----------------------------------------------------- NOVEMBER 4, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Billboard - The Tangled Web http://www.billboard.com/bb/tangledweb/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2016326 Just Say YES By Brian Garrity and Todd Martens With a 35-year history, tumultuous lineup changes and a penchant for lengthy, complex musical compositions, British prog-rock group Yes can be a little daunting to newcomers. But the College of Southern Idaho is out to make the act more accessible. Last week, the school's O. Gary Lauer launched Yesology http://www.csi.edu/ip/ce/yesology/, an online course that's open to all and walks enrollees through the band's history. "The musicianship of Yes is just outstanding," Lauer tells Billboard.com. "The Beatles set the standard for the short-form composition in popular music; Yes established the long, epic form." Lauer created the course with friend Alan Farley. Prospective students need only pay the $29 enrollment fee and can complete the class at their own pace through a password-protected Web site. "Yesology," according to the class outline, "is a self-paced online course that provides the uninitiated new listener with a sturdy platform to explore the dynamic music of Yes while stimulating the interest of the already dedicated Yes fan." Yesology is organized chronologically, and students move through the course by downloading the "lecture" -- generally a three- or four-page PDF. Each lecture comes with a correlating study guide, and then it's on to the test. Yesology has 81 tests, all of which are administered online and will tally a student's grade. "We didn't get into a lot of the personality issues," Lauer says. "With 15 line-ups, there were issues that brought them together and broke them apart, but we wanted to make sure that we dissected this 35 year period to show what happens to something like Yes. I think it's rather analytical. We've broken it down into periods, lineups and albums." Lauer and Farley have been careful to see that their course earns the Yes stamp of approval. "We approached it with the highest Yes ethical standard," he says. "We wanted to make sure we really did paint them in the most positive of light. When Yes went to Australia, Alan was able to meet with them, and he gave them a rough draft of the course. He actually gave Roger Dean, the famous Yes cover artist, a copy of the course. We got word back from Dean that [singer] Jon Anderson's wife was reading Yesology on the plane." The course took the pair about a year to design, and is Lauer's first foray into teaching music. His regular job at the college entails directing the school's "radiologic technology" department. For Lauer and Farlay, the course represents a lifelong obsession with Yes, and the two have been busy promoting Yesology throughout the Web. "Over the last couple weeks we've been accessing YesFans.com http://www.yesfans.com/, and we started a thread there and have been getting all kind of positive feedback. The whole darn 3,000 people in the Yes forums say they're enrolling in this." While Yesology isn't equipped to handle audio clips, the course points to online retailers who offer 30-second Yes snippets. This, of course, has its drawbacks, as Yes songs are often full of directional changes. Lauer is already thinking like an entrepreneur. "This might actually be a new way of marketing rock groups," he says. "If you can teach people something about the groups, and then point them to places where they can obtain the catalog, you're getting them to a point where they may buy something." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com