Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Appendix F

Critical Reflection Portfolio

 

One of the key things that I have learnt is that to find out what I want to know, I must first realise what I don’t know. Whilst reflecting on task 2d (see appendix 1), I found that there was pattern to my continuous stunting of my career but by realising this I was then able to go about tackling it. I began to look at self esteem and confidence issues and how they may affect the success of a performer. However, this then raised the question of ‘what is success?’ and ‘what does it mean to be successful?’ (see appendix 2)

I got very involved with discussions on the SIG groups and found that everyone has a different opinion of what ‘success’ is (see appendix 3), thus making it extremely difficult to comment on whether a performer is ‘successful’ or not. I needed to change my tactics and to change my negative frame of mind. In my spare time I ran a half marathon, which was a massive achievement for me and left me feeling extremely positive and with that I found that ‘success’ was far too subjective. I decided that to change my life and career now I needed to be proactive, and what it came down to was ‘not knowing’ how to go about beginning a career as a recording singer. I previously felt, like I was sitting on the edge of the BAPP course not being 100% involved, but by making my inquiry completely relevant to my career now and useful to the progression of it, I have now submerged myself completely into the inquiry and my ‘self testing experiment’. To find out what might be useful to me, I first needed to find out what others had done previously, so I conducted some pilot data analysis (see appendix 4). This led me to finding reoccurrences in methods used by other singers, which in turn led me to the inquiry topic ‘Inquiry into the most effective ways of entering the recorded music industry as a singer’.

 After researching codes of conduct (see appendix 5 ), ethics (see appendix 6) and how I might go about collecting data (see appendix 7), I decided that my inquiry was quite feasible and potentially very useful to many, other than myself. I then began to write my proposal plan. My academic advisor, Adesola, pointed out the title words ‘most effective ways of...’ would be a different inquiry altogether, and after considering this, I realised I am investigating the ‘most applied methods’ rather than the ‘most effective’. I altered my inquiry title to ‘Inquiry into the most employed methods for entering the recorded music industry as a singer’, and I now feel strongly prepared and excited to begin my inquiry.

Appendix 3, Extract from Facebook SIG discussion

WHAT does it mean to be successful. what is success to you !????

 

Bobbie Pingram For me it's about achieving my goals. Not a measure comparing myself to other people.

Mimi-Lulabell Whitney Sucess to me is being happy, being happy with life, work, family, friends x

Emily Hunt achieving what I want to achieve and being happy with how I have done it.

Louise Dempster Success is meeting my own goals whether it is professional or personal , being happy and healthy.x

Melanie Brown To me, success is achieving dreams and goals you have set for yourself but most importantly success is being happy and content with your life...:)

Gee Bird would you call amy winehouse then,successful?...

Gee Bird so if u end up happy but with no career or with a great career but not happy...are u still successful??

Bobbie Pingram I'd say you have been successful in one area and not the other. Maybe that's one of the sacrifices of success.

Gee Bird how do you mean? to be successful in one area of your life another must suffer?

Melanie Brown Well from an outsiders point of view you would say yes she was...but then was she happy? As I said before that to me is the most important thing. She was obviously battling with a lot of issues. There has to be a balance between a good career and happiness. Was it that maybe too much success made her unhappy because she didnt know how to cope? I believe it must be about balance like most things in life x

Gee Bird see for me, success falls to career straight away.. but iv always been career minded, if success is what you set out to accomplish...(even if its not what you thought at the beginnning) if you achieve it, then you are a success. She had a massvively successful career. but same question falls to all the huge stars who die young. marilyn monroe, etc.. they were successful, no?