Scholarly Research in Music

Shared and Disciplinary-Specific Practices

Sang-Hie Lee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000545333
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Scholarly Research in Music: Shared and Disciplinary-Specific Practices, Second Edition offers a comprehensive and detailed guide to engaging in research in all disciplines of music. This second edition continues to provide the foundational principles of research for all musicians, including performers, theorists, composers, conductors, music educators, and musicologists. It strengthens the core pedagogical framework of the first edition by offering updated guidance on available technologies, methodologies, and materials.

Driven by the rapidly shifting research paradigms within music, sixteen contributors expand the already broad scope of the book, with new chapters on research in today's library, neurophenomenology in music, and self-efficacy in music performance, as well as new sections in chapters on philosophy, historical research, social science research, and statistics. Introducing research as a friendly and accessible process, the book engages students in brainstorming a topic, asking pertinent questions, systematically collecting relevant information, analyzing and synthesizing the information, and designing a cohesive research plan to conduct original research. Detailing the methodologies and techniques of both conventional and innovative approaches to music research, Scholarly Research in Music provides an essential grounding for all kinds of music researchers.

PART ICommon Bases in Music Research

1An Overview

Sang-Hie Lee

DOI: 10.4324/9781003153924-2

What Is Research?

Research is a process as well as a product. The process begins with an idea of inquiry. What am I burning to know? What am I interested in finding out? What is meaningful to me and relevant to my musical life? What am I passionate about? What is my topic? These questions lead the brainstorming process to identify a topic. Parallel to this process, library searches and initial readings will help sift through many thoughts and sort out the literature. A hierarchy of sub-topics may emerge. The process shifts gears when the topic develops into a viable research question. A well-developed question and a set of sub-questions can define the research process. The question can lead to an appropriate research design and a cohesive set of goals; the resultant outcomes may constitute a new theory, perspective, knowledge, paradigm, methodology, or insight and could introduce new policy or curricular change. Thus, good research starts from the introspective impetus of an inquiry and ends with a product that adds to the body of existing knowledge and practical guidance.

Good research's essential qualities and values are accuracy, authenticity, simplicity, and clarity (Boyle, Fiese, and Zavac, 2004). In addition, originality and communication are emphasized, “when a student undertakes an advanced academic degree, the student assumes and accepts the responsibility to contribute to a body of knowledge, i.e., to develop, examine, test, and submit his or her ideas to a community of scholars … Scholarly discourse requires that very precise expressions be communicated with great clarity” (p. 6).

In reality, research is what musicians do already when they select, organize, learn, interpret, and perform music. Scholarly research strengthens this process through the rational and systematic process that leads to a concrete and substantiated conclusion. Herbert (2009) describes why musicians do scholarly research, “… if musical knowledge is to be purposeful and invigorating, it must be refreshed by new ideas, which derive from a constant discourse about music. At the highest levels, this discourse takes the form of scholarly debates and publications” (p. 4).

The Individual as the Basis of Research Focus

Therefore, one who integrates his own individual being with the deep nature of the universe, sets his heart upon the root of reality rather than the husk, and upon the nourishment of the fruit rather than the fleeting beauty of the flowers. Truly, he cherishes what is deep within rather than what is shallow without. Knowing this, he knows what to accept and what to reject.

(Lao Tzu @2697 B.C.E. cited in Hua-Ching Ni, 2003, p. 54)

The premise of this book is that the basis of the research is about the individual researcher, that the research can strengthen (or alter) his or her interests and beliefs, and that research can provide tools to guide his or her professional trajectory. Today's students' musical experiences are at once more universal, more diverse, broader, and richer. While Western music provides the constancy and the foundation, the global music scene with instant multi-media transmission promises infinite possibilities. We hope to foster the thinking process of our community both inside and outside the box, provide tools to conduct research within the boundaries, and open doors to the boundless multi-facets that shape today's musical landscape.

Research as Collaboration, Competition, and Leadership

Research by nature facilitates global collaboration. The theoretical framework is developed from the comprehensive body of knowledge existing in the literature, which in turn admits the novice researcher into the global continuum of scholarship. Competition is the other side of collaboration as we strive to excel within the collegial body of scholars who share common interests in a field. In this competitive/collaborative environment, leadership takes the rotating model. A dedicated cyclist once told me about the competition/collaboration model in the cycling world. In a cycling race, the small group of cyclists who had reached the head of the pack lines up behind the emergent leader and creates an aero-dynamic field to assist him to “break away.” As an unspoken rule, this happens to whoever gets ready to take off from the “pack.” This sport behavior validates the phenomenon of rigor in competition, collaboration, and leadership. Research is not different; researchers compete, collaborate, and excel reaching the top while raising the whole.

Objectives and Incipient Learnings

Doing research has direct educational objectives and, more importantly, broader incipient learnings that benefit the maturing musician.

The Objectives of a Research Course

• Understanding the rationale and purpose of research
• Knowing various research agendas, concepts, and techniques involved in research with both quantitative and qualitative methods
• Learning how to use virtual library systems to conduct a focused literature search
• Analyzing published research papers by identifying the problem, critically assessing the appropriateness of the methods and design, and relating the material to one's focused research
• Developing a formal research proposal with a theoretical framework, detailed research design, and projected outcomes
• Conducting research that produces a new knowledge
• Writing and disseminating a research report in an article or a book
• Contributing a new perspective and a product to the existing body of knowledge
• Expanding one's own horizon

Life-long Incipient Learnings through Research Experience

• Rational thinking
• Open and fair-mindedness
• Organizing thoughts and materials
• Analyzing ideas, readings, and data
• Discerning validity of information
• Discerning reliability of the information
• Valuing subjective ideas of one's own and of others
• Knowing how to separate subjective opinions from objective observations
• Learning to separate emotions and reasoning
• Collaboration and leadership skills
• Increased self-efficacy
• Cultivating professionalism

Process

Concept, Topic, Question(s), Methods

Research starts with curiosity, a concept, topic, and question(s). Key concepts provide meaning to the topic. Some key concepts come from one's idea, but other issues and contexts emerge from the literature. Even after the research is completed, new questions arise, thus making the research process continuous and cyclical.

The same research topic can be examined through different methods depending on how the question is framed. For example, suppose a band director is developing and testing a new method to teach beginning brass techniques for the 6th-grade band. The director could test the new method by teaching a large band class and compare the results with another large class that had used the old method. The same research can be conducted in a small-sample study. In the former study with two large groups, the researcher would compare the results of two groups using a statistical method. In the latter research with a small sample, the researcher would establish rigor by recording detailed musical progress and physiological, psychological, and environmental factors contributing to the change in the musical outcome. In both cases, the researcher must pay close attention to the validity of the teaching method and reliability of measurement.

Focusing the Topic

As a musician, the aspiring researcher may already have a topic or two that raise curiosity. Such hunch or curiosity allows an opportunity to explore and learn as much as possible in the area of interest, adding to his whole music-learning process. While the topic idea swirls in one's head, the new researcher should jot down all thoughts, look up keywords through the library search engine, bring them to class, and share them with the class and a small study group. As vague and chaotic as it may seem at first, all forms of inquiry help sift through many thoughts. The focusing process will eventually become clear.

The topic may seem broad and vague or narrow and esoteric, but none can be too sublime or too mundane. If the chosen topic is important, stay with the ...