Midterm

Midterm Analysis & Ear-training
Step 1

Step 3
A.  How confident are you in the predicted outcome of the written analysis?  20%, 40%, 60%, 80% or 100%

For the written analysis, my predictions for my outcome are anywhere from a 70% to 80%. I was very confident going into the assessment, but after I worked on it a bit, I immediately lost my confidence in the things I was doing and proceeded to not believe I did as well.
B.  How confident are you in the predicted outcome of the ear-training?  20%, 40%, 60%, 80% or 100%

Along with the written analysis, I think I got anywhere from a 70% to a 80% on the ear-training. As for the dictation, I think I got from a 90% to 100%. I was very confident in how quickly I discovered the dictation part and put down the answers. The ear-training made me feel very nervous, so I was not as confident in my scores.
C.  On a scale from 1-10, about how much effort/time did you put into preparing for this exam?

I think on a scale of 1-10, I did a solid 4/10 or 5/10 for preparing for the exam. I didn't study the parts that I knew very well, but I did review over the parts that I did struggle with during the course. I made sure that I would know a bit about the parts I was still confused about so that when I saw it on the midterm, it was relatively fresh in my brain still. I did not 100% prepare, but I was not unprepared either.
D.  What part(s) did you find most challenging?  Easiest?

Surprisingly, the dictation was the easiest part of the entire exam. It was a tie between the ear-training and written analysis for being the most challenging. I got the dictation down relatively quickly, but I had to spend a lot of time on the written analysis and ear-training in order to feel confident with the answers I put down.

Midterm Reflection
Step 1
A.  Comment on your achievements thus far

I have already made a significant deal of progress on my first goal, which is to be able to understand music and have a better understanding of it. This course has already provided me with information that I did not already know beforehand. My second goal is to have the concepts I learn show improvement in my musical abilities, and I feel as though this may be partially true already. I feel as though I have a stronger sense when it comes to sight-reading music, but it is hard to tell. Lastly, my third and final goal is to use the skills to improve my enjoyment of music in my free time. And in a way, this has come into play as well. I feel as though I enjoy looking at music and thinking about how all the parts tie in together when we play pieces in band/orchestra or other groups. Overall I believe I have already achieved a great deal and it will only continue from there.
B.  Are you making good progress toward your goal?

I am making great progress towards the first goal I set. I am able to identify different qualities of things such as chords, and determine the cadences at the ends of pieces. I can definitely see an increase in my ability to analyze music and its concepts. As for the second and third goals I set, I will see a definite improvement once I officially finish the class. I can see some progress towards my third goal, as I am enjoying music that we are playing a lot more because of this. It is difficult to see an improvement in my musical abilities, but it will certainly come through at some point if I truly sit down and analyze it.
C.  Have you been able to stretch yourself to learn more or do you find that you rely only on what you already knew prior to the course?

During the first few units I was mostly relying on prior knowledge to get through most of the work. But as the units progressed, I had to start learning new things in order to get through the course. But, this is a given since I have been doing things involving for music roughly 4 years prior to taking this course. The beginning was a lot of intro-to-music concepts, whereas the later units are things that most beginner musicians will not learn (or musicians that aren't in an as advanced band).
D.  What has been the greatest benefit/most rewarding aspect of your learning experience this semester?

I think the greatest benefit of this learning experience so far has been being able to identify intervals, chords, and cadences. I feel like having this knowledge is very useful, especially in writing music. If I ever decide to compose a piece, I have the knowledge I've learned in this course in order to make a very organized and well-thought-out piece.
E.  What might interfere with your progress and how can you prevent this interference?

As stated later on, major interferences will be my phone or my inability to quickly learn and understand concepts. I also believe I will struggle to apply this to music I enjoy in my free time. It may be nice to have these skills so that I can possibly learn songs by ear instead of intensively searching for sheet music, but I cannot think of any other ideas. My current progress and lack of interferences is relatively good at the moment, and hopefully I can just improve it and do even better as time goes on.

Step 2
A.  Comment on the outcome of these self assessments as it relates to the quality of your work flow thus far

These self assessments make me really look into what I am doing and how I can improve myself. I've made my Jimdo a lot cleaner because of these assessments. Some of my work seems to come out quicker than I expect it and I have a much cleaner organization for my Units before I start them. This also makes me look back on what I've done and how I can alter my learning process for the better. I feel like looking at how you are performing makes you want to improve yourself, and in turn improves the quality of your work.
B.   What has been your greatest strength?

