Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Musical expression is not a black and white concept. The ability to express oneself through music and practicing specifically is a benefit only musicians can truly appreciate. But every musician practices, so what determines the unique ability to learn? This is the question that made me interested in why practicing…
Musical expression is not a black and white concept. The ability to express oneself through music and practicing specifically is a benefit only musicians can truly appreciate. But every musician practices, so what determines the unique ability to learn? This is the question that made me interested in why practicing is so important specifically for classical music when learning a piece. For this creative project, I decided to learn and perform the Hindemith Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 4 in C Major while keeping tabs on practice times, habits, and insights. These were all recorded in physical practice logs, which built a reflective practice journal. This reflection allowed me to gain insight on how writing down one’s thoughts influences the understanding of a piece. In addition to practice logs, I researched the origins and developments of the sonata genre and compared the Hindemith sonata to three well-known sonatas by Beethoven, Brahms, and Bartok. This information allowed me to analyze the Hindemith in greater detail and describe my thoughts as I learned and eventually performed the piece. As I practiced, I noticed that reflecting on the practice logs was beginning to help me memorize the piece faster and understand the feelings I wished to transfer to the audience. The logs allowed me to remember specific sections of the piece more easily, and writing about a certain sections after comparing them to sections found in traditional sonatas shed light on some of the tonal decisions made by Hindemith. This paper will inform the reader on the benefits of keeping a reflective practice journal when learning a piece of music as well as the benefits of researching a piece and its relationship to established works in that genre.
