This specific project and research was one that I had been thinking about before this semester started. Spring semester 2018, I had a realization about the spaces that we create in. Specifically the Music Building basement and practice rooms. I wondered why I sometimes felt more stressed and tense in a Music Building practice room than I did in a Forbes practice room, or at home. There is nothing inherently right or wrong about any of these places, my only wonder was why I felt different in all of them. After doing some searching, I found close to nothing on my specific question: How does the aesthetics of a practice space affect a musicians emotions and focus? This is where I started my paper. It was hard to condense all of my thoughts about this topic into one paragraph. It was even hard to condense all of my thoughts into the initial research paper. This is where I got stuck. It was one of the best ways I could have gotten stuck, though. I was very unsure of where to go with this research. I could have written about classrooms, practice rooms, or individual home practice spaces. I could even take surveys and do experiments on stress levels in certain spaces. I was so excited to go in every direction, I just didn’t know where to start. I approached Dr. Stringham, and some close friends about this issue, and through this I came up with a solution. Eventually I fit everything into one paragraph: “To any beginner, practice is an essential part of learning how to play a new instrument. This is a fact that most realize, and sympathize with. One aspect of practicing that is often overlooked, however, involves the environment in which the practice occurs. In my individual research, I plan to examine the physical, mental, and musical effects that practice space aesthetics have on a beginning instrumentalist. There is currently a limited selection of works available on this specific topic, there are many that have connections in other ways.” As you can see, my initial research focused strictly on practice. This idea was not the finished product. Why focus on one space, when, musicians spend time practicing and creating in more than one place? I eventually changed my topic to include most of my initial ideas. Instead of focusing on one specific space, I instead changed my concentration to “creative spaces”. This term is pretty self explanatory-- I decided to study a space in which any sort of music is created. I thoroughly enjoyed both forms of expressing and presenting my research. I feel that the research paper was a great way for me to express all of my ideas. There was no page limit on the paper, so I literally wrote until I didn’t have any more thoughts! It was a challenge to format the paper into specific sections while using the assigned APA, but I think I was able to pull it off! My paper ended up being 16 pages in total. I was so glad to get to express all of my thoughts and research into one place! I am very interested in art, color, and aesthetics (fitting for this topic), so designing my poster for my research was very fun. I don’t like putting an extensive amount of words on my posters, so I kept mine simple, yet colorful at the same time. At first, I was very nervous about presenting my research with others at the poster presentation. I felt nervous about my research. While it was something I was passionate about, the fact that it was primarily my own personal research and placing sources together was a little overwhelming. I felt as if I wasn’t prepared to answer any difficult questions that may come my way. I soon found out, though, after presenting once and getting the reactions and truly curious questions about my thoughts, that I loved this experience. A few times, I stayed at my poster during my 15 minutes of “break” to just talk to people about my findings. It was very invigorating, and made me feel more confident about the impact that this research may have one day. Ultimately, I continue to be ecstatic to continue this research. In the future, I hope to present my findings at conferences, conduct experiments, and hopefully make a positive change in our own creative spaces here at JMU! |
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