SOUND LAB REFLECTIONS

Sound Lab Reflections

This page is home to all Sound Lab Reflections from Teaching and Learning Music, 1802A.

Sound Lab #1 - Graphic Scores

Our assignment for the week was to create a graphic score and perform it! To the left is the actual sound file, and to the right is the score itself.

Sound Lab Reflection #2

Sound Lab Reflection #3 - Leadership Exercise

Sound Lab Reflection #5 & #6 - Indigenous Music

I always knew that my posture wasn’t great, and certainly not balanced. But I didn’t realize just how much I slouch. I think I’m pretty good about staying balanced or at least postured when I’m standing up or focused on singing in lessons and rehearsals. But I realized after a week of observation that if I sit without something supporting my back for too long, I’m slouching so badly and for so long that it hurts when I stop. It’s going to be a tough habit to break (especially when I prefer to study in my bed than at my desk!).

I also took special care to observe my own behaviour during rehearsals and practice sessions. Since my standing posture tends to be alright, I tried to pay special attention to practices and rehearsals in which I was sitting down. During structured rehearsals, like in choir, I do pretty well about staying balanced, although I often cross the border into postured. It’s practices that are the real struggle. I don’t usually practice sitting down, simply for the purpose of hitting the notes I need to hit in a healthy way, but even when standing, my practice posture just collapses. I noticed on my Wednesday practice session that I tend to lean against walls or slightly on the piano, or on a chair. It was really valuable to take inventory of that, because I was able to force myself to stand up properly balanced, which was really beneficial. I found myself singing healthier with a better understanding of the way my body is positioned just by learning about my own structure and trying to be more aware of it.

For the leadership exercise, I’d like to get the class working together! It’s a short composition activity. I find myself struggling pretty consistently with composition, but activities like this make it that much easier.

It starts with the class being split into 4 groups. Each group can take one of the smaller rooms. Each group is given a musical element (rhythm, texture, harmony, tone, etc.) and their job is to come up with a short little composition that every member of the group can take part in that highlights the versatility of that element. The groups can then perform for each other what they’ve come up with, and there are four totally different pieces! I’m also toying with the idea of making the groups different sizes, but I’m not set on that yet.

This activity serves a few purposes. First, teamwork! This activity requires that each member of the group be relatively vulnerable and present ideas – the activity doesn’t work otherwise. Or at least, not well. It’s best if everyone in the group has a stake in it. It’s also good for practicing basic foundational knowledge of the elements of music in a way that’s fun, both from a hands-on perspective and a listening one! The presentation element helps everyone get more comfortable both in a performance setting and as a class. And best of all, it appeals to all three major learning styles – between watching and listening to the presentations and practicing one’s own, it combines visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning.

Sound Lab #4 - Body Percussion

I chose The Jerry Cans and their song Ukiuq, which translates to Northern Lights in Inuktitut.

It combines the rhythms of folk and country music with traditional Inuit throat singing.

The Jerry Cans are a really fascinating group known for combinations like the ones who found here. They hail from Iqaluit, and write music based on the experience of life in the Canadian North. They have recently developed Nunavut’s first record label, all the while still making music that is meant to build bridges between both the elders and the young people of their community and between Indigenous culture and popular music. This particular song was a hit for them.

First, a history of the style: Inuit throat singing (I specify because there are several different cultures across the world with an independent history of similar throat singing techniques) developed as a game. It has always been female-dominated. The game went as such: two women would stand facing each other and one would begin to create a pattern. The other would layer another harmonic and rhythmic pattern over it, and from there whoever ran out of air first would lose (this could sometimes take a long time, because throat singing allows for a circular breathing technique similar to woodwind players).

The video starts off with these words: “You find yourself travelling among the Northern Lights…never forget those who live there.” The song is meant to symbolize and embody the struggles of Inuit communities that are so often ignored, while also providing a look at how northern Canada is shifting and becoming more modern.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised by how well this combination just clicked. It’s a really stunning piece of music and it certainly gets its message across, both in the nature of the work and the visuals from the video (which features the band playing on glaciers).

