Family History

I don't really know of any one famous in my family, but I do know of a few people my family talks about all the time. One of the people my family talks about all the time is my grandpa Ward. Every time my dad wants to get a point across or talks about his past history, he always brings up grandpa Ward, his father. Dad always says grandpa was a fine man and would do anything for anyone, no matter who it was. According to dad, grandpa was a great fisherman, but would always give his fish away, worked in a factory, which is probably where he got the cancer he had, and always helped people even though he didn't have to and even though he didn't have much to give. Grandpa Ward is always brought up in any kind of conversation I have with my dad. Whether it's about life in general or doing what's right, grandpa is always tied in with what's going on in my life. 

I find this to be very interesting because dad doesn't bring anyone up as much as grandpa, which shows me grandpa was a huge part of my dad's life and probably the reason my dad is where he is today. By dad talking about grandpa Ward all the time, he shows that what he says about grandpa is true because if it wasn't true, he wouldn't talk about it all the time. It also tells me about how much my family and my dad value family and how important it is to always be there for your family no matter what, even through the good times and the bad times. Through this one influential person in my life and my family's life, you can get a lot of information about my family's background, values, and hobbies.

Post #10

I'm not exactly sure how I want to structure my mini-ethnography, but I do know I want to talk about the stereotyping when it comes to people in musical choir. Also, I want to make sure I cover how these people act in their environment compared to how they act in other environments. Last, I want to talk about how music has affected people in their lives. I want to interview a bunch of people from the musical choir culture and ask each of them how music has affected them and how it makes them feel. I feel like if I can have these main points in my mini-ethnography, people will get a better understanding when it comes to this particular culture and why people like to be in choir.

I will talk about my interest in the subculture and my experience in the culture. This way, people will understand how I know so much about the culture and it gives them a perspective from a former insider.

The best way to write my mini-ethnography is to have some kind of order. I can first talk briefly about the history of music, giving them a brief outline of musical choir history. Then, I can talk about some of the sensory details of the choir room to give the reader a feel for the culture. Next, I can put in interviews from people in the culture and ask them questions as to why they enjoy choir, when they have practice, etc. This way the audience can understand the effects choir has on a society and how it gives them a sense of belonging and purpose.  I feel if I can set my mini-ethnography up in an order like this, the ethnography will have a good flow and the audience will understand it more and have each of their questions answered.

I could conclude the piece by talking about the effects musical choir has on a society and why it is important in our society today. This would give a good ending to the ethnography because it summarizes what has already been said and then gets into more detail why these concepts talked about in the ethnography are important, making an effective ending to the ethnography with a good summary of the concepts and a good closer talking about the why choir is important.

I think this particular structure might be the best to go with because it gives the reader a feel for what the culture looks like, giving them a visual of the site, then talking about what goes on in the culture, giving the reader a way of seeing what goes on in the culture, why people like choir, giving the reader a reason why so many people like choir, and then ending with why choir is so important in our society, summarizing the main points of the mini-ethnography and stating the importance of choir in society, giving the reader a better understanding of the culture and why it's important. I feel that by doing it in this particular order, I won't lose the reader. The reader can read the ethnography and have each question they have answered step by step as they go. I feel like this is the best way to order my paper and it gives my audience the best understanding of the musical choir subculture without leaving out any details.

Glossary

Intonation- In tune with the music being played

Rhythm- How slow or fast the music is being played

Dynamics- How loud or soft the music is suppose to be sung

Harmony- When all of the singing groups blend together

Soprano- High voice of a woman (highest part in music)

Alto- Low singing voice of a woman (second highest)

Tenor- High singing voice for a guy

Bass- Low singing voice for a guy

Baton- stick directors use to direct their choir (help them with rhythm)

Timbre- color of music

Note- musical term for music you see on a piece of paper when you look at how the music moves up and down. The things you see that do this on a music sheet

Scale- Different notes on a piano or any type of music. It has an up and down motion, making it a scale because of the different notes.

Geeks- People that most people like to call choir people. People who don't fit in, tend to be really smart, and dress weird compared to other people.

Sight-Reading- Reading music without listening to the music. Reading the music for what it is without any assistance.

A Cappella- Singing a particular piece of music without a piano or any accompaniment.

