pensiveturtle98-blog

[pensiveturtle98-blog]

October 15th, 2017

Last week went well. I was appointed Assistant Editor-In-Chief of my university’s undergraduate research journal, Momentum. It’s a small journal with no calculated impact factor (# of citations by indexed journals per year / # of citable items per year), so there is a lot of room for growth. Hopefully I can help catalyze that growth. I don’t expect it to be a nationally renowned publication, but I do hope its repute will improve.

In other news, I actually used my planner last week! And when I say “used,” I mean meticulously planned out every hour of my week - when I would study for each of my courses, when I would exercise different muscle groups, when I would relax, etc. Contrary to my expectations, it was really refreshing to make the most of my time! When I don’t plan ahead, I end up wasting at least a quarter of my free time deciding what to do next or mindlessly scrolling through various social media sites. 

I will say that I struggled to fit in meditation, reading, and relaxation. Although these things should be priorities for me - along with my studies and research - I tend to put them on the back burner. Or, when I do block out relaxation time, I don’t use it wisely. Instead of engaging in fun or relaxing activities, I tend to do whatever requires the least amount of mental and physical effort (i.e., scrolling through social media, watching YouTube videos, ruminating over things that went wrong that day/week, eating). Logically I know that these activities don’t help me relax or relieve stress as much as, say, reading, playing video games, or going on a walk would, but I do them anyway! What’s up with that?!

Oh, I also started data collection for my research project back up again last week. One of the new researchers asked if she could observe my first several research sessions so that she could get a refresher course before conducting EEG sessions on her own. Of course I welcomed her to the sessions, and encouraged her to try conducting one herself with me there. As a tutor and aspiring professor, I believe in the value of learning from experience, so I tried not to provide assistance unless she asked for it. (I had trained her a couple of months back, so she already knew the major steps in the procedure.) Keep in mind that the procedure for setting up an EEG scan is very extensive and technical, and most people struggle to learn and consolidate all of the steps. Needless to say, I expected her to struggle with it. 

I didn’t expect that I would find her struggle humorous. Something about watching her grapple with the steps reminded me of when I had to go through training and how incompetent I felt back then - like I would never really learn how to scan someone’s brain. I am not a cruel person by any means, but when I saw her fumbling with the electrodes, I found myself holding back laughter. When she turned to me to signal the need for assistance, I couldn’t hold it back any longer. My face turned red and I let out a long laugh. She started laughing too, because it was so out of character for me to laugh at the misfortune of others. But I felt horrible about it afterwards, and apologized at least three times for not being able to control myself. I thought I had good emotion regulation skills, but apparently not when it comes to humor.  

I’m still not sure if I offended her or not, even though she explicitly told me that I didn’t, but I am still ashamed of it. Next time I monitor a new researcher as she/he conducts an EEG session, I will assist them every step of the way unless I am absolutely confident in my ability to hold back laughter. 

[pensiveturtle98-blog]

Change of Direction

I’ve finally realized two years after starting this tumblr (and posting only twice) that I’m no longer interested in blogging about my progress on piano alone. I have a lot of other interesting things going on in my life that would be super fun to write about.

Take my research project, for example. I started it about two years ago after inquiring to my General Psychology professor about research opportunities in her department. I suppose my curiosity incited some kind of mentor instinct in her, because she readily took me under her wing afterwards. She gave me total freedom in choosing my own research topic and designing an original study from the ground up. (Most professors restrict their students to certain topics within their areas of expertise.) She has freely offered me advice and support in numerous other facets of life beyond research, and she’s been my greatest mentor and role model since. 

I have to add - if it weren’t for some great friends leading me down the right paths in life, I would have never encountered such an amazing opportunity. So, kudos to all the good friends in the world. 

In my nineteen years of life, I consider this research project to be my greatest pride and success. It’s extremely gratifying to see a very technical, coordinated study in full effect after months of preliminary research to acquire the background knowledge needed to formulate hypotheses and develop an ethical, sound study. It’s intrinsically rewarding to think of all the individuals who could benefit from your findings, and all the research that will take place in light of your findings, and all the individuals who will benefit from the findings of *those* studies. I think it goes without saying that it is also an incredible learning experience. You simply can’t get from a college course what you can get from delving into empirical research yourself, alongside brilliant colleagues and mentors.

