Jamiah Harrison

MUED 376: Choral Music, Materials & Techniques (M​2​ & T) 
A. 1a. WORKSHEET: Madsen- Research-A Personal Perspective 
What  are  the  influences  of  family  or  lack  of  family  participation  in  our  music  programs?  When  do  children  begin  to  come  to know 
music,  and  when  do  they start to make meaningful connections between music and their separate experiences? What are the changing 
social  and  familial  contingencies  that  make  a  child  want  to  participate  or  not  participate  in  our  music  programs or to change their 
participation?  When  is  the  best  time  to  start  various  music  activities?  When  and  how  do  we  get  every  child  involved  in  music  and, 
much  more  important,  how  do  we  ensure  keeping  each  child  with us? How might we best use technology to capture and hold student 
interest  and  to  teach  students?  How  do  we  get  them  through  the  difficult  years? Is it appropriate for fast fingering and loud notes to 
prevail,  if  but for a short time? What are the relationships between a child's needs at different times? Why do children accept or reject 
"our"  music  as opposed to theirs? How do we equip them so that as adults they have their own personal relationship with music and a 
firmly developed desire for lifelong involvement? 

“Developing a research perspective starts from our own experience.” C. Madsen

1. Early Childhood Experiences: What were some of your pivotal early childhood
music experiences and what research questions stem from them?

- One of my most pivotal early childhood music experiences was performing with my
Uncle Ray at all of the family parties. I would wait for people to listen to me and my
uncle would help me out by either singing with me or set up a microphone. According to
research, my early experiences coincide with all relevant aspects of music. With that
being said, how do these experiences influence my life with music today?

2. Elementary School Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
early elementary school experiences in music?

- From the article, Madsen tells a story about his music teacher listening to students sing.
When it was his turn she had a big smile on her face, however, when it was his friends
turn the teacher frowned.Because the teacher frowned how will the student recover from
the teachers' reaction?
- The second situation was that he couldn’t afford the cornet. How can we draw up
elementary school programs that allow students to play the instruments they want,
without feeling bad because they can't afford them?
- Madsen said that from his experience, piano and band had nothing to do with each other.
However, I thought this was quite the opposite. If piano lessons and band class or any
music class for that matter is something that we use as educators to help our students to
further their studies, how can we make them coexist so that students can see it all comes
full circle?

3. Middle School Experiences: What were some of your pivotal middle school
music experiences and what research questions stem from them?
- I had an amazing Middle School Teacher and she is one of the reasons why I want to be a
music educator. I remember in our 6th grade trip to Hershey Park, She gave me the solo
for one of our Festival in the Parks competition. I remember all the 8th graders said:
“well she only gave her the solo because she's 6th grade.” Once they heard me sing they
understood and apologized. I told her what happened and she just smiled and said: “I trust
you Jamiah and you are a talented and amazing person.” I will never forget the whole
experience. A question that stems from my experience is how is a teacher so willing and
able to take risks with a student against what others think to then later benefit the class?
4. High School Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
high school experiences in music?

- How can we maintain interest in students after we have had them from long periods of
time?
- How can teachers facilitate programs that will help students adjust to keeping up with
their studies as well as extracurricular activities that are important to them?

5. Undergraduate Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
your undergraduate music experiences?
- Lately, I have had this discussion of what I think should be required for a music
education major. A performance major has like perform 6-8 songs a semester or perform
for others in area recital. A music education major has to do the same. As I stay constant
in my studies, I do not see how this will benefit me in the long run after I graduate. I
understand I am learning vocal technique and health, however, I think that it should be
limited to some extent. What benefits do performing for people in this style have to do
with my future students? I will say I enjoy the music education aspect of life and learning
how to educate, however, when it came to the constant singing of classical art songs it
made me feel like being a music major was trying. I almost felt like giving up. With that
being said, How do we as Music education majors find a balance by always doing music
and still loving it?

6. Music Job Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem jobs you
may have already had in music?
- I haven’t had a real music job experience besides working at the school of music office as
an administrative assistant. So because I have some experiences on how to take care of
the logistics in music planning, I want to know how teachers balance logistics of music
planning, their classrooms and their own life all at once?

7. Pre-teaching Experiences: What research questions do you have that stem from
pre-teaching experiences (camps, practica, etc.) in music?
- My only question from Pre-teaching experiences is how to get your students to listen
knowing that they might not respect and or like you? I want to be able to make a safe
academic environment and I felt that in some of my practicums for music students didn’t
respect the teacher or facilitator but somehow they were still able to get what they needed
from the student with the right authority.