In terms of what I think, I guess it’s pretty obvious - I loved it! It was fun to listen to, the rhythms were great, and the element of the throat singing just added so much to the sound and the meaning.

Sound Lab #7 - Failure is Hard but Learning is Easy

I have to say, today was a rough day practice-wise. I thought I had things learned and memorized that I didn’t, and it felt like my technique moved back a step in my coaching and in my lesson. I don’t know precisely what went wrong, and I realize it was probably just a bad day, but it still felt really disheartening.

One of the things that reached me from the article was the idea of living in frustration and complaining. These are obviously not helpful mindsets to work and live in, but sometimes it’s really, really tough to avoid them. I guess that’s where the response system elements come in to help prevent or alleviate the feelings of dismay when something just isn’t working.

Another meaningful portion for me was the mention of lost time. I’ve cursed myself for this, because I could have had so many more years of training and practice than I have (I only started seriously singing about 2 years ago). But it’s okay to be where I am and have the years that I have, and I have to come to that realization.

Finally, there’s one of the big points of the article - gaining perspective and recognizing it in myself. The way I see things is never objective. When I think I’ve had a terrible practice day, others around me (like my studio teacher) see it as a way to teach me how to make mistakes gracefully or take a prompt. I’m viewing things in an overly negative way, when there are things to be learned from bad days too.

Sound Lab #8 - Target Practice

Back in my old high school, our head of music had this insistence that everyone should learn to juggle. His rationale was that if you can juggle, you can most certainly play an instrument. It also offered skill improvement in hand-eye coordination, motor skills, and persistence.

However, I didn't have to play an instrument that wasn't already a part of me, and so, I was exempt from the juggling and I never learned. I figured, why not now?

I had a great time! I had tried to learn a couple times before, and I had always given up pretty soon after starting, but my teacher had always said that failure was the most important step of the process. I don't think I really understood that until the target practice article rephrased it for me, and until I had a focus on resetting intentions and clarifying my purpose. It became a lot easier to just try again instead of being upset with myself for messing up.

I'm still not a good juggler (or a juggler at all, really), but I did improve on where I was (which was real bad) and I felt very accomplished!

Sound Lab #9 - Practice Experimentation

Nov. 12th

Today I chose to experiment with breath control in the practice room. I’ve been working on this in my studio lessons, because I tend to take in more air than I need, so I figure this was a good opportunity to do some work on it. I tried two separate attempts - taking in as much air as possible; and taking in an average amount of air and testing how long I could last in a piece until I needed to take another breath. It showed me that I underestimated the developments I’ve been making in tone, because the air I took in during the second experiment lasted a lot longer than I thought it would.

Nov. 14th

After a rest day on Wednesday, I started experimenting with my tone! I’ve been working really hard on clearing it up, because it tends toward breathiness. So I did a similar thing to the first day, which was working with the two extremes and bringing them together to balance it out. It worked pretty well - I think it’s probably something I should incorporate into my usual practice.

Nov. 15th

So, the bane of my existence is that I can’t roll Rs. Well, that might be a bit dramatic, but it is frustrating. I can’t completely figure out what I’m doing wrong. My studio prof has a few suggestions around tongue tension and air flow, so I messed around with that. I’m still struggling with it, but I can now consistently rely on it if it’s in a song, so that’s a real win! Certain vowels cause me issues around it, and it becomes a lot more difficult if it’s preceded by a sound consonant (by that I mean strong, not necessarily voiced), but I least I can occasionally reach it now!

Sound Lab #10 - LearningMethods Articles

The focus of these articles seems to be attention and spatial awareness in daily life and to important tasks. To be totally honest, neither of these articles particularly resonated with me. They made sense, but I didn’t find them super impactful, and I think that’s simply because I’m not sure I have had enough impactful experiences with the topics to find them interesting. The posture thing seems like a bit of a philosophical reach to me, but I understand the theory behind it, and I think the use of language in that paragraph was interesting (‘into shape’).

I do think the concept of people not paying attention to where they are in space is really applicable. We don’t think of ourselves in the grand scheme of things, but simply as who we are where we are, and sometimes not even that. Like the article talks about, sometimes we are sucked into a distraction, like a really good book or a TV show or a video game, and we aren’t paying attention to the shape our bodies are taking and in what space.

