Here's what I have so far as a rough draft for my symposium speech!
Hello everyone. Before I begin my speech, I want you all to imagine a song that you love. Close your eyes and immerse yourself in the music. Feel the notes surrounding you, draping over your shoulders like a blanket. Think about how the music makes you feel. Chances are, your favorite song gives you the same comfort that it gives to Vietnam veterans with PTSD, or to refugees lost in a country that isn’t theirs – who may not even speak the same language, but in music, everyone is able to understand one another. This is what I’ve spent my year researching. Music therapy is such an important tool, albeit overlooked. However, it already takes place in our daily lives. Whether it’s picking up your guitar as a release at the end of the day, or humming your favorite song when feeling anxious, music therapy can make an impact on anyone, especially war veterans. This is the reason why we need to invest more into music therapy programs.
For the past 7 years of my life, I’ve dedicated myself completely to music. From the age of ten years old, the cello served as a powerful release of my emotions – no matter how hard my week was, I always had those Saturday evening rehearsals to look forward to. No matter how hard my day was, my cello was at home, waiting for me. After 2555 days, I can honestly say that the sonatas and symphonies I’ve spent countless hours practicing gave me an outlet, something to pour my emotions into. And no matter how ugly those emotions were, it would always come out from the cello sounding so beautiful.
I’ve spent my year reading through both medical trials and historical fiction books. As someone who loves music, history, and science, there’s really no better way to combine those topics than to research music therapy. Throughout my research, I’ve discovered that there are so many different angles of music therapy, and that it’s really an individualized approach.
For my symposium speech, I think I’d like to explore the path of music therapy. So, as I craft my intro, here are my SPECS:
S - I feel that it’s important to educate the audience on music therapy, because chances are there are many people in the audience who can benefit from this information, whether it’s referring a family member or maybe music therapy is a career path they could see themselves in.
P - Again, this affects nearly everyone, as I feel it’s safe to say that everyone in the audience has some personal connection to a veteran (friends or family) or has an interest in music.
E - I’ll have to step up my research a bit. For the past few months I’d been avoiding the topic of music therapy, simply because it wasn’t what I thought I’d end up doing at this point of the year. However, it’s something that is interesting to me, and I feel like I could write a speech about it, along with my prior knowledge of history and music.
C - As I already touched on, anyone who is interested in history, music, or psychology would be able to find their own connection to this topic. It’s part of why I feel like this would be something good to speak about – my audience can relate to my topic from the moment they begin to learn about it.
S - I would like to clear up the misconceptions about both mental health treatment for veterans and music therapy. I feel like the average person isn’t educated enough, if at all, the opportunity that exists for not only veterans who may be struggling, but anyone at all. I would like to make it a point that music therapy will only continue to be more commonly used and researched in the future.
For my March 1st SDA, I am proud of my work for a few reasons: one of them being the amount of time and effort I put into it, and another because of the level of research I went through to craft it. Rather than waiting until the last minute to complete my SDA, I divided up the time I was given to work on it. This is something that I think helped me a lot with the quality of my work. The only thing I’d do differently next time would be dedicating more time to researching than to creating the project itself, in turn increasing the quality of my work because the research is more thorough.
Since the beginning of this year, I’ve improved a lot on my research skills. Before my junior year, there were no research opportunities in my classes, therefore I didn’t know about databases or how to research properly at all. However, since taking both this class and AP Lang, I’ve used databases quite a bit. I’m able to quickly search for information and find something relevant to my topic that I can effectively use. I’ve learned how to use the advanced search to my advantage, and use multiple of the databases that are available. In terms of putting my research on paper, I need to improve on my storytelling skills a bit. My process for putting my SDAs together is a bit disorganized, and I think it would help me create better products out of my research if I made sure to focus on my writing.
So, my new essential question is: “What has been the long term impact of war on music?”. I chose this question because I wanted to circle back to my first question that I asked over the summer, before I even began researching and crafting SDAs. Over the course of this year, I’ve gone many different directions. When I started going in a route that I didn’t want to fully commit to (for instance, the music therapy podcast), I made sure to reel myself back in with my next essential question.
