Fieldwork Assignment # 4
1. During this assignment I had observed MUSC 161, which is the Symphonic Band class. There are 21 females and 30 males in the class. The men spoke 20 times while women only spoke 10 times. On average the males spoke for about 2 mins and said about 36 words. On an average the women spoke for about 45 seconds and said about 29 words.
2. When the women spoke, they tend to act shy or timid, and spoke very quietly. The women questions usually pertained to how a music piece should be played. The men when they spoke were rather confident even when they were asking silly questions. A male had asked when the entire band had stop playing was this the end of the song because it did not show on his music score. Also, most of the question’s men asked where pertaining to going to the bathroom or leaving the room.
3. The instructor of this class is a male; this possibly could be the reason why the men in this class are so comfortable to ask questions even if the questions seem crazy. Usually the instructor sort of discouraged too much communication in this class because this is a performance class which requires everyone to have the ability to play different musical pieces. The instructor rarely calls on someone in this class because this class does not require students to answer the instructor questions unless a student was caught on their phone or talking to friends during rehearsals. The atmosphere in this class is strict and no one normally goes against what the instructor has to say because he is strict and does not play when it comes to playing music.