Clips from the documentary American Tongues

1. The research project was done in 1986. If you were to re-do this project today, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, what might a researcher do differently? What would you do the same?-  What I would do differently is interview more people from around the U.S. so I can get an even better understanding as to why they talk the way they do. I would ask questions as to why they talk the way they do, where did they get their accent from, what kind of things they had growing up compared to other groups, etc. I would get more involved in the study and ask questions and interview more people on a broader scale. What I would do the same is have people's opinions of other parts of the U.S., such as the South, Boston, New York, etc. I would have each group tell me what they thought of the other group, like they did in the clips.

2. What are some of the flaws with the study? Are there any groups that are under-represented? Over-represented? How might you make the study more appealing to an audience?- Some of the flaws in the study seem to be some groups are over-represented, such as southerners and New Yorkers. The study interviews more people from these particular parts of the U.S. as compared to other groups, like Bostonians. The thing that would make this study much better is to interview more people and get more opinions from people concerning other regions of the U.S. If the study added this quality, the study would be much more appealing and give a better depiction of what people really think about each other.

3. In your opinion (and based on some of the things discussed in the clips), how important is language in terms of how we perceive others? What is revealed (or others think is revealed) about us when we talk?- Language is very important in terms of how we perceive others. When people from Indiana talk to people from the South, their first impression is are they dumb and why have they never been taught proper grammar and English? This is one thing that people look at when it comes to looking at other groups. People tend to judge other people based on how they talk. Also, how a person talks tells a person what kind of a person they are. For example, if you hear someone with a Southern accent, you expect that person to be very nice and have southern hospitality like other southerners. When we talk, we reveal our attitude as well as what we believe and how we feel about certain things because certain parts of the U.S. have characteristics that go with their particular culture, an example being southern hospitality.

p. 306

1. What is the context, and where are you in this scene? What is the nature of the relationship between you and your informant?- When doing my field research, I notice that I'm not really considered an insider anymore. I'm more of an outsider looking in on what the musical choir culture is doing. But, I still talk to the informants, still give them advice, interact with them in other words. So, I guess in my particular field site, I would be in the middle. I'm not exactly an insider in the subculture, but I'm not exactly an outsider either. I'm right in the middle of both of them. The relationship I have with my informants is simple. I talk to them, I'm friends with them, give them advice about choir since I used to be in it for so long, etc. My relationship with my informants is mostly at a friendly level, nothing more and nothing less.

2. The meaning behind the recorded words is to get stuff down about your particular culture that you might not remember. This way, if there is something you want to include into your mini-ethnography, you have it written down and you can add it to your field research. The things that influence my fixed positions is the fact I used to be a part of the culture and have a bunch of friends in the culture, therefore my fixed positions as well as my subjective will be biased because I used to be a part of the culture and have friends in the subculture. In other words, I won't say anything bad about the culture because I used to be a part of it. The relationship between me and my informants is very strong. Most of my informants are some of my best friends and people that have helped shaped not only the singer I am today but the person I am as well.

3. What I've noticed about some of the informants is some of the younger informants really don't have much of an opinion when it comes to choir other than they like it and it's a lot of fun. When you talk to older people, such as a teacher for example, you notice a different view on music, at least in my field site. The teacher I am interviewing has a wide array of facts and opinions as to why he enjoys music, what effect it has on a society, why it is so important, why he chose to teach music, etc. So, to answer the next question, there are some major gaps between older people and the younger people of the subculture. The reason being the older people have had more experience in the field and have more of an understanding as to the importance and reasonings behind choir, whereas younger people are just getting started out in the subculture.

Posting #9

The hardest thing to find research over is the atmosphere of a musical choir. This particular topic can only be answered when I go to my field site this week and do my observations. There are sources online and at the library that talk about this particular thing, but briefly.  I want this particular idea to be very detailed in my mini-ethnography, and to do that I need to go to my field site. 

The easiest thing to research about my particular subculture is why music is beneficial to society and how it can give strength, hope, and a sense of purpose to many people in our society today. For example, in one of the articles I found online, that happens to be from the New York Times, it talks about a Japanese prison camp and how joining together to form a choir gave the prisoners a sense of strength as well as a symbol of defiance of their captors. This is just one of many examples I've found online as to why music is beneficial to society and how it gives people a place where they fit in, and because of the many resources I've found online about these topics, research has been really easy when it comes to these topics.

If I could start over, I would've done my research earlier than I did so I could get more resources and information. Also, I would've done my interviews already so that I could have all my sensory details and my interviews out of the way, making the mini-ethnography less work and easier to do. Other than that, I would keep everything else the same. I would still find my sources online and on the library's website. I would still skim read them to get a better understanding of the sources and so I could figure out how to use the sources in my mini-ethnography.