One thing that I will need to do as I begin to research this new question is choose a more specific time period to focus on. For my first SDA, I researched the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Cold War. For my next SDA, I went a little bit further into the Vietnam War and World War I. For my March SDA, I researched World War II (and some of the Cold War). So now that I’ve covered all the same wars that we cover in history class, I need to pick a time period that I find the most interesting in order to make sure that I can stay focused and interested in this topic for the rest of the year.
The March SDA is something I’d like to expand upon my creativity for. Sometimes while researching my topic, I feel stuck and unsure of what to look for next — so in this next SDA I am going to focus on my research and ensure that I’ve gathered enough information that I can be happy with using.
I’ve decided that for this SDA, I’m going to choose The Ripple Effect. Doing this will require me to spend some time researching my topic, including 3-5 articles. I chose this project for my SDA because I feel like it will give me the guidance and structure I need to focus more on the research itself than the composition of the final product.
I want my SDA to be in text format, because the last two that I’ve done have both been podcasts, and the first one was more visual. I’m thinking it could be in paragraph form, however the Ripple Effect is something that can definitely go any way that you want it to. I would like to choose a specific event, such as the spark of a world war, to then branch off into how it affected music at the time. Something that I’m considering looking into is music by Dmitri Shostakovich, as much of it was written during WWII and continued to have an impact into the Soviet era. I’d like to have a few branches instead of one storyline, so in my research I will find other instances of music being affected by this time (specifically from WWII to the Cold War) and expand on them.
S - It’s important to realize the historical context of a piece of music, especially when listening to or performing it. It helps the listener connect both historical knowledge and personal experiences to the music for a deeper understanding.
P - Anyone who listens to music would be interested in learning the context of a musical piece, and oftentimes war is one of the pieces of the puzzle.
E - I plan on using databases to gather research for this SDA, along with articles that can be found on websites such as the official pages for many major orchestras and organizations around the world. I also plan on referencing a book that was given to me by my coordinator.
C - It connects every aspect of life, because music is everywhere, and it’s important to understand the meaning behind it. Looking for the deeper meaning in things like this can help anyone in their daily lives as it’s always a good trait to have.
S - An assumption that someone might have is that music didn’t really have the biggest impact on war. This is something I want to change, because there’s always more room for appreciation in the music community.
The two sources I'm starting off with for this SDA are: an article from a database, and a book called Symphony for the City of the Dead that my coordinator gave to me.
For the March SDA, the question I’d like to explore is: How does music continue to affect veterans today? I chose this question because my podcast touched on the topic of music therapy being used to treat veterans. While I don’t want to limit myself by strictly saying music therapy, I want to continue along the same path of music and veterans. I wonder how music continues to affect veterans because I would like to understand the long term effect music combined with an individual’s environment can have on the brain. I’m not sure yet how I’ll make this happen for my SDA — I would love to interview a veteran that is passionate about music and has something to say on this topic, but it might be hard to find someone because I don’t have personal connections to help me. Another idea might be to argue that music therapy is the best way to treat PTSD and/or trauma in veterans. I would do this by gathering information from medical trials and articles on its effects, and then use that evidence to deliver my purpose. However, I’m limited to only a few options for this SDA because it’s not a topic I can necessarily teach or argue with the general public, as it is specifically targeted towards veterans. This makes it difficult to pick something that will have the effect I want it to, as I’ve already done two podcasts this year, and I’m looking to try something different. Even so, I am confident that my new essential question will provide me enough wiggle room to be able to take this project into whatever direction it needs to go.
My contribution to this midterm was significant. I helped my partner create the script and record, and we both worked together to create a podcast that was informational while also sounding good and being well put together. I felt that we both contributed equally, as there was no problem with meeting and communicating with each other in the process of putting it together.