My greatest strength is that once I get an understanding of a concept, I can run with it. My weakness is that it takes me a very long time to take multiple concepts and connect them to cause my understanding to occur quicker. Most concepts I take a decent amount of time to understand, but once I fully understand it I can take it and apply it to whatever is given to me. Even so, connecting concepts to make my understand advance at a faster rate.
C.   How can you compensate for weaknesses?

To compensate for my weakness of understanding concepts at a decent speed, I should try to study them more and look into more resources. Before Unit 5, I hadn't looked into the other resources and relied majorly on either Alfred, looking at the worksheets, or asking Neil. Even though asking Neil helped me majorly, I still wouldn't understand sometimes. I definitely believe if I put more research into the concepts we're studying, I should cover for that weakness.
D.   In what ways might you modify your approach to the class during the second part of the semester?

During the second part of the semester, I believe I will look into the links that are provided in order to get a grasp on the concepts we're learning. Once I started to do that, I immediately started to understand everything a lot better. I will spend more time studying in order to gather an understanding, and then proceed to ask questions if I am still lost.

Step 3
A.  Comment on your achievements thus far (1,3,5) relating to your literacy confidence for each concept

Looking at the literacy confidence in Unit 1 versus now, I believe it has significantly gone up. I think most every category could go up by 1 or maybe even 2 points. I think my Ear Training, Chords, and Dictation are very weak still, but one of the major differences is my understanding of intervals. I started with a 2/5, but now I am definitely feeling like I am at a solid 4/5 or 5/5.

B.  Are you making good progress toward your goal?

I like to believe that I am making nice progress towards my goal. My understanding of music and different concepts surrounding it have gotten much better throughout the semester. At the beginning I just strengthened the things I already knew, then took those ideas and applied them to new concepts. If I wasn't making progress towards my goal, it would be the equivalent of not completing the work for this class at all. Since I am eventually completing the work and developing a comprehension of the concepts that are presented, I am making good progress towards my goal.
C.  Describe the resources/tools that are most helpful to your understanding of this subject

The most helpful resources have definitely been MusicTheory.net, Alfred, and going to either Julie or Neil for questions about the material. As later units came along, having the extra resources was even more useful, but I believe those 3 main resources were specially useful. They truly helped me get a better understanding of the material that I was trying to learn at that time.
D.  What might interfere with your progress and how can you prevent this interference?

The main interference I may experience is any sort of distraction through my phone or falling behind in other courses. I eventually end up taking up a lot of time in this class trying to prepare for other classes or responding to things from my phone. I feel like I will eventually shut myself out from my phone and ignore my other classes so that I may stay focused on the material I should be learning during this course. Another interference is my tendency to overthink concepts instead of taking what I already know and applying it. Part of this course is doing that and I significantly struggle to do so. If I just take a step back and look at everything instead of jumping straight into it, I think I can overcome this interference.

Step 5
A.  Comment on the quality of work reflected in your ePortfolio relating to areas of strengths as well as areas of needed improvement

The quality and presentation of my work feels very bland yet very organized. My strengths are in the organization of it all, but I need to improve the overall results of the work I do. I believe I can significantly improve the notes I take and maybe reorganize my ePortfolio so it doesn't appear as bland as it currently is. Everything else in my ePortfolio seems to be quite alright, and I believe I may not even need to make significant changes to improve anything.
B.  Will you continue to sculpt the work refelcted in your ePortfolio as you did for the first half of the course or do you plan on making changes for the second part of the semester?

I will continue to sculpt the work I did this part of the semester the same as I did in the previous half of the semester. The main change I will make will be the amount of notes I take. As the course moves on it will definitely become much more difficult, and with that I will definitely need to add more notes in order to understand the concepts better. I currently really enjoy the setup of my ePortfolio, so I do not plan on making to any changes at all.

Step 6
Feedback, Suggestions, Etc.

I don't believe I have much to say as for suggestions to make this course better. Everything in this course is set up in a way that makes it so that you can take the concepts you learn in one unit and apply it to the next one. I really enjoy the course so far and I am very happy I am taking it. This course has definitely given me a new perspective of music and all of its components.