Transcript Week 5 - Fieldwork, methods and ideas. Your Project

Week 5 - Fieldwork, methods
and ideas. Your Project
Basic
methods of fieldwork
Past projects
Student input on Indonesian
Music
Gamelan
Fieldwork Methods

The eye-witness report. Concerned with the
collection of primary source material.
 Documentary material from living informants
– relying and analysing oral history.
 Quote from Meyers, p.23, `observation of
people in situ; finding them where they are,
staying with them in a role in which, while
acceptable to them, will allow both intimate
observation of certain parts of behavior, and
reporting it in ways useful to social science
but not harmful to those observed’
 The `field’ is the world itself.
Common Features

Informants, - people who talk to us about
their lives and music.
 Performances/events – both musical and
cultural – may be staged for researcher or
part of on going pattern of behavior. Can
include interviews and music or video
recordings.
 Recording of material – notes, recordings of
music, taped interviews, still photos, video.
Material acquired in the field (instruments,
music, literature, things).
Selecting a Topic

Personal interest is important. Find
something that you like or that interests you.
 Feasibility – scholarly, political, physical,
cause no harm – must be do-able in the time
and space allotted.
 Proposal – idea of setting out aims that may
change but that you have a goal in mind.
Participant Observer
strategy - `marginal native’ –
enhances validity
 Gives trust to informants – you are part
of scene and blending in.
 Reduces reactivity – people altering
their behavior because they sense they
are being observed.
 Intimacy of shared experience.
 Main
Bi-musicality
Idea of Mantle Hood in particular. Not being
detached but part of it.
Learning to sing, play, dance, etc, or just be a
good listener – being part of a musical
exchange.
Music lessons with a guru. But may emphasize
participation at expense of observation.
Home practice.
It is impossible to be purely
objective –
 You
need to deal with this as part of
methodology.
 Relying on key informants – must
decide if their views are typical or
personal.
 Thanking and if necessary paying
informants – not always with money.
Copies of your work?
Interviews

Prepare questionnaire. But try not to structure
interview too rigidly – it should help the
informant not restrict. Know the language
and be
 Seek to be informal but artful in directing.
 Record conversations. Test equipment as
part of the interview. Study and improve
technique. If silence is the result repeat and
go over in your words what informant has just
said to help them pick up thread.
Other Material to Collect
– always a good idea – especially
if things do not go to plan. Can be more
personal.
 Log – running account of plans
prepared in advance.
 Numbering – for all recordings and
videos.
 Diary
Your Project Brief

To undertake a fieldwork project presented as a 20 minute
conference report and handed in in written form (c.3,000 words).
A field work study that will allow the student to explore at first
hand any sort of live musical activity available to them. The
types of music studied can be of any genre both western and
non-western and including all types of popular music. The
student needs to find a sustained musical activity in the present
which involves both performers and listeners,which above all is
physically accessible to the student, so that performers and
participants/listeners can be interviewed and live musical activity
studied. The student needs to view the musical activity from the
point of view of the participant observer, using methods to study
that have their basis in anthropology, and which take into
account not only the music but the patterns of human behavior
of all those involved.
Assessment Criteria - 50%
total mark

The identification of a suitable subject and the clear
articulation of aims and objectives for a fieldwork
study in a project plan.
 The ability to sustain a study over several weeks and
to observe and record material for the project report.
 The methodology employed and general execution of
the written material.
 The ability to analyse and draw conclusions from the
material gathered.
 The communication of the study and its results as a
seminar paper.
Comments

Emphasis on ideas and quality of field work.
 Awareness of concepts of participant
observer and folk view useful.
 You are trying to find out about all the facets
of the performance event/s, both deep and
surface (aims and functions), and from all
points of view (performers, listeners).
 Do use books and other more standard
research tools to enhance your
understanding of the primary source material
you are collecting.
In Presentation
Good structure – and good use of time.
 Verbal presentation – understandability, use
of language, making sense.
 Use of materials – e.g. taped extracts,
recordings, video footage, OHPs, Power
Point, handouts, transcriptions, still
photographs.
 It is very much for you to share your project
with the group and give the essence of your
experiences.

In Written Material





Good structure and organisation of material – it is not an essay
so essay style does not necessarily apply – you can use style
conventions (footnotes, citations) but do not have to. You can
and should give a contents listing and use subheadings.
How aims/objectives are set out against what you have actually
achieved. (the two may not match).
Bibliography is advised as you should give space to
contextualisation and reference to books, internet or other
secondary material.
You can include as much of your collected material – recordings,
photos, etc as you wish but if not directly part of the report
should be part of an appendix.
It is a good idea to include some attempt at transcription of
music. This should be discussed and analysed in your own way.
Do not ignore the music itself.