To understand my research thoroughly,the reader is advised to start by reading my mindsets in different periods. I Drowning, II In the Middle of the Ocean, III On the Boat. Three periods have their own distinct characteristics. For me, the development of my mindset affects the process of my music and the other way around. Therefore, by reading each paragraph, we will clearly see how I grow as a musician in a Western environment.
* You can read my diary/conclusion during each period by pointing your mouse to the word.
This paragraph is for readers to understand my non-musical process, a part which should be as same important as the musical result. The artistic/musical result will be presented in next chapter.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs:
I will use Maslow's hierarchy of needs to understand and analyze the process in my master studies, and it is also a method to show and describe where I am in the project of three periods. Further on, I will discuss how I develop my mindsets between each period.
The theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is known for human’s motivation. Maslow proposed that human’s needs should be divided into five stages, including Physiological Needs, Safely Needs, Love Needs, Esteem Needs, and Self-Actualization Needs.(Maslow, 1943).
This theory is also known for its pyramid shape. From the bottom to the top are the basic needs to the higher needs of humans. According to Maslow’s theory, when one meets the basic needs, then the current needs will not be as crucial as it is. Instead, people will be motivated to reach the next level of needs. Maslow summarized,
“One main implication of this phrasing is that gratification becomes as important a concept as deprivation in motivation theory, for it releases the organism from the domination of a relatively more Physiological Needs, permitting thereby the emergence of other more social goals” (Maslow, 1943, p376)
As a sojourner who restarts life in a new country but only temporarily, I have faced the issue of being unsatisfied with all my needs. My first period was dominated by fulfilling my basic needs- Physiological Needs.
“It is then fair to characterize the whole organism by saying simply that it is hungry, for consciousness is almost completely preempted by hunger. All capacities are put into the service of hunger-satisfaction, and the organization of these capacities is almost entirely determined by the one purpose of satisfying hunger.” (Maslow, 1943, p374)
Coming from a different genre, culture, and country, I tried to satisfy my basic needs, such as finding shelter in an unfamiliar city, understanding a new language daily, adapting to the new culture, etc. From the Musical needs, I reached out to as many musicians as possible, grabbing all the opportunities to play with people. Tempting to find a music genre I feel comfortable playing with since there is no Chinese music ensemble in the school or someone who share the same background as me. From others’ view, they thought I was pretty active, yet I did not clearly understand my desire.
The closest experience I had before was playing with folk musicians. Therefore, I decided to narrow my project idea into music based on folk music elements, which I feel more familiar with. However, the more time I put into the project, the more I understood that I was not satisfied with the music I had been working on. (More musical details will be elaborate on the next page) Besides the main project, I also tried more on working with two other settings, but the choice of instrumentation was still related to folk/traditional instruments.
To summarize the first period, I use the word, disunity, to describe the musical result. Furthermore, that is also why I depicted my musical mindset as DROWNING in this period. However, even though I described it negatively, I still gained a lot from this period. I had a deeper understanding of the program I was studying and was able to set up a daily routine and other essential things in life, etc. Undoubtedly, Physiological Needs were gratified.
According to Maslow’s theory, when one meets the basic needs, then the current needs will not be as crucial as it is. Therefore, I was motivated to look for the upper stage- Safely Needs and Love Needs. I was lucky to meet two great musicians, Alicia Lazaro Arteaga, and August Björn, who became my band members and best friends in school. While playing with them, I finally felt safe enough to explore new sounds on my pipa and try out some possibilities of my compositions. As a soloist, I intend to do everything myself instead of seeking help. However, after meeting them, I started to trust and explore further cross-cultural adaption for both pipa and myself. Besides, I also discovered that I was more confident in my music, and my motivation and execution ability to experiment on pipa has gradually grown. Compared to the previous status, this period is more like I found a stable floating wood to rely on. Even though still not aware of where exactly I am and which destination I will be at, at least I feel safe and accepted by the environment. Therefore, I describe the status in this period as in the middle of the ocean.