Keeping a blog has helped a lot when it comes to keeping track of my research progress. The reason being if I ever forget something or where I'm at in my research process, all I can do is look at my blog because all the blogs we do relate to the research process we are working on each and every week. The blog helps me out a lot. I know if I didn't have it, I wouldn't know how my research is coming along as well as remember key points I want in my mini-ethnography.

The blog will help each and every student with their mini-ethnography. It gives you an understanding of the research process, where you're at when it comes to your research process, and helps you remember key points you might've forgotten that you might want to include in your mini-ethnography.

In-Class Research Questions

1. My readers will care about my issue because it is an important part of our culture today. Everywhere you look you see a form of music, and more and more people are wanting to be in choir because of how many forms of music we have in our society. It interests them, and it gives people a sense of purpose and belonging. These are just a few of the reasons people care about how I am going to talk about the musical choir subculture.

2. Some things outsiders will want to know about my specific culture are things such as: Why is music important, What are some of the qualities of a musical choir, How is music taught to members of a choir, How do they prepare for shows and other musical events, etc. These are just a few questions outsiders will want answered when it comes to knowing about the musical choir subculture. With these questions, outsiders can get a basic understanding of the subculture and why the subculture is the way it is.

3. Some of the things readers already know about musical choir is it is a group of boys and girls singing in unison, they know the choir is conducted by a director, and that most choirs not only have to sing, but dance as well. People also know a little bit about how music is taught and how students perform, but most people don't enough about that to bother. 

4. I want my readers to know about how music affects a group of people and the importance of musical choir in our society today. People don't realize how much music affects our society. It gives us a sense of belonging, purpose, and has the power to warm the heart and soul. It is a very powerful thing and people need to know why it is so important and powerful, and I hope to show this in my field research.

5. Some of the things I want to show my readers will be hard to persuade them. So, on some of the concepts I want to show in my mini-ethnography, such as the importance of musical choir in society today, I need to make sure I have a lot of examples as to how choir is important, how it has affected people, how it's given them a sense of belonging, etc. So, to answer the question, the readers will not be persuaded easily, but they can be persuaded as long as I have plenty of details and examples.

6. When my mini-ethnography is done, and people have read what research I have done over the musical choir subculture, readers will realize how important musical choir is in our society today as well as what it does for people outside the culture and through my research, readers can show other people the research I have done and get them to realize just how important musical choir is in our society today. Plus, through my research, some readers might become interested in my subculture and decide to research it themselves, and then they can use my research as a reference to their own research. 

Posting #8

The main theme I see through my research so far is music affects people in many different ways, usually in a positive way rather than a negative way, and most people in our society love to listen to music because it sends a message and gives people in the musical culture a sense of purpose in our society. 

Some of the people I've talked to feel the same way when it comes to music and how it affects them. Some of my friends in the musical choir culture have told me the reason they like choir is it gives them a place where they fit in and they like to sing. My former teacher, Mr. Fleck, told me he likes teaching music cause he loves music and the message it sends to the public. He told me it has a way of healing old wounds and warming the heart of a person. Plus, like his students told me, it gives him a sense of belonging in the society we live in today.

My place in the subculture is kind've in between an outsider and an insider. I am more of an outsider now because I am out of the culture now, but I am still involved in choir events at my school and I still talk to some of my friends that are in choir. So, as of right now, I would be in between the two.

It is similar to where I was eight weeks ago, but it is slightly different because I've been looking at the culture from the outside rather than on the inside. I've been observing the culture rather than being in the culture. When I've went to my field site, I would take notes on what I saw from the students, how the teacher taught the class, what the class looked like now compared to when I was in the culture, what the class smelled like, etc. I've observed and taken notes on all these things in my particular field site, and because I did this at my field site, this would make me more of an outsider over an insider because I'm looking at the culture as a whole rather than from one perspective.

The things that have changed have been the way I look at my culture. When I was in the culture, I looked at choir as an easy A that was a lot of fun and a way to make new friends. Now I look at it as more than that. I look at it as a place for people to fit in. I look at it as an art form and a way of entertaining the public. I see choir as a way of expressing yourself through music rather than expressing yourself through talking. All of these things I've noticed when I've went to my field site, and these are the things that have changed the way I look at my former culture as a whole.