Feeling Brave?

Well, it's almost over... Critical reflection looks finished and I'm working on the final draft of my Professional Artefact, still having a panic but I can see the end!

I spent a long time trying to find a way to deliver my artefact, because I'm quite into my technology I really wanted to use a website or some form of audio visual concept. But after starting a first draft using this type of delivery I had a bit of an epiphany; If my artefact is for the benefit of professionals who aren't comfortable using technology but are interested in starting to integrate technology based products then why use just a high tech format for my artefact?

I am using an acronym as the basis for my artefact, I wanted to use a concept that could be easily memorised and used as part of a Professional Musician's day to day practice. During my inquiry the same five topics kept reappearing while I was mapping results:

Benefits - How the pruduct could help with professional practice
Reviews - Peer reviews or magazine articles
Attributes - Does the product have the features the professional need and is there room for growth?
Value - How much does the product cost, and will the professional get value for their money?
Ease of Use - How straightforward is the product to use?

I'm calling this the BRAVE concept, there is a need to reassure an individual who is about to use new technology in a high pressure environment and I feel that the five topics that form this concept cover the major potential pitfalls a Professional Musician could have when they are thinking about trying or buying a new product to use for live performances or studio sessions for example. This concept could work equally as well for an individual who is more comfortable with using technology in general but would like some guidance to help make a better informed decision about a particular product.

If you were buying a new piece of technology to work with would you find this concept useful? And do you think there are any topics missing?

Back in the saddle

Well it has been a long time, I've been so preoccupied with getting my interviews done that I totally forgot about my blog!

Getting musicians organised seems to be a bit of a nightmare... I originally wanted to hold a focus group with about ten or my peers but after finding out that a few were touring and others had clashing schedules I have changed tack to using Skype to interview at my participants' convenience. Participation has still dropped a little, as I gave myself a two week period to carry out the interview. However, I still have six good quality interviews with a lot of information to collate.

I had my reservations about the inquiry up to the point of holding the interviews, as I wasn't sure how to digest the information and was even less sure that I would find patterns and trends in the results. Having run five of the six interviews so far I can happily say that this is not the case, I am actually looking forward to presenting my results and I have decided on a suitably styled artefact in the form of a website containing my findings.

I had a bit of an epiphany a the start of the term, as I wasn't sure if I should be changing my ethics form to allow for one of the focus group venues to be in a school. I wasn't sure if I should be approaching the school for permission to interview their peripatetic teachers on site. One of the other students stated a point which now seems quite straight forward but for some reason was not on my radar; If you are interviewing peripatetic teachers as professional musicians you could interview them outside of the school environment and save having to redo all the paperwork. Just goes to show how easy it can be to almost give yourself tunnel vision and miss a straightforward way around a particular problem!

My Critical Reflection of Module 2

The task for this module was to create an outline for the professional inquiry we are to undertake in Module 3. I have chosen to conduct an inquiry into the benefits of technology for the working Musician, this is a topic that I feel is important in a Musician’s professional practice and career development as it can help make tasks easier and more efficient.

                I found this module very challenging for several reasons; Firstly, I made a fairly serious error in confusing the terms Qualitative and Quantitative. I started to base my inquiry plan on using a survey resulting in a large data set with a possibility of results that could be led by the questions in my survey. This is not the preferred kind of data set I would need to conduct my inquiry as I am looking for personal experience and more detailed information that I could use to develop my own professional practice. I decided to change my inquiry to a focus group as this allows me to get more detailed answers from fellow professionals about their own experiences which I can triangulate with my own ideas and other information from related literature on technology within music.

                Another issue I had was the inclusion of a hypothesis and prediction in my plan, this implied that I already had an idea of the results I would find. This would be an unsuitable way to conduct the inquiry as the purpose of the inquiry is for me to gain information about the use of technology in music and therefore predicting any kind of outcome would be unnecessary. I have since removed the above mentioned sections from my plan and instead I have chosen to research several case studies from well-known artists to analyse the ways they use technology in their studio recordings and live performances. This would give me more information to use for the literary aspect of my triangulation.

