Stuart, Emily, & Tony Journal #10 (Fieldwork Update)

We collected data from our undergraduate and graduate sample population this week and we found that our hypothesis, a positive expectance from those still in school, was supported by our findings. We had no problems acquiring information from our sample population of undergraduates and graduates. We were unsure of what to expect in regards to findings for our graduate/professional sample population but we discovered a trend similar to the one displayed in the numbers collected from our undergrads. We were surprised that all of our graduate respondents displayed positive opinions on their degree’s effectiveness, career-wise.

We are looking into using some of the contacts that you supplied us with in our graduate group but we must first affirm that they have obtained degrees that are related to music. We also must be sure that these artists are financially dependent on their music careers. Otherwise, they are only amateur artists, their careers do not completely hinge on their degrees, and they do not fit our original criteria as described in our cover letter.

We plan to take more action in regards to finding our interview candidates and finishing up that aspect of our research. In discovering our area’s professional musician disparity, we think that we will now be better equipped to find people and information that are relevant to the topic that we want to fieldwork in.

We are considering revising the aspects of our cover letter that pertain to the collection of data from a professional group. We think that finding and retrieving career information from an artist that makes a living on their music career is not feasible within our given time frame. The surrounding area has a plethora of amateur performers that do not quite fit into our original model of artists earning a living with their musical talents.