Soundland #11 - End of Semester Reflections

My goals have changed pretty wildly since the start of the semester. In the beginning, I was reaching for small, focussed things, like better practice time and time management. I think I’ve tackled those, but I also feel like I’ve moved into a much bigger picture. I’m not entirely sure what my goals are now, beyond being the best musician I can be, and above that, the best person I can be. I feel that I’ve learned a lot. I said to my parents one night after a concert that I knew music could be great, but I didn’t know just how great until I was surrounded by it.

I feel almost like a different person from when I started, even though it’s only been three months. I’ve done my best to puzzle out quite a bit this semester with workload, transition, living situation, etc. One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced has been separating work and home. I live in Delaware Hall, which is kitty corner to Talbot and the Music Building, and it’s my window view. I found there were times when I was really struggling to motivate myself to do work, because everything felt too comfortable (like home), and then there were other times when I was a bit of a workaholic, because everything felt like school. I got through it by setting a strict divide for myself: only work in TC and MB, and only home at Delaware. I didn’t even consider it would be an issue, living so close to my workspace, but it actually really was, and I’m quite happy to have it figured out!

I actually have a mantra that I’ve been using since I started post-secondary music. It’s been really helpful to me, especially on tough days. It comes from a Florence and the Machine song that I sang a choral arrangement of this summer and totally fell in love with. The lyric reads, “Just keep following the heartlines on your hand”. On my hardest days, it reminds me why I’m here, why I’m doing this, and where it all started: from an exigent love of music that I haven’t yet figured out the depths of, but that I one day hope to understand. It also helps me remember that I don’t have to have everything figured out right now - if I just follow the heartlines, they’ll lead me where I need to go.

Soundlab - The Last One

This was one hell of a closing activity.

This one really hit home for me. I have been familiar with these topics for a long time - I always joke that I went to ‘hippie school’ as a kid, but a lot of what we did at my program of choice was to examine phenomena like this, even as young children, in a very honest and transparent way. That doesn’t mean it stopped shaming in the classroom from occurring, but we were very aware of what these things meant.

I have prided myself for a long time on being a fairly confident person, and I largely credit that to my high school experience, although I was given the tools to succeed by my life and my family prior to high school. But one of the most beneficial experiences for me, self-confidence wise, was my Grade 9 Drama class. The environment was safe and comfortable, and we were willing to take risks because of that. But the trauma that cost me my vulnerability, I guess, was when the teacher of that class died, and all of a sudden, feeling like I had to be strong to support my friends turned into an association of emotion with vulnerability and vulnerability with weakness. I noticed myself bending to more of my fears, and though I appeared a lot more confident, I became a lot less confident, and when I got to university (aka an unfamiliar environment) it really hit home that I had been crumbling on the inside.

So, yeah. This video was tough to watch.

Along with being confident, I try my best to be self-aware, and luckily for me, that effort has not diminished. I have watched myself fall, lose some empathy, lose some patience, lose some self-esteem. Not all, but some. I have watched myself become what I think of as a worse person than I was. I know I can work on myself, and I do, pretty constantly, or at least I try. But I am so much more sensitive than I was, and that means the process is a whole lot slower, because I can’t always take what I have to say about myself (Whoa. That’s a breakthrough right there).

The idea of empathic failure really, really stuck with me. I ‘shake things off’ a lot myself, but I know I do it with other people too, and I really need to stop making those choices. I need to be vulnerable, lead by example, and be honest with myself in a way that I can learn to not be hurt by. I need to take those steps to build myself up while building up others around me as well, and be that kind, brave soul for the people who need one, because I know I can - I've done it before. It might (well, it will) take me time, but I am a work-in-progress, as is everyone. With some healing and some growing, I think I can really take these words and make them a part of life.

It all feels a bit like that talk we had on balance - I was at one extreme, and now I'm edging away from another, and balance is on its way.

Sharing that much is actually a big step for me towards being more vulnerable, so, I’m not going to apologize for it, or take any of the self-protective measures I usually would. I’m just going to post them, and let them be.