Doing an EE in Music

[Tafarijl]

So just to start, I do not take IB music, but I am eligible to take it next year. As a musician, I sincerely enjoy music and feel that doing my Extended Essay in music will be the most interesting topic to choose from. However, I have been given warnings about doing an EE in music. My supervisor claims that doing music will be a completely different way in terms of how the paper is conducted. I've heard numerous examples online about an Extended Essay in music being very annoying. 

 

That being said, I have been thinking about a topic but have not really hit a target yet. 

 

The basic idea of my EE is to analyze the evolution of American Music within the 20th century. I thought this was a great idea but then learned that I need to actually analyze one or two songs. This then drifted me to center my plan on jazz and its substantial effect of American music in the 20th century.

 

(Possible Question: To what extent did the genre of Jazz shape American music in the 20th century and form contemporary music?)

 

I feel that this question is too broad given the format an Extended Essay in music should be written in. I have read the guide for an EE in music numerous times but there are still some parts that seem to slip away from me. 

 

Does the EE in music have to be about analyzing a song itself and not the analysis of a type of music as a whole? Better yet, if I were able to go through with my plan, should I structure it around a specific song or songs? I am truly in a knot right now.

 

Any help will be very appreciated, especially from those who have done an EE in music or are currently doing so.

 

[Jorge Chavez]

I did my EE in music, got an A.

I am of the opinion that the EE should be done on whatever subject you want as long as you feel dedicated to it. I did not take IB music as it was not offered at my school, even so I decided to do my EE in this subject (ignoring the warnings of my supervisors). I had studied a basic level of music (5 years in a pre-highschool program that included music theory) and had plenty of experience in music (7 years playing). I think that you can have some pretty good experience in a few years of playing but you do need to know basic music theory in order to make your analysis.

 

You also need to limit your topic. Two songs are more than enough in my opinion. You can also analyse phrases of the songs instead of analysing the entire song.

 

Analysing a whole genre is very hard as you would need to analyse a big number of songs about that genre in order for the analysis to be representative, what you can do is research the literature of that genre and define it musically. This alone is not enough as there is no analysis done there by your part. Maybe you could take two representative songs of each genre, and analyse or compare them based on certain aspects (like rythme and armonic or chord progression). You would need to change your question accordingly though. ("...as seen in this song, and this song.")

 

Also, try to get a tutor (asesor, supervisor) for your extended essay that knows about music, but dont forget to look for someone that knows all the ins and outs about the format and style of an EE, as with only the correct format (worst case escenario) you can get at least a D.

 

If you want to know more about what I did for my EE here is a short version, feel free to ask more questions.

 

My topic was "What characteristics of the genre Son Jarocho are found in La Bamba by Ritchie Valens".

It consisted of two parts, the first part was the theory part; which was an indepht (as much information as I could find relevant for the EE) paraphrased description of what the Son Jarocho is (musically). And the second part was an analysis of La Bamba by Ritchie Valens. For this I transcripted (wrote) in music sheet notation the version of the song played by Ritchie Valens in order to compare the musical aspects of it with that of the Son Jarocho. I used snaps (photos) of that music sheet in the body of the EE and included the music sheet as an annex at the end.

 

I really had to narrow my investigation, and at the end I was very close to the 4000 word limit.