Anyway, I guess I should explain what the study is actually about. In a nutshell, we are investigating the relationships between early childhood trauma exposure and patterns of emotion regulation in adulthood, using EEG technology. There are two parts to the study: In part one, we administer a series of questionnaires to participants to assess their level of trauma exposure and emotional tendencies. We use this data to group participants into four groups which we predict will exhibit different brainwave/emotion regulation patterns in response to neutral, highly pleasant, and highly unpleasant images. In part two, participants are presented with 90 of these evocative images while undergoing an EEG scan. We are particularly interested in two distinct brainwaves or “event-related potentials” (ERPs) known as the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) and the Late Positive Potential (LPP). The EPN reflects immediate sensation of emotions, and will increase in amplitude as emotional experience heightens and vice versa, while the LPP reflects regulation of emotions, and will vary in amplitude depending on an individual’s level of emotional control or lack thereof. 

Contrary to popular opinion, too much control over emotions is not healthy, just as too little control over emotions is not healthy. Actually, the most resilient individuals tend to exhibit *moderate* control over emotions (i.e., moderate-amplitude LPPs in response to evocative images). What this means is that we should allow space in our minds for a range of emotions, but practice mindfulness and self-care to prevent these emotions from getting out of hand. It is important to feel, so long as the “feels” don’t interfere with our daily functioning. 

All right, that’s all for tonight. Hope you all have a happy, full, and productive week!

[pensiveturtle98-blog]

Making Progress! :D ~Key Signatures, The Circle of Fifths, & Intervals~

Hello, everyone! It's only been a handful of days since my last post, but I've been itching to write about the little things I've made progress on so far. I've become proficient in about eight more measures of "Hope's Theme," and what I'm even more excited about is everything I've learned from Music Theory for Dummies. I finished the section on reading sheet music and am currently learning all about intervals, key signatures, and The Circle of Fifths. I've gotta admit, it's a whole lot to take in at once. The authors really stress the importance of memorizing the Circle of Fifths and getting comfortable with intervals and key signatures, so although I'm too full of hype to pause at this point in the book, I'm going to need to spend a lot of time practicing all this stuff. Fortunately, I already have a handy app on my phone called "Music Theory Helper," which includes interval practice, the Circle of Fifths, scales, etc.  It's a super convenient way to study music theory for ten minutes or so at the piano, before I begin practicing "Hope's Theme."

Anyway, I'm sure some of you have yet to learn about intervals and key signatures and whatnot. If that's the case for you, I'll give a synopsis over what they are and how they work so that, hopefully, you'll figure the rest out for yourself. To understand what I'm about to explain you'll have to already know how to read sheet music!

The "key signature" of a piece of music tells you which notes are sharps or flats in that piece. "The Circle of Fifths" is a helpful way to remember which notes are sharps or flats if the sheet of music isn't right in front of you and all you know is the name of the key signature. For example, if you're told that a key signature is D major, you can use The Circle of Fifths to help you figure out what exactly that means.  

With mnemonics such as "Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds" and "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles's Father," you can easily memorize the location of each key signature on The Circle of Fifths and also determine how many sharps or flats it gets. At 12 o'clock, for example, the key is C major. Each step clockwise from here adds one more sharp to the key signature, while each step counterclockwise adds one more flat to the key signature; in both cases, it continues like that until 6 o'clock, where the possible number of flats/sharps terminates.

So, if the key signature is D major, you go to 2 o'clock and use the mnemonic "Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds" to figure out which two notes become sharp, F and C. If the key signature is E major, you'll go to 9 o'clock and use the other mnemonic, "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles's Father," to help you figure out which three notes become flat--B, E, and A. The inner part of the circle shows minor key signatures instead of major key signatures, but it works the same exact way.

Next are intervals! Glorious intervals. They come in two kinds, harmonic and melodic. Harmonic are two notes played at the same time while melodic are two notes played consecutively. You define an interval by its "quantity" and its "quality." The quantity is simply how many spaces and lines make up the span of two notes on the staff. So an example of a 2nd interval would be A to B, C to D, or even F# to G (if you rename the F# to Gb, then you can call the interval an augmented unison!!!). An example of a third interval would be B to D or E to Gb. The quality of an interval is a little more complicated to figure out. It's determined by the number of half steps between the two notes, but you can use the quantity of the interval to make the quality a little easier to figure out.

