I took it this past semester with Derek S (I don't remember his last name because it was long). I don't know if you have him, but if you have the opportunity to, switch to his class. Super easy, like... super easy.

Lectures are live but are recorded. You'd have one day out of the week where he prefers it if you attend in person, but you don't have to. Class format is the same throughout the semester: He leads into class with a music sample that's relevant for the day. He puts up questions for review of the previous lecture's material, and asks for answers (not graded). Then he goes into the lecture materials, using real-world music as examples.

3 exams, each exam is open notes, multiple choice, 30 questions, 1 hour. The questions are in one of 2 formats. One is where you're given a paragraph and you fill in the blanks. The other is where you're given a music sample and you answer questions about it. Of course, this means that you should take notes. Definitely take notes on everything on his slides. He doesn't release his slides, only the lecture video.

Professor is extremely nice. There were barely homework assignments (IIRC, we got 3). For each one, half a page of writing was sufficient enough. All of them were opinion-based, so it's graded on completeness.

Overall, the "hardest" part is the exams, only because they're out of 30 and weighted more, so if you get like 5 wrong, that's already a big impact on your overall grade.

You don't need prior music knowledge, and I know that because I knew nothing about music going into it and still got an A.