First Week!

An update on my first week of "Five Week" with YouthBEAT research at Berklee...before the next one starts!

This first week has been much better than expected. Although there is the usual down-time, and I actually have had to do some transcription, it has been much less terrible than before. I am assigned three classes to observe: Musicianship, Theory, and a New Orleans-style jazz ensemble. For each of these classes, I sit in a corner, try to be relatively invisible and furiously take notes on just about anything. It has been challenging because we have been given relatively little direction on exactly what we are supposed to take notes on, and we also don't exactly know how our notes are going to be used in the research project as a whole. I get that it has to be somewhat "scientific" (aka dry, fact-based), but I feel like sometimes the best way to describe things are with metaphors and similes. Think about it: how exactly would you describe the way a tall, gangly drummer boy moves while he drums?

Well, I decided to take a slight chance, and turn in observation notes that had some colorful metaphors. Imagine comparisons between teenage boys and various types of squiggly sea creatures, especially an particularly dextrous octopus. I knew that if it was at all inappropriate / not scientific enough, I could always edit the notes and resubmit them. Besides, I was sure to back up all of my "claims" with "evidence," so I was hoping for the best. A few days later, I get an email from my principle investigator. And lo and behold, just when I thought I was going to get scolded for sure....

Re: your write-up of Russell ensemble

Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 1:34 PM

Hi Makiko,
Your write-up of Russell's ensemble class was a scream to read! I love that you captured so much of George's humor in this report! Really really strong detailed notes. I felt as though I were there in the ensemble as I read your notes.
Great work, Makiko! Hope you are enjoying your work this summer!
Kate

In any case, I guess that there can be an art to science. Who knows, maybe a metaphor that aptly describes a situation in a way that no single SAT word can will have more of a chance of finding its way into a paper that Dr. Camara will write and publish. One can only hope that someday, when reading about the benefits of music education, amidst a sea of psych-paper babble you will come across something that says "and he played the drums like a squirming squid...." Yes, one can only hope.

So, the observations are going well. They are very tiring, because you can't ever stop being fully engaged. What? The student over in the corner is texting! Oh, now the girl in front of me is talking to her neighbor who is half asleep. Crap, now the teacher has gone on to a new subject. Everything is supposed to get written down, especially the nonverbal / body language behavior that happens amongst students.

I really like going downtown for work. I like commuting with people. It's like the great commuter migration ritual. Every morning, every afternoon, the same sounds, the same woosh of trains, the same half-asleep bodies with mismatched socks walking onto the platforms. It's like a migration because it's not as if people are really actively choosing to commute every day, it just sort of happens, because it is supposed to. Birds get cold, they fly somewhere else. People get a job, they commute. Maybe there is a similarity, maybe there isn't. In any case, I like to watch it happen.

I usually make a smoothie in the morning, and also usually have no time to drink it, so I pour it into a red plastic cup, the kind you see at college parties. They must have been left over in this house from last semester. I take it along with a neon straw to drink on the train. Classy. Oh well, maybe I'll buy myself a thermos when the cups run out. Or wake up earlier. Then I'll be a real grown-up.