Applied Music Cognition: Creative Writing (2/2)

I need a what?

If there is one thing I can say about the BIS program, at least they are consistent in keeping the process ambiguous. I received my time ticket to sign up for classes in the Fall semester (2010). My first thought is that I need to sign up for the next course in order to advance in the BIS program, so I can graduate on time in the spring. However, I quickly found out that the class was restricted and a student needs authorization to sign up.

The next logical thought was to call the BIS office to find out why, as a student in the program, was I not able to sign up for the next class in the procession. 

"Did you find a mentor, write a rationale, and sign an educational contract?"

"Uh, no, what?"

A brief explanation followed by, "You can find the forms on our website or come into the office and get them."

"Okay, thank you."

I sort of panicked and then became angry because I did not remember a discussion about a 500-word rationale, or an educational contract from the BIS introductory course. I was sure that if this significant part of the advancement process was discussed I would have had the required paperwork prepared way ahead of time. Blame it on my military background, blame it on the fact that I don't have time for procrastination because I have a 4-year-old at home and another baby on the way, but I am a very intense student, usually one step ahead. So, this threw me for a loop - or however the saying goes. Needless to say I got it done with the quickness, but due to the complicated process not in time to sign up for the Fall BIS 390 course, which pushed my graduation date back one semester. Now, I will graduate in the summer.

The rationale is a 500-word document explaining the research I've done for my concentration so far, to include courses taken, the purpose of my concentration, and how it will serve me in the future. That was difficult to write, but the frustrating part of the process was getting my educational contract approved. It required me to name my concentration, list core courses that will complete my degree and any alternatives. These courses, like any traditional degree, had to make sense in serving the purpose of my overall degree, to include the actual name of the degree. This required intense research into the specific course descriptions, often times requiring me to email professors to get a more detailed description, and a complete re-evaluation of my credits so far.

This process required more patience and determination than a student enrolled in any traditional program. Trust me, I was a student enrolled in a traditional program just before this. I went back and forth in my mind, in discussions with others, and on paper more than a few times, trying to decide if this was the right path for me. 

I finally decided it was, and the BIS director, my mentor, and I finally agreed upon a concentration title and a list of core and alternative courses. But, the complications continue thanks to budget cuts and class cancellations. No biggie though. Now that I've learned this part of the process like the back of my hand, I've already filled out an amendment form to adjust my list of courses, and I'm still on track to graduate in the summer.

Applied Music Cognition: Creative Writing (1/2)

I feel that I might be giving the impression that my concentration was selected by blindly throwing a dart at a rotating wheel with random concentrations written on it. Not the case. My BIS concentration took time. It wasn’t a random selection. It was a plan developed over the course of a year through self-reflection and research that considered the purpose and future course of the degree.

As I mentioned in a previous posting, the BIS 300 course was focused on reading and writing about the practice of Interdisciplinary Study. In conjunction with reflecting on the meaning of Interdisciplinary Study, we were to use the readings and assignments as a means of self-reflection to help us develop our concentration.

How did I do this? In four (complicated) steps, broken down into two-parts.

PART 1

A) The Research Process: In the BIS 300 course, amongst other things, we were asked to design a Venn Diagram to coordinate and support our interests. My Venn Diagram consisted of “Music” and “Creative Writing” and “Psychology.” After much self-reflection and encouragement from my professor and classmates, I chose to focus my energy on how the psychological affect of music can enhance the elements of creative writing. The Venn Diagram helped me to decide how these disciplines intersected in support of each other.

 B) The Proposed Concentration: Otherwise known in Mason's BIS world as "The Salmon Sheets." These sheets provide the BIS program director a solid outline of your intended interdisciplinary concentration and the courses that will support this journey. Page 1 outlines the rules and regulations and lists alternative courses. Page 2 outlines the primary disciplines and courses that support the concentration and alternative disciplines that might be used in further support. The Salmon Sheets are a result of researching courses offered at Mason (and abroad) in order to let me know if I am going to be able to make this work.

At stages A & B,  I have not declared a concentration, nor has my degree concentration been approved - these are the thinking process and development stages. The Venn Diagram and Salmon Sheets are supporting documents that lead to more self-reflection. It's not until a BIS student fills out their "Educational Contract" and writes a rationale explaining the purpose of their proposed concentration that the process of solidifying the concentration truly begins.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week. 

Musical Memories

Thank God for the confines of a car! Although when I’m stopped at a red light, I wonder if the people in cars next to me overhear some of the corky music I listen to. I know nowadays people listen to CDs, music burned from iTunes, Satellite radio, and all that personalized stuff, but most times I still prefer to flip through the radio stations. I like to catch the local buzz, or stay hip to current music, or find some random blue grass station, like the one I found last week on FM 105.5. (The clarity of the station is inconsistent, but it’s pretty good listening when it comes in.)

What I really like about flipping through the radio stations is coming across a song that takes me back to a memory, instantaneously. I love these spontaneous moments. For instance, last week Randy Travis’s song, “Forever and Ever, Amen” came over the radio, and I was immediately taken back to a memory of my maternal grandfather.
 
I never knew the reason, but when I was younger (9, 10, or 11) my mom never had a car. So, her father would come to pick us up around 4 a.m., take her to work in Philly, drive me back to his house, and I would walk to school around 7:30ish. But, that’s not the memory.

