Music Commencement Exam Reflective Essay REFLECTIVE ESSAY Length: 2 or more pages Font: Calibri or Arial Font Size: 12 pt. Spacing: Double File Format: Google Doc Student Essay Directions: You

must write a reflective essay describing and explaining your musical journey, that is, how you have grown as a musician over your four years as an active high school musician. Be sure to: ● Describe in detail specific experiences and persons who were key catalysts influencing your development AND Share your insights, explaining how these experiences and persons impacted your musical life, helped shape your identity as a musician, and played an important role in advancing your progress to date. Please address ALL of the following topics in your essay: 1. How were school concerts and outside performances important in your musical development? 2. 3. 4. 5. Who were the specific teachers and/or musicians who influenced you? How? What were some of your most important successes and challenges you encountered as a musician? Why were they meaningful? How did you respond? How did they help you grow? How has your life and world view been impacted by COVID-19 as well as social, economic, and political happenings from March 2020 to the present? As a young musician, how have you responded? How do you plan to continue your musical growth and participation after you graduate? Please feel free to add any other thoughts or content you consider relevant to your musical development and growth. NOTE: A reflective essay is not a resume or a bullet list of experiences; your writing must go beyond a general description. The most important part of this assignment is for you to explain how and why your musical experiences have been meaningful to you and how they impacted your growth and shaped who you are. How are you making sense of what you have experienced? What has it meant to you? How has it helped you grow? SUGGESTED STRUCTURE FOR REFLECTIVE ESSAY 2023 This document illustrates one possible way you can structure your essay. The questions included provide ideas for how you might address each topic. The questions are intended to help you reflect on each topic and increase the level of detail and specificity in your writing. You are not required to answer every single question listed below. Describing your experiences is just the first step. You must also explain the impact Remember to DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN. those experiences. Music Commencement Exam Reflective Essay INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH Your musical identity Overview of what you do/have done How far you've come Describe who you are as a musician today. What is your primary instrument? What style/genre is your homebase performance genre? Do you have more than one? Summarize the types of musical experiences and opportunities you have had. Where do you attend high school? What ensembles have you performed in at school? Outside of school? What other music classes have you taken? What other special musical opportunities have you participated in? Summarize and briefly explain how much you have grown. How much and in what way(s) do you think you have grown over your four years of high school? How do you know? What have you noticed that tells you you've grown? SERIES OF TOPIC-FOCUSED PARAGRAPHS For example: Summarize and add a few key details PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCES Specific performances you participated in Specific performances you attended Include specific details about performances (can be in-school and/or out-of-school) Describe specific concerts you attended or performed in that made an impression on you and impacted your musical growth and identity. How did you feel? What were you thinking? What did you observe? What did you hear? What did you realize? Why was each performance so special to you? How did in-school concerts, out-of-school concerts, and classroom experiences all contribute in different ways to your musical development? Explain how these experiences helped you grow. Music Commencement Exam Reflective Essay MUSICAL INFLUENCES Musicians you admire Teachers who inspire The music around you Describe the musicians you admire. Explain how listening to their music or working with them helped you grow. What is so amazing about them as musicians? What have you aspired to do after listening to them? How did they influence you? Describe specific music teachers who have inspired you and shaped your musicianship. Explain how they helped you grow. Who were those memorable teachers? What was it like to work with them? What specific things did they do to motivate you? To help you develop a greater level of skill? What do you remember most about spending time with them? What did they encourage you to do? What special musical opportunities did they help you prepare for? What did they teach you to value as a musician? Include specific details Describe the music around you - at home, on your playlists, with your friends, in your ensembles. Explain how the music you are immersed in influences who you are as a musician and helps you grow. What styles/genres do you spend a great deal of time listening to? Performing? How similar or different is your "home musical life" from your "school musical life?" When it is quiet, what songs or musical works play on in your ears? How has this music shaped your musical identity? Musical skills? SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES Greatest musical achievements Overcoming challenges Describe specific accomplishments. Explain how these experiences helped you grow. Describe specific challenges. Explain how these experiences helped you grow. Include specific details Through those accomplishments, what did you prove to yourself or others about who you are as a musician? What commitments or sacrifices did you have to make to get there? Why was it worth it? How did you respond to those challenges? What did you do? How did you overcome those challenges? What did you learn/realize through the process? Music Commencement Exam Reflective Essay COVID-19 AND SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL HAPPENINGS SINCE MARCH 2020: A YOUNG MUSICIAN'S PERSPECTIVE Include specific details How have COVID-19 and social/economic/political happenings since March 2020 impacted you as a musician? External changes (circumstances, conditions, routines, and opportunities) Internal changes (belief, outlook, perspective, music that resonates with you) Music's role in helping you and those around you cope with and make sense of what is happening Describe what has changed and how these changes have impacted and informed your musical life and identity. How has your life changed as a result of COVID-19 and social, economic, and political happenings since March 2020? How have your outlook and your perspective on the world changed as a result of your experiences over the past three years? How have these changes informed your musical life and who you are as a musician? What role has music played in your life since March 2020? In what way(s) is this different from music's role in your life prior to March 2020? Explain how you have responded to these changes, how you are making sense of all that is happening, and where music fits into your responses and your thinking. How has music influenced your response? How has music helped you cope with and make sense of what is happening? What will you remember about this time in history and this time in your life, musically and otherwise? PLANS FOR CONTINUED MUSICAL GROWTH AND PARTICIPATION College and career plans involving music Musical life goals Include specific details Describe how you plan to remain active as a musician after you graduate from high school. What ensembles do you plan to audition for? Why do you feel inspired to continue? What new ensembles might you like to explore in college? How did you learn about these new musical opportunities? Do you plan to major or minor in music? Why or why not? Regardless of whether or not you major in music, what musical endeavors do you dream about? What musical goals do you want to accomplish over the course of your life? Explain how your goals have been influenced by your high school musical experiences. Music Commencement Exam Reflective Essay CONCLUSION PARAGRAPH Your high school musical years "in a nutshell" Lasting impressions Summarize the most significant ways your musical skills and your musical identity have developed and transformed over your four years in high school. Explain how your musical experiences and musical growth have influenced and will continue to influence your life. What will be your lasting musical memories? Why? What can you do now that you couldn't do before? How has that made you a better person?