As for team communication, the dynamic between my partner and I was very positive and supportive, and I didn’t feel the same way as I would if this was any other class – in such a small group, it’s easier to communicate with your partner, and less nerve wracking. One challenge that we faced was meeting, as both of us are very busy. We tried to meet in person to record the podcast but it didn’t end up working out, so we recorded it online, and I think it worked out great!
Both of us had equal responsibilities in this project. We both contributed to planning meeting times, and we individually worked on our own parts of the project before combining it into one. The introduction and conclusion parts of the podcast gave a little more wiggle room when it came to who did what, so we were able to divide it up a little bit based on our personal strengths and weaknesses so that in the end we could have the best product possible.
There weren’t any conflicts with our podcast; as I said before, there’s not very much wiggle room with this type of project, so I felt like there was nothing to disagree over.
For time management, it was a bit of a struggle to be able to meet up and work together on it because we are so busy. However, we were able to get the podcast done on time, and for each checkpoint, we met up early so that we could have time to revise what was being turned in.
During this project I felt like I improved a lot on my communication skills. It’s not very often that I get to do group projects, so I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, however, I think it worked out. I’m glad that we were paired with people that had similar topics, because then we were able to connect and relate to each other a lot more. Overall, I think I could improve on my time management skills. By the end of the project it was a bit of a scramble to get it done, something that I didn’t expect to happen because I ended up being a lot busier than predicted during the last week of the semester.
While writing on our planning slides and recording, we both gave each other feedback on what was working and what wasn’t working. For example, I originally wasn’t sure what the podcast was really supposed to sound like – I wanted it to sound natural and conversational, and the guidelines said there should be exchanges between both of us during the podcast. We both rehearsed our chapters and then planned out exactly where to interject and what to say, so that we wouldn’t be caught by surprise when asked a question during the recording. I think that was something that went really well, and I’m glad we figured it out.
In the future, I would have liked to make a more script-like or structured plan for the recording. I found it hard to talk about my topic without the words in front of me because I was nervous while recording, so in the future I would make something for myself to look at in order to guide the conversation along.
For this week's journal, we were assigned to find a scholarly article related to our topic, annotate it, and analyze it using SPECS. The article that I chose to read is a medical trial that took a group of traumatized refugees, some with PTSD and other conditions, and put half into music therapy and the other into therapy unrelated to music. It was then tested over the course of 16 sessions to determine how effective music therapy was compared to other forms of therapy. Here is my analysis of the article using SPECS:
S - This study was important because there had been little research done on the effectiveness of music therapy prior to this medical trial. It also specifically connected to my topic, and since the trial was performed on refugees of whom most had suffered through war, it was very relevant.
P - This could affect anyone who may need therapy or mental health treatment, because research like this are important in determining what is most effective in treating certain conditions. However, this specific trial only affected refugees in Denmark.
E - I am going to connect this to my topic by using the knowledge about the procedures of music therapy in the podcast. Prior to reading this article, I had little knowledge about what music therapy was actually like, but now I have a good understanding of it.
C - Although my topic is specifically PTSD in those who have served in war, this article was about refugees who may or may not have been through war. So, this could connect to the treatment of any mental health condition with music therapy.
S - What if the study was different? Well, if the study had been performed on specifically war veterans or dementia patients, it would have narrowed down my research a bit. However, I found this article more useful in understanding the procedures of music therapy rather than its effects on any specific group of people. I think it was important for me to read this journal in order to have a broader understanding of the topic, and then once I am closer to creating the podcast, do some more specific research based on what my partner and I agree to do with the podcast.
Maryam and I chose Music Therapy as our topic for the Radiolab midterm. We chose this because it would be the best fit for both of our topics. Here is our thought process in terms of SPECS:
So, why are we doing this topic? It's not only relevant to our topics of PTSD and Alzheimer's/Dementia, but anyone who is interested in the topic of music therapy could find it interesting. And even further, anyone who likes music or psychology could find something to connect to with this topic.
The research that both Maryam and I will perform in the weeks leading up to our podcast will dive into the logistics of music therapy treatment, and the effects it has on both PTSD and AD.
