A few weeks ago, when Mrs. Sieberg found out that I was working on this intensive and would be available today, she asked me to help out with today’s Lower School Concert. I took this as an opportunity to use today as an observation day: attempting to experience the feeling of being present at a Lower School Concert, and taking notes on how the concert feels so that I can later write about this experience in narrative form.
Lower School music at Maumee Valley is one of the seven areas of focus in my project. Rather than doing an interview, I will be able to write this section of my project based on observation and my own personal experiences. My observation includes watching Lower School students perform in the morning dress rehearsal and the concert. On other hand, my personal experiences will be drawn upon my time in Mrs. Sieberg’s Lower School music class, as well as my many years working with her in Lower School String Ensemble and Upper School String Ensemble.
Today was a different challenge: I have to capture the energy of the concert in my notes. The feel of sitting in on the concert is intangible and difficult to describe. These notes will help me on my next writing day when I begin spinning this into a narrative. This will likewise be difficult: capturing and projecting the energy of the concert into the final draft of my narrative.
These were some of the notes I took:
-The entire concert is so full of energy from start to finish, enthusiasm
-Mrs. Sieberg works so tirelessly to make this possible
-Students are engaged, enjoying the concert as much as the audience is
-Smiling faces
-Two and three part choir, with melody, harmony, and descant
Overall, my day watching the concert and helping Mrs. Sieberg was a fun experience, and was a much needed break from a full day of just writing.
Thanks for sharing...now make sure we get some good reporting/recording done! If there are visuals of your experience it would add strength to your presentation.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Quick (Lower School Librarian) recorded the entire concert. I took some pictures from the dress rehearsal, but what I would like to do is get permission from Melissa Kuhl and Ellen Leonard and incorporate some of their pictures among the finished product. Similar to what I said earlier, I didn't want to spend time learning complicated archival techniques (videography, photography, etc.), especially when someone else was doing it, because it would cut into my time being able to do my narratives.
DeleteSpeaking of Mrs. Quick's recording, I do intend to have a list of resources for further research on each of my themes; this would help the reader by indicating that such resources exist.