, Indian Dhrupad, Japanese Shakuhachi and Gagaku, Korean Shinawi, Georgian choral music. Any of these could be a life’s study on their own. However, we will focus these brief examinations as musicians, not ethnomusicologists, and with 3 questions always in mind: 1. What can we hear? 2. What can we practice? 3. What can we apply creatively in our own work? The class and the instructor will formulate homework and exercises together related to each tradition, with students often working in pairs. In their final projects students will be encouraged to drop down the rabbit hole of their choice and perhaps find their own focus outside the traditions previously covered. Students will broaden melodic, rhythmic and harmonic skills while acquiring new ones which can help them consider their own playing and composing in a new light.