Abstract
The aim of this professional Doctor of Creative Industries (DCI) Research Project was to investigate music-making practice and self as a practitioner in the process of creating and producing a DIY music artefact, specifically to investigate why I as the practitioner felt an authentic connection with one form of music-making (acoustic instrument-based) and not a connection with another form of music-making (digital virtual-based). As a phenomenologist, I situated self into this auto-ethnographic study in the dual roles of researcher and practitioner, developing first-person narratives of my personal journey, critical reflection, and reflexive practice. The holistic and multidimensional nature of this research has provided rich and nuanced data, illuminating the co-constituted nature of self, interpreting meaning, and practice. In particular, the research study contextualizes contemporary DIY creative practice relative to three interdependent tenets: Music & Sound-making practice, meaning-making, and self-making, where these tenets are understood in terms of hybridity, agency, and subjectivity. The emergent cultural production artefact exemplifies a broader interpretation of Music & Sound-making practice: an authentic, subjective, auto-ethnographic Music & Soundscape.
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Notes
The original four (4) elements I determined were site, musical style, technology, and workflow. Both listening and self were added once early investigations illuminated them as potentially important inclusions.
This is evidenced by an increasing number of scholarly texts such as Bennett and Bates [6] recently published “Critical Approaches to the Production of Music & Sound” which include the terms of Music & Sound as one inclusive phrase of broad creative practice.
Unless communicated through another medium such as water
Assuming the human being is not born with a complete inability of hearing.
Some of the artists I was drawn to from a guitar instrumental point of view were Cat Stevens (1970), Neil Young (1971, 1979), and Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970) to name a few.
I pursued applied theoretical knowledge by accessing high arts-based theory books and applying the usual piano-based instructional text, to the guitar.
3-min roots-based songs
Sullivan’s visual framework outlines three (3) key features of research—structure, agency, and action [86 , p. 102]. Structure refers to a predictable component of research: It infers a systemised step-by-step process for a practitioner to realize a pre-determined outcome when followed. In contrast, agency refers to the empowerment—the degree of functionality—technical or non-technical, a practitioner possesses. Structure and agency are starkly contrasting concepts and approaches to practice. Structure is mechanical, processural, sequential; agency draws upon a practitioner’s affordance of both rational and extra-rational faculty development to be spontaneous and intuitive. Agency is developed until it becomes second nature. High levels of functional agency are sometimes referred to as routine expertise [18 , p. 45].
Accessed via family, neighbours, or friends
Re-expressing as I had previously written prose, poetry, and lyrics of some of these significant events
Three-min acoustic instrument lyric-based narratives had been central to my music-making practice over much of my life. It was a form of creative practice, which came naturally to me, affectively connecting with a particular observation or experience, affording me the opportunity to authentically voice myself.
In the absence of another term, I coined the term roots-based music-making to categorize styles other than high arts and electroacoustic. This term includes musical styles such as indigenous forms, folk, bluegrass, country, folk-rock, country-rock, country-folk, rock ‘n soul, rhythm, blues, etc.
Pen refers to high art in his text introducing musicology of European music styles [71 , p. 11].
Traditional music-making instruments include voice, chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, idiophones, keyboards, and electrophones [71, pp., 51-75].
I propose certain character traits of musicking are now adopted and incorporated into contemporary DIY Music & Sound-making practice cultural productions.
At the outset of the research study, I did not acknowledge the significance of the practitioner. The original four (4) elements I determined were site, musical style, technology, and workflow. After early investigations, the practitioner was added as a potential important element in the music-making process.
See Section 2.1 for an explanation of this term
Pen refers to high art in his text introducing European music styles [71, p. 11]. In my pending exegesis, I delve into what a high art-based approach to music-making is, relative to both roots-based and electroacoustic and sonic arts-based approaches. This examination and explanation is conducted in terms of the practice and the practitioner.
The term electroacoustic and sonic arts is based on the work of Landy [49], Holmes [43], and Young’s [96]. I chose to adopt the joint term electroacoustic and sonic art to refer to all music and sonic explorations and experiments that a practitioner engages in, which fundamentally differs to roots-based or high arts-based approaches to Music & Sound practice, across the phases of practice: the learning phase; the playing—performing—phase; the composing phase; the production phase; and the consumption phase.
That is, people talking to themselves out loud
Graham [31] discusses representation in his article, contrasting it to imitation. Graham proposes any music or sound source can be interpreted in a different way to that of the original composer’s intention, due to the consumer’s subjective interpretation. The music or sound source may therefore have a different meaning to that originally intended by the composer.
Additional to this, my many years of corporate executive expertise including extensive human resource and training knowledge did not lead me to recognize the agency I needed to develop to progress my Music & Sound-making practice.
As my doctoral journey continued, I noted the periods of my flow within creative practice sessions lengthened, the volume of creative discriminations made within a session increased relative to similar period of practice previously. I also observed a deepening of the discriminatory choices being made, which—upon reflection—had a greater alignment to the desired narrative and aesthetic of the project.
In my former music-making practice, I treated my practice as a craft, predominantly motivated with advancing my technical agency.
In support of realizing this objective, I employ a holistic three (3) dimensional phenomenological approach: practice-making, meaning-making, and self-making.
This voicing may be in vocalized form, a Music & Sound form, or in a combination of both forms.
Besides Music & Sound, other creative mediums to effectively express my voice could be writing (creative, lay, or academic), heuristics, performing (speaking—creative, lay, or academic), food, drawing, craft, sculpture, or painting.
I interpret a natural soundscape to be very literal and an electroacoustic and sonic art-based visceral soundscape to be very abstract.
This can be challenging for a practitioner given the diversity of skills required in contemporary Music & Sound-making practice and my finding of the lack of clarity in industry as to exactly what contemporary Music & Sound-making is and the levels of agency required.
One of my current performance and production setups, a Fender Stratocaster fitted with a Fishman Tripleplay MIDI controller, connected into an EastWest MIDI library represents to me a truly hybridized option of analogue, acoustic, digital, and digital virtual technologies in a combined/integrated workflow.
As a husband, son, brother, educator, mentor, coach, community member, businessman, and academic, to name a few
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The author would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and helpful suggestions.
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David L Page is a multi-disciplinarian, with a focus on learning and leadership. He has engaged in creative practice across his life as a creative writer, musician, audio engineer and producer. In his Higher Education Senior Lecturer role at SAE Institute Brisbane (SFHEA), he guides aspiring practitioners in Audio, Music Production, and cross-disciplinary Modules; and Graduate Projects. David is currently progressing his professional Doctor of Creative Industries (DCI) Research Project in Music & Sound at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Australia. He is scheduled to present his DCI exegesis and creative production in April 2020.
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Concepts
• Human-centred computing~User studies
• Applied computing~Sound and music computing
David L Page. 2019. Music & Sound-tracks of our everyday lives: Music & Sound-making, Meaning-making, Self-making. In Proceedings of ACM Audio Mostly conference (AM'19), ACM, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1145/3356590.3356613 (42% of this paper was previously published by ACM in Proceedings of ACM Audio Mostly conference (AM'19), ACM, Nottingham, United Kingdom, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1145/3356590.3356613)
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Page, D.L. Music & Soundscapes of our everyday lives: Music & Sound-making, meaning-making, and self-making. Pers Ubiquit Comput 25, 705–721 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01403-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01403-5