Music: Music Journal Entries

Music: Music Journal Entries
Name: Date:

Assignment #1 – Music Journal
Goals of assignment: 1.) To apply the terminology and analytical skills we have learned in class to the music
you hear in your daily lives.
2.) To observe and reflect on the diverse musical styles and various functions of music in our society.
3.) To recognize the various ways in which music can be transmitted to us.
Assignment directions: Keep a journal for four days. Notice any music you hear during those four days, whether it is the music you choose to listen to while walking to classes, or the background music in King Soopers that accompanies your shopping. Consider how you are hearing this music – is it being played out of your phone through your headphones? Is it coming through your car radio? Is your roommate singing and playing guitar? Are street performers serenading your walk down Pearl Street? Is the movie you are watching giving you music as well as dialogue? How is your environment giving you music every day?
The next task is to analyze this music, day by day as you hear it. You do not have to know the details of the music you hear (names, dates, bands, etc.). I simply want you to engage the ideas and, importantly, the terminology we have learned in class while listening to the music in your daily life. Some of the following guiding questions will be useful to you for each piece of music:
• Can you immediately tell what the style of the piece might be? How do you know this?
• What do you think the genre of the piece is? How do you know?
• What is the instrumentation?
• What is the texture of the piece (e.g., monophony, homophony, polyphony, etc.)?
• Describe the melody.
• Describe the harmony.
• What is the meter of the piece?
• Describe the tempo.
• What do you think the mood of the music is?
• What do you think the function of the music is? (To entertain, to express identity, to make you buy more things?)

Each journal entry should consist of multiple, well-constructed paragraphs that describe, in your own words, what the music sounds like to you. Try to include more than one piece of music for each day of listening. When you are finished with your four-day journal experience answer the questions at the end as a reflection on the overall experience. This section accounts for a large percentage of your grade, so remember to be thoughtful and analytical.

Day 1, Date:     

Day 2, Date:

Day 3, Date:

Day 4, Date:

REFLECTION: What did this experience teach you about music? Did you notice any patterns regarding the various styles and genres of music we make part of our lives everyday? How do people typically make music a part of their lives, and through what means of technology? What does music mean to you in your daily life? What purposes does it serve? What are your thoughts about the way music confronts us as a society in our daily lives? (3 paragraphs minimum).