Unisons, 4ths, 5ths, and 8th intervals always have a quality of "perfect" when the two notes are either both natural, both flat, or both sharp. However, if the first is flat and the second is natural, the quality of that interval would change to augmented instead of perfect, because you're adding a half step to the span between the notes (a half step is the distance between A and A# or E and F on the keyboard; a whole step is the distance between A and B or E and F#). Conversely, if the first is sharp and the second is natural, the quality would change to diminished instead of perfect. It would also be a diminished interval if the first note is natural and the second is flat. In both instances, it's diminished because you take one half step away from the span between the two notes.

The interval quantities that don't have perfect qualities--2nds, 3rds, 6ths, and 7ths--can have major, minor, augmented, or diminished qualities, depending on the number of half steps between each note. It's important to note that intervals that can have a perfect quality cannot have a major or minor quality; they can only have an augmented or diminished quality when raised or lowered a half step from perfect. Non-perfect intervals toggle between minor and major when the two notes are either both natural, both sharp, or both flat. These intervals are a little more complicated to figure out because of notes like E, F, B, and C, which all kind of "skip" a black key and change the number of half steps you're dealing with all at once. So, for instance, if you have a second interval of B to C, the quality would be minor, because the difference between B and C is only one half step. However, if you have a second interval of C to D, then the quality would change to major, because one half step is added to the equation. If you have a 6th interval of G to E, then its quality is major (9 half steps total). Whereas a 6th interval of A to F has a minor quality (8 half steps total).

By comparing identical interval quantities at different locations on the keyboard, distinguishing between minor and major intervals like these will become easier.

But that's not all! If the non-perfect interval is major, adding a half step makes it augmented. If the non-perfect interval is minor, subtracting a half step makes it diminished. If we take our major sixth interval from before--G to E--and turn G into a Gb, then the interval would become an augmented sixth. However, if we instead turn the G into a G#, the interval would become a minor sixth...It doesn't become diminished because the original interval we were dealing with was major, not minor. So subtracting a half step simply changes it to a minor sixth. If we take the minor sixth of A to F, on the other hand, we can turn it into a diminished sixth by lowering the F to an Fb, or by changing the A to an A#. You will rarely see an Fb in music because it's easier to just call it an E, but the interval would change to a perfect fifth if you change the note name itself!!!

As you can see, this is kind of a huge chunk of music theory that must be stomached to progress! It will take me (and perhaps you, too!) a lot of practice to get comfortable with. Resources like Music Theory For Dummies and the app "Music Theory Helper" are wonderful for practicing theory. The latter is free--not as detailed as the former--but a great reference for the Circle of Fifths, intervals, key signatures, etc.

If you are at a comparable level as me when it comes to music, I hope that this has helped you. It's certainly helped me to explain the theory in my own terms, so I plan to post more like this in the future!

[pensiveturtle98-blog]

“Hope’s Theme” - Final Fantasy XIII

A couple of days ago, I decided to put my eight hundred dollar piano keyboard to use and make the new year’s resolution of practicing piano, constructively, every single day. Since I bought the keyboard, I never really made a routine out of practicing every day; I would only practice maybe once or twice a week when I wasn’t busy with college or work. In middle and high school I was the sole bassoonist for my band classes, so I’ve had considerable experience with sheet music before and know how to read it. However, I’ve never taken a music theory class, so although I can play nice songs on the keyboard, I have no idea what makes them sound nice, how to make my own renditions of them, or how to compose my own music.  

Ultimately, my goal is to learn more about music theory this year so that I’m better able to comprehend the songs I learn, and so that I can compose and eventually improvise well on the piano. To begin this exciting journey I thought “Hope’s Theme” from Final Fantasy XIII would be a suitable piece to start off with... Not just because it provides me with the hope I need to accomplish my new year’s resolutions, but because it’s a song I was listening to for two full days and nights, nonstop. I fell in love with its sweet and melancholy melody. I encourage you to listen to “Hope’s Theme” if you’ve never heard it before. The video game it comes from is as awesome as the song. 

To supplement my progress with “Hope’s Theme,” I’m reading Music Theory for Dummies because I’m a dummy when it comes to music theory. I started from the very beginning to make sure I didn’t miss anything at all, but so far it’s only covered the basics of how to read music. So I haven’t learned anything particularly useful yet. 

Anyway, that’s all I have for today. Happy New Year everyone!