Rote teaching and learning have their place, but not in a music course and an art and design course in which two dozen students at Queensborough Community College (QCC) enrolled together. In addition to a shift toward increasing cultural relevance in their courses, QCC began to explore a learner-centered pedagogy that would better respond to the significant dispersion of learning preferences and academic preparedness of the students. The idea was that combining interdisciplinary and critical thinking with encouragement for social negotiation in the classroom would help students better understand the class content and feel more engaged in the college experience. Among a number of curricular innovations, the college created curricular learning communities and offered faculty workshops in which teachers could explore and share instructional innovations. At QCC, a learning community is defined as a group of twenty students who enroll in two or more courses together; the courses are related by a common theme, and instructors collaborate on common readings and common assignments. Through a shared theme, shared assignments, and a shared commitment to making the content relevant and the process active and engaging, the author and his teaching partner in the learning community fashioned a powerful environment for learning. This article describes how the author conceived and developed a radically different type of twentieth-century music appreciation class to link with the art course. (Contains 1 note.)