The memory is that he had Randy Travis’s cassette tape in the player and that’s what we listened to every morning. The songs back then seemed shorter, so we usually heard the tape in its entirety - from our house, to mom’s work, and then to my grandparent’s house. “Forever and Ever, Amen” was his favorite song on the track. In those early morning hours, he loved to turn it up and sing it out loud. In moments when I hear this song, I can smell my grandpop’s Mountain Air scented shaving cream. I can remember resting my head on the soft texture of his burgundy backseat, watching flashes of green, yellow, and red light up the inside of the car as we passed many intersections. I remember that when the sun began to rise and the stoplights no longer lit up the inside of the car, it meant we were close to my grandpop's house.

I have a song linked to a memory of almost everyone I know. “Forever and Ever, Amen” is my grandpop’s.

My BIS degree concentration that was approved last week is: “Applied Music Cognition: Creative Writing." The memory above pretty much sets the stage in understanding the details of the degree. Basically, I’m using theories from the field of Music Cognition (perception, cognition, and memory) and applying them to the practice of Creative Writing.

My Introduction to BIS

Great news! As of Friday, my degree was officially approved by the Director of the BIS program, and in two weeks it will be registered as an official degree of GMU. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. It occurs to me that I have not fully defined the BIS degree program beyond labeling it as an "opportunity." Let me clear that up by offering a less abstract definition and explain it according to the way I am experiencing it.

BIS is a Bachelor’s of Individualized Study. The first stage in the process of the program is taking the BIS 300 introductory course. (There is a sequence of four required BIS courses.) This is the idea of exploring theoretical and practical approaches of combining individualized disciplines in order to design a specialized concentration. In other words, our goal is to combine at least two disciplines in order to study in the field of something that is not offered at Mason.

The first day of class there was an emphasis on the course schedule, to include readings, papers, and something nicknamed the “Salmon Sheet.” The blank faces of my classmates reassured me that I wasn’t the only one who wondered what the hell I had signed up for.

There were readings and class discussions about practical intelligence, developing writers, reflective practices, non-traditional higher education, and, of course, interdisciplinary studies. There were argumentative, reflective, and response papers assigned, designed to foster our minds toward thinking and defining our interdisciplinary concentration – whatever that meant.

There were many conversations amongst classmates concerning our shared confusion, frustration, and uncertainty about what was expected of us. Most everyone had an idea of the disciplines they wanted to combine, but we were told that we had to have a “question.” The infamous question swamped our minds. Through many conversations with each other, we concluded that it meant our specialized concentration had to be based on an ambiguous, phenomenon-like problem that can only be answered from an interdisciplinary point-of-view.

The closest we ever came to confirming that this was the intention of the degree, was towards the end of the BIS 300 course. One of our assignments was to design a Venn diagram, which are three overlapping circles containing different information, yet share some values. None of the interdisciplinary-based readings or assignments opened my eyes like the Venn assignment. This was the "a-ha" moment for me and the majority of my classmates. Now we're getting somewhere, but we had less than 4 weeks to get there.

Though we all felt more comfortable after the Venn diagram, our final presentations were still a bit shaky. All in all, the BIS 300 course was a rocky start to understanding the path we chose and what was expected of us. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I pushed on. The money and time were already spent.

The Road Less Traveled

During the 80's, my brother and I were shoved off to our grandparent's house practically every Friday night. Our parents had a lively social life. I can't remember if my grandparent’s made anything special for dinner or if we played boardgames, but I do remember Saturday mornings. While my grandpop went to fiddling with something in the garage and my grandmom went to work in her hairdressing shop in the basement, my brother and I had our eyes and ears glued to the television to follow the weekly saga of WWF. (That's the World Wide Wrestling Federation for those of you who were wearing diapers in the 80’s.) Each week we held our breath as Vince McMahon announced his newest recruit or his latest impulse decision to fire a star wrestler. Whatever the announcement, the crowd roared.

It had been years since I thought about that weekly tradition until I watched the movie The Wrestler in 2009. The music and storyline of the film brought back a nostalgic rush of emotions and memories from those mornings with my brother and WWF. The storyline made me wonder if this is what became of my Saturday morning heroes, and the theme song, by Bruce Springsteen, had a great emotional affect because I grew up in the Philly tri-state area listening to the music of the Jersey native.

Why does any of this matter?

I had always pronounced English as my major because it was required that I declare one and, well, I liked writing and reading the most. Then I transferred to George Mason University.

At GMU, I was presented with an alternative to the traditional English degree. I declared “Individualized Study (BIS)” as my new major before realizing the full opportunity the degree offered. The words I heard from the advisor were "no foreign language requirement" and "complete degree faster" - I was sold.

“What’s that?” is the response I get from people who ask me what I’m studying. For a while, I didn’t know how to answer that question, which resulted in polite nods or confused, uninterested expressions. Four semesters later, I have finally narrowed the definition to one word – “opportunity.”

Now my answer to the question is that the BIS degree has allowed me the opportunity to follow my passions, fulfill my dreams, and realize that I have the potential to make a lasting, positive difference in society. Okay, maybe I don’t say those exact words in fear of sounding pretentious, but that’s what I believe. This degree has electrified, excited, and energized a belief in me that I’m not receiving a degree, but instead I am claiming one.

All of this is why my introductory story matters. A few months after watching The Wrestler, my grandmom passed. In a nostalgic moment united by the music and storyline of the movie and my grandmom’s passing, I was inspired to write a eulogy in her honor. The focus of my degree is the study of how music-induced emotions affect the elements of creative writing. My goal is to help others use the influence of music as an inspiration to communicate their life stories.