Assignments

Assignment 1

The goal of the first assignment is to get you started thinking and writing about music and movement:

1. Watch the video: Flash Mob - Ode an die Freude
2. Write 1 A4-page about your impressions of the video. What do you see? What do you hear?
3. Submit a PDF of your document in Fronter. Deadline: 1 September 09:00
4. Prepare to talk about the video in class

Assignment 2

The goal of the second assignment is to structure your qualitative, observation-based analysis:

1. Watch the video of Rachelle Ferrel's solo (02:18-04:40) on Autumn Leaves with The Manhattan Project.
2. Use the visualization sheet handed out in class. It is also available as a PDF and, if you prefer, as a spreadsheet. (Explanations of the different parts of the visualization: motiongrams, and waveforms)
3. Mark the "events" that you find most interesting on the sheet, and explain why you found them interesting. You may add this to the sheet or write a separate document.
4. Explain and discuss whether your "events" are based on (1) sound-producing, (2) sound-facilitating, (3) sound-accompanying, (4) communicative movements. Refer to Music Moves or chapter 2 in God?y and Leman (2010) if you are unsure about the categories.
5. Submit on Fronter before next class. Deadline: 15 September 09:00.

Assignment 3

The goal of this assignment is to work with motion capture data and some basic quantitative analysis:

1. Find the data from the standstill recordings in this Google Spreadsheet (alternatively this Excel file). You can work in Google Sheet or download and open the data in Excel or LibreOffice (or some other spreadsheet)
2. Try to understand what the data means: the XY represent the horizontal dimensions, while Z is the height. All data are in millimetres. The time is in milliseconds.
3. Take a look at the descriptive statistics at the end of the document. What can you conclude from these statistics
4. Try to plot your own data. What do you see?
5. Write a short report with your findings and discussion, and upload in Fronter. Deadline: 13 October 09:00.

Assignment 4

The goal of this assignment is to get you started with the semester project. Write a short project proposal with the following elements:

1. Research question(s)
2. Theoretical starting point
3. What type of methodological approach you want to use (observation, video analysis, motion capture, etc.)
4. Submit in Fronter. Deadline: 20 October 09:00.