Narrowing a Research Topic

 E.B. White's reflection on the "Elements of Style" was writing "inception." He wrote about how Will Strunk wrote about how to write, offering the reader writing advice. Aaah!! However, the combined works of Strunk and White lead to some excellent points. Editing and reframing an existing work and melding it with others doesn't necessarily alter the original author's intent and opinions, it just enlarges the scope of the discussion. This helped me frame some ideas for my research project. I knew I wanted to do something along the lines of conducting, but needed to hone in on a specific topic. At this moment, I am 99% sure I want to research podium communication across beginning, middle, and high school bands. This will mainly pertain to conducting itself, particularly in terms of how conducting gestures should be tailored to ensembles at different musicianship levels. 

I will pull sources from a variety of realms in order to clearly execute my research. One source in particular is entitled "Conducting: The Art of Communication" by Wayne Bailey and Brandt Payne. Though this book may sound a bit too broad for where I want my research to end up, it is a good starting point. It highlights aspects and gestures of clear communication across the board, setting foundations for what to do and what not to do on the podium. My next goal is to find sources on grade-specific pedagogy, both music and non-music related. My intent is to fuse these studies with more conducting-centered studies to reach conclusions on what conducting gestures and communications are most appropriate for certain grade levels. Essentially, I will be expanding upon the "scope of the discussion" by synthesizing these sources.

Since beginning grad school three days ago, I have been on active reading overdrive. In my prior studies, I often felt bogged down and bored by readings. Though I've always been someone who has enjoyed learning and was dedicated to my studies, I was never the world's biggest reader. When I did read, I put effort in by highlighting important statements and adding annotations, but I don't think I had the maturity to sit in one spot, quiet myself down, and learn material through dense texts. Part of the reason why this was difficult for me (other than battling a constantly stimulated mind and body) was because I wasn't investing myself in my readings. I was solely reading to gain information, and rarely read material with goals in mind, engaging in the words on the page. Since Monday's baptism by fire, I've had no choice but to (relatively) quickly and efficiently absorb a great deal of readings, AND have original analyses and interpretations of them. However, I am loving this process. I enjoy sitting with a pen and paper, taking down notes and making inferences on material. It's almost as if I feel my intellect grow with each assignment. When it comes to my conducting research, I will continue to implore these active reading methods. I especially want to "ask questions at every step," like what is mentioned in Leyba's active reading outline. My goal is for these questions to lead me to a deeper part of my research, towards a new source, or towards a new inference/discovery on the topic. 

Something I'd like to improve upon is really criticizing the sources from which I read material. Though I mentioned asking questions at every step, I want to focus on Leyba's questions like "Does the author make a compelling argument? Why or why not?". I've never really "challenged" an academic source. Because I was reading something for school that I found in a school library, I always assumed it was credible and I should agree with it. I am starting to see that I shouldn't tolerate that! By reading a plethora of sources, I want to make sure I select the best, most credible ones. Perhaps questioning an author's opinion and/or validity will lead me to a new discovery in my research. I am excited to see where this particular journey takes me.

Finally, I immensely enjoyed Gary Provost's five word sentence quote. I loved the comparison between writing and music-- reading the post almost felt like listening to a beautiful piece of music. I want my research to reflect this motif. Though my work will be academic in nature, I can't forget to integrate my own voice and style, for that is what will deliver my findings and message most genuinely.