We will be using the website WeVideo to create this podcast, because I also used it to create my November SDA podcast and I am already familiar with its use. So what is our "need to know"? Our main question regards how music therapy works, and what effects it has on those who are in it. This question connects to both of our topics because war veterans (most likely with PTSD) and Alzheimer/Dementia patients are among the most common people to take advantage of music therapy.
For this week's journal, we were each assigned partners and a Radiolab podcast to listen to and analyze using SPECS. We were assigned "Touch at a Distance", which connects topics of music, language, parenting, and culture. After talking about the podcast, I met with my partner Maryam (whose theme is memory and the brain) to discuss three themes that we could possibly create our own podcast with. Here are the three we settled on:
Music Therapy, specifically with dementia patients and war veterans
The effects of music on the memory those with PTSD (war veterans) and dementia
Music composed by or about those with PTSD and dementia - for example, music that was written about a family member who has dementia, or music written by a war veteran, possibly about the war.
Now that my second SDA is done, I feel more confident. The first SDA was assigned as a one-pager, where everyone would generally format their project the same - in one page. However, now that I’ve chosen my second SDA on my own, I know what I liked about it and what could’ve gone better. For example, my “So What” definitely could’ve been clearer. Next month, I’ll definitely branch out into something more argumentative to make this easier.
I spent about a day on this assignment. Generally I don’t really struggle with being distracted when I’m focused. I had to make a plan for my project, do research, make a script for myself, record and organize the audio clips, and then add subtitles and other finishing touches to make sure everything ran smoothly. Through this process, I think I hit 3 of the Five C’s pretty well, which would be creativity, critical thinking and curiosity. For my next SDA, I’ll have to find out how to incorporate communication and collaboration.
The most important thing I learned from this project was to pick a format I know I’ll like. I struggled a bit with this assignment because I don’t like videos as much as text. This is especially because I don’t like to record my voice. However, I’m glad that I went out of my comfort zone with this one.
I think last month’s SDA was harder to make because it was hard for me to find a one pager format that I liked. I don’t enjoy drawing, and I didn’t want to leave a lot of blank space, but I felt like an essay wasn’t creative enough. It took me a while, but I was successful and I was happy with my work. This assignment was a bit easier because I had full creative freedom with what I was doing and could change part of my project if I found it didn’t fit with my plan or research.
I’m proud of the work that I spent on making this project sound and look good. I wanted to make it sound like a radio show, and I think I accomplished that well. However, the most time consuming part was the captions, because I had to type them all out myself. I struggle with understanding things like TV and podcasts without subtitles myself, so I made sure to include those in the video to make it easier and more understandable for others. One thing I need to work on was the visual aspect. I’ve never recorded something like this before, so I wasn’t sure what platform to create my SDA on. My project turned out fine in video format, but I feel like it could’ve been more engaging if I added videos or pictures to it.
Higher Order Thinking Questions helped me a bit with this project. I can see how I used these questions in my past journals to help me create ideas for my SDAs, but I don’t directly use them in the projects themselves, which can make it hard to pick out exactly what my question was. For my next SDA I will focus on creating an essential question to base my project on, and using that to create an effective “So What”.
Why are my “need to know” questions so important? It’s important to recognize the significance that music plays in society. This is especially true since the invention of the radio, since now it doesn’t just affect musicians and concertgoers, but the average person. This means that the ability to identify different political and social ideas in songs is important for everyone.
For example, because of different standards for political awareness, today’s music industry has magnified many different social issues including recent wars and human rights conflicts. The platform TikTok is a great example of how today’s news is spread through music. It allows anyone to subconsciously spread news to anyone.
The dawn of social media has completely changed the way we share music and news with each other. Hundreds of years ago, it would’ve taken months for news to travel across oceans. For example, the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 wouldn’t have happened if the Treaty of Ghent was signed and sent via Email. So, the ability for someone at any age in any part of the world to create a viral song that provokes thinking is a crucial part of society.