Further on, in the third period, I see myself in the Esteem needs. I thought more about who I am or embraced, accepted, and understood what kind of human being I am. I started to face the self-identifying issues which have occupied my brain for several years. As a traditional musician, I keep asking myself how to balance the “traditional and contemporary” of playing the pipa. I want to develop new sounds and more possibilities for my instrument. However, on the other hand, I still want to “sound like pipa.” Keeping the essence of the pipa while creating and exploring new things above it. Moreover, to find my voice within this period. For this period, I view myself as On the Boat.
Text from Tao Te Ching-passage 8
The readers are welcome to know more about how it relate to my project by clicking III On the Boat.
In both traditional Chinese literature and music repertoire, we can see that the authors/composers frequently use a method called Yù qíng yú jǐng (Putting emotion in the scenery ) / jiè jǐng shū qíng(Using scenery to express emotions). This means that the author brings strong subjective feelings to describe objective scenery and puts their feelings expressed in the scene and the object. This method can make the emotions and scenery blend, and rely on each other, thus creating an artistic realm where things and humans are one, perfectly expressing the author/composer's thoughts and feelings, which has an extremely infectious power.
Later when I started writing my compositions, I knew that all my ideas for my projects usually come from my inner thoughts or reflections. However, here comes the essential question: How can others understand my feeling without noticing anything? Therefore, I started to draw all the emotions, dynamics, layers, etc., through lines, colors, and patterns or even show pictures to my fellow musicians, presenting a graphics-based approach to composition.
Now when I look back, I then realize that I have translated the concepts, Yù qíng yú jǐng/ jiè jǐng shū qíng, used in traditional music into lines, colors, and shapes, into music just like how the ancient poet or composer did. So mentioning this concept is not saying that I have been on the same track as brilliant poets or composers in history, but showing that this is the unconscious part of me integrating the traditional element not only in playing pipa but also in how I compose and even become a communication tool.
Graphics to me?
From the graphics the readers can see on the right, it is clear that every period has its style and method. Besides, all these graphic maps are related to the three periods I mentioned in the Mindset paragraph.
In the first period, all the graphics/visuals are different. There is no such united style, which indicates that I am lost, unsure of what I am looking for, and trying various methods. In the second part, we can see the graphics become more concrete. Seems like I found a way to express my ideas through the graphics and, further on, convey to my fellow musicians. Lastly, the way I drew was mixed with abstract lines, concrete patterns, and precise texts, combining the previous two periods. In addition to that, I also started to use texts to describe my music, both as subtitles and descriptions.
Most of my graphic-based pieces have a specific framework, and clear rules tell the performers how to present themselves and their roles in the piece. But at the same time, because everyone has a different interpretation and understanding of colors, lines, and shapes, there is much flexibility in working with other players to produce different colors. Through this project, the musicians I work with can better understand my music and explore the relationship between graphics and music in greater depth. Utilizing graphic maps to compose helped me thoroughly see the music structures and enabled others to understand my thoughts and imagination more directly and clearly. Therefore, I still view graphics as one of the tools that help me communicate with other musicians. Besides Graphic scores, I am also influenced by other visual arts, such as photography and videos. The reason is also because of how I learned the traditional repertoire.
In the traditional pipa repertoire, numerous pieces are strongly related to natural landscapes, human figures, and scenery. When I was playing traditional pieces, I got more ideas about the interpretation of the music through the text in the score and the title of the piece, and I could better express the scenes in my mind through pipa.
Examples of traditional repertoires
1. Quiet and depressing
Spring Fever (subtitle)
Here are all the graphics map and visuals I have used during each periods.
The readers are welcome to click the videos, audios under all the graphics/ visuals, and also welcome to click the name of the songs to read more info/background of it.
In this paragragh, I will continue presenting all the music results within three periods I mentioned in Mindset, for all the music and graphics are relate to those three periods.