                I feel I have gained a lot from this module overall, especially in terms of making me think about my own use of technology in my own practice. I am looking forward to conducting the professional inquiry, and learning about how other professional musicians utilise different aspects of technology in their practice. I have learnt that triangulation of data will play a very important part of my inquiry, and that comparing data from literature, third parties and myself will give me a wide variety of material to use as part of my findings. I am also interested to see if other participants in my inquiry will in turn use some of the information from the discussion in the focus group to look at their own professional practice, perhaps even using the information gained to make changes and improvements in the way they use technology as part of their own career.  

Interesting article that caused a spark...

So this article is one of the reasons I want to explore the benefits of technology for the working musician:

http://money.futureofmusic.org/are-musicians-benefiting-from-music-tech-sf-musictech-presentation/

It covers several areas including the use of social media, software and hardware that can be used to give Musicians more scope to not only make music but promote and market their own product.

Some other articles I came across:

https://www.virgin.com/music/how-musicians-are-using-technology-to-grow-loyal-fans

http://www.socialnomics.net/2014/07/23/how-has-the-internet-and-social-media-changed-the-music-industry/

http://www.slideshare.net/BenKilmer/the-evolution-of-the-music-industry-the-effect-of-technology-and-law-on-strategic-management-and-sustainability-kilmer-2010

Happy reading!

Darren

My Professional Enquiry plan

It's taken me a while to put a blog up this term, I've started to work in the education sector as a Music and Media Technician and it has left me with a lot less time to study recently. I'm starting to get this all back on track over the next week or so!

I would like to look into the importance of networking as a professional Musician, and especially how modern technologies such as mobile communications and the use of the Internet have affected the way Musicians maintain working relationships and ultimately keep themselves in work. My Professional Enquiry will be based around the following questions:

Do you use an online portfolio to offer your services to potential new clients?

How quickly and easily can you communicate and keep contact with clients and fellow professionals?

How much of your work would you attribute to having an online presence?

Do you use technology in your everyday gigging or teaching? For example, an iPad to display music, a laptop to sequence backing tracks or a video camera to record and document your work for your own personal reflection and possibly to share on social media.

Which websites do you advertise yourself on?

And which forms of media do you use as part of your portfolio (audio, video, pictures)?

Do you prefer to build and maintain your online presence yourself or do you have someone else do it for you? And if you do, are they a friend/family member or do you outsource to a professional third party?

How often do you update/add to your details?

Do you list your portfolio on other websites? If so, which ones?

That's all I have for now, if you can add to this please let me know in the comments section :-)

Cheers!

Darren

My Personal Journal

I've never had a journal, and that was because I didn't think I needed one and as a result of that thought there was going to be no benefit to me at all.

I am wrong on all counts, for one I do in fact keep a journal (although not exactly in written form, more of a reflective look back using my own memory) to help me develop as a professional not only as a musician but also as an engineer. It helps not only prevent me from making the same mistakes but also to develop and improve on ideas that may have already been successful, but could still be improved in one way or another.

Writing a journal helps to break down situations in a format that can be understood easily, and the way I am experimenting with doing that is simply to detail the events that took place and then analyze them point by point with notes for improvement. If there are no immediate ideas for improvement (for example, if more research needs to be done) then it is marked for a follow up in the same way as flagging an email in your inbox or sticking a note to your fridge for example.

To honour the privacy of others and sensitive information I keep all names and details fairly ambiguous, and hopefully it will provide a new perspective on my professional development going forward.

Video

Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words then a video must be worth a thousand pictures right?

This video took a lot longer to do than it should have, I found it quite difficult to do and in the end I used quite an old take just because it had everything in it I wanted to get across and share.

Video link here:
https://youtu.be/lPCBCuI64mE

Darren