My new “need to know” is: How was music used as propaganda in war? This question would fall into the “Knowledge” category of the Higher Order Thinking Questions. This is because this question begins with “How” and will require research for me to be able to answer. To categorize my sub-questions on this topic:
How did developing technology affect this? This would also be considered a “knowledge” question, because it would require facts and information to answer.
Is this propaganda coming from the government or more from the people? I believe this would be a “comprehension” question, because although it will require me to gather information to answer it, it contains more understanding of how the psychology behind this form of propaganda works.
How is this still happening today? This would fall into the “knowledge” category because I would need to research more on current events. However, once the initial research is done, I can connect this information to the past and go deeper into the context of these issues.
My “need to know” question changed slightly. Although it is worded the same, my focus has widened to encompass more than just the government. While thinking about my sub-questions, I remembered a song that was written on the wall of a concentration camp during WWII, and adapted for a choir. So from now on, I’d like to look at “both sides” of wartime music. Although this might not fit the exact definition of propaganda, as it’s not misleading, I would like to keep my “need to know” flexible.
A new sub-question that will help drive my “need to know” is “How does music affect the way people think during wartime?”. This sub-question expands the meaning of my “need to know” and guides me in the direction I want to go with my November SDA.
For my SDA, I researched how music was used as a tool in three different wars, each one 100 years after the other. I wanted to include these different times because over the years new technology (including new instruments and radios) were invented. During my research, I found this particularly interesting, along with how music was used as propaganda, and I’d like to go further into the psychology behind that. So my new question is, “How was music used as propaganda in wartime?”.
A few sub-questions related to this topic - how did developing technology assist in this? Is this propaganda coming directly from the government or more from the people? How is this still happening today?
I arrived at this new “need to know” question through reading a paper for my research. It covered how the United States used music as a tool to defeat the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It made me wonder... is there a specific person in charge of this (like a government official who purposefully uses music as propaganda), or is it just something that happens when society comes together? It would be interesting to see how this is done, because I’m familiar with the way that music can affect memory and thinking, but I don’t know how directors of propaganda do their job. It would also be interesting to research how the new technology used (especially with the radio in the 20th century) affected this, because I’m sure that countries took the opportunity to spread information more widely using music and the radio. And with further advancements in technology such as social media, a great example of this still being used today is TikTok, because it is a top news source for many people. With the ability to add audio (often music) to videos, there are endless possibilities for political propaganda through music.
How was music used as propaganda in war? This question can be applied to not only wars that have occurred after the radio was invented, (WWII, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, etc…) but can it also be applied to music before? One of the more recognizable examples of propaganda in pre-radio music is John Phillip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever (composed in 1896), a popular song for military bands in the United States (DrJonesMusic). This past summer, I went on a band trip to Europe where the concert uniform was red, white, and blue, and we played Stars and Stripes Forever as an encore after each performance. Our audience loved it every time, because it’s what comes to mind when you think about the United States - a song that is the auditory embodiment of patriotism.
In 1969, the US was deep into the Vietnam War. During this year, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair took place in Bethel, New York, with over 400,000 attendees (Bethel Woods Center for the Arts). During this festival, many young music fans protested the Vietnam War, and the festival became an opportunity to spread messages of peace and anti-violence to a large audience. Many musicians performed anti-war songs. These years of the Vietnam war align with the years when rock music began to emerge, and this new genre attracted many new fans. It gave musicians across the country an opportunity to reach a wider audience of people in a more memorable way than, say, a speech delivered by radio.
I don’t know what wars were happening in the 1800s
I don’t know how the music industry is affected during wartime
I don’t know the science behind how human emotion affects music
I don’t know if/how music was used as propaganda in war
I don’t know how composers convey their emotions and demonstrate war in their music (mainly classical)
I don’t know how music affects people’s mental state during wartime - soldiers, civilians, or the composers themselves
I don’t know which classical songs were written about war
I don’t know how to analyze wartime music to be able to understand its meaning
I don’t know if there are certain subcategories and genres of this type of music
I don’t know if a majority of wartime songs are created during or after war
Now that I’ve created my list of 10 things I don’t know about my topic, I can determine that the one I find the most interesting to research further is how music was used as propaganda during war. Among the many different forms of propaganda, music is certainly prominent. I’ve seen a fair share of war documentaries, and often they will include propaganda music as a way to communicate to the viewer how societies were influenced by it. I think this topic may only be relevant from WWII on, due to the use of the radio for music not being popularized until then. However, I have to be able to prove that the use of music as propaganda had a significant impact on society, and the science behind why it works.
