Not What You Would Expect - #2

September 6, 2021

This week, we got to work on our first research assessment. When I first heard the word "assessment," I thought of the typical, boring English class essays where we do not get the choice of what we want to learn about. However, I quickly remembered that ISM assignments are never what I would normally expect. We got to choose (choose!) our own topics on anything (anything!) we want to learn about our career paths and "assess" what we understood and gained from it. At first, I struggled to find the "perfect" article without really having an idea of what I want to find. So I decided to start broad. Because one of the main topics about music production that I wanted to learn about revolved around different music softwares and the technical aspect, that was where I began my journey. My article, "Software-Based Scoring and Sound Design," did come off as a pretty long article at first, but when I started reading it, I completely forgot about the length due to how interesting the information was. I learned about the different functions of digital audio workstations as well as their advantages and disadvantages, and how accessible music production has become nowadays due to the advancement of technology. A question crossed my mind as I read, "how different would music production look like without technology?" and I thought that this was another topic that I could look into on my next assessment. I think starting with a broad topic was a really good idea since it gave me a better grasp of having a career in the music industry, and what I should be expecting as an amateur just starting out. Speaking of careers, we also got to come up with our first set of interview questions. I feel like this assignment made me dive deeper into my own thoughts than the research assessment since I had to really think about what I personally want to learn from professionals in the career field that I am interested in. I also started out broad with this assignment as well. I came up with all the "basic" questions about being a music producer such as their daily routines and what got them interested in the career. The more challenging part was the career-specific questions. I researched a few topics regarding production that I have been curious about for some time. These included the different questions about music softwares and production techniques. As I arranged the 15 questions, I got a sudden moment of realization like I was really doing this to prepare myself for a potential future job. It got me to think more seriously about my future, but it also filled me with unexplainable hope and anticipation at the same time. I hope to learn more about the details this week to start narrowing down to specific subjects that I am interested in since this week was more of a broad outlook type of week. I also want to work harder on becoming my own best friend and supporting my decisions to stop being negative about myself, as I have talked about with Coach Goff. As I continue my ISM journey, I cannot help but feel so grateful for this opportunity. Researching about a career that I want to go in during school hours is not a common thing, yet, that is exactly what I am doing. I am so excited for what will be waiting for me this week, and I hope that I have come closer, even by a tiny step, to a successful future by the time I write my next blog.