I think I know that the Soviet Union censored music that protested the Cold War. I’ve heard that even today with the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia has been censoring the media to make sure citizens don’t protest the war on Ukraine. I think I know that many countries censor their radios, not just to prevent information from reaching the people, but to prevent music from reaching them as well. I think I know that many people create music to protest, and that it is a good way to spread information because it is catchy and reaches all audiences.
I know I know that music is created based on experiences and emotions - and this includes war. I know I know that Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture commemorates Russia’s successful defense of France’s invasion in 1812, and that Tchaikovsky uses real cannons in the song to represent the weapons used in war (ClassicFm). I know that Dvorak’s Symphony no. 9, or New World Symphony, was written in 1893 based on Native American themes from the New World (NPR). I know I know that many bands from the 60s to the 90s wrote music about the Cold War (AiER).
When COVID hit and schools shut down when I was in 7th grade, my relationship with grades went downhill. I was a fully remote student for my entire 8th grade year, and I found it very hard to pass my classes when I was only allowed to learn through a screen. 9th grade was a challenge for me because it was a very sudden change from only learning through a computer to only learning in person.
My favorite memory from the classroom in high school is orchestra class. I have been participating in the school orchestra since 4th grade, and this will be my third year in high school. Our orchestra is like a family and I have met some of my closest friends from that class. Outside of school, I am a part of multiple other orchestras, and I always look forward to rehearsals every week, and the performances that I get to participate in. I enjoy being challenged and playing difficult music because that’s what helps you improve as an instrumentalist.
What motivates me in school is not the grades I get, but simply being able to learn. This year, I’m taking multiple AP and Honors classes, none of which I’d be taking if I wasn’t able to find motivation for myself. Part of the reason that I’ve struggled in past years with my grades is because I wasn’t in a place where I was able to take what I enjoy out of a situation and use it to my advantage. However, I’m heading into my junior year with high hopes.
This is my first year in EMC, and last year I always saw my friend working on his journals and projects, so it sparked my interest. I liked how you could study whatever you want in this class, go at your own pace for projects, and the grading system is also a plus for me. So this year I am taking this class for the first time, and hopefully I will be able to branch off of this topic for a second year of EMC.
Outside of school, I enjoy both performing music and studying history. This class gives me an opportunity to combine two things that I love the most into one topic to study for the year. I enjoy both classical and modern music, and part of what I love most about it is the ability to look further into the history and context of the song. Something that's inspired me more about taking this class is talking to teachers who can tell me more about this topic. Over the summer I've had conversations with multiple teachers about the topic I'm studying, and they've given me ideas on things I could study. I also found it interesting that two of these teachers told me that they've taken a class in college about how the Cold War affected pop culture. I mostly listen to rock music from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, which falls during the final years of the Soviet Union. I’m excited to dig further into the history of earlier music as well, such as the romantic period, from the 1830s to 1900s.
I have a very busy schedule. I am almost always at rehearsals or performances for orchestra or jazz, working after school, or studying. I have a full schedule this year, and I'm taking several AP and honors classes as well as EMC, but I plan to manage my time well and be successful this year. Any time I come across an opportunity to play music, I take it. During my free time, I enjoy hanging out with my friends, reading, and playing video games. I recently read Dead Poets Society while on a plane ride back from vacation, and I really enjoyed it.
Something that you’d be surprised to know about me is that along with music and history, I enjoy studying science. I’m always excited to go to my science class and learn new things. I enjoyed taking biology and earth science in my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and now that I’m a junior, I’m excited to take chemistry.