CODE of CONDUCT, campus session and 5a.

Thinking up a code of conduct is extremely challenging considering at least 70% of my professional practice is Solo based.My main work place is my home, then rehearsal space, various gig spots and rarely the Theatre space.
Analysing the ethics on the Musical Theatre side within my professional community is much easier as there's generally contracts to abide to and people to work under. At the campus session on Monday (21st) we got into groups to put together a code of conduct, our group specialised in the performance/Musical Theatre side. Here's what we came up with-

The Performers Code Of Conduct

• A performer must have consideration and Respect for who they're working for, or with.
• A performer must have dedication to the preparation needed for the product.
• It is acceptable for a Performer to have a conscientious use of sheet music, music and choreography within a teaching and auditioning environment.
• A performer must fulfill contract obligations.
• A performer holds the responsibility for the safety of you and others around you.
• A performer must avoid deliberately endangering their health.

These are the ethics that I aim to follow whilst working on Musical Theatre projects/ contracts however, many of these 'rules' wouldn't apply to my current professional practice of purely singing, therefore I have racked my brain to come up with personal regulations.

A Singers Code of Conduct

• A singer must have consideration and respect for musicians or collaborative singers.
• A singer holds responsibility for their vocal health.
• A singer should strive to sustain and increase singing ability.
• A singer must be dedicated to rehearsal time.
• A singer has the responsibility for the material they wish to share.

Thinking about whether one of the regulations in first set applies to me-

• It is acceptable for a Performer to have a conscientious use of sheet music, music and choreography within a teaching and auditioning environment.

!!?!!?!! I use songs, sheet music and music for performance purposes as well as in auditions and so do many, but it is not our original material. Is it legally correct or is it a comparative ethic? Ethical Dilemma?!

Also in the campus session we discussed Virtues, which I think of, as individual values or qualities.

Which Virtues do I have on a personal basis..

Confident

Generous

Positive

Which Virtues do I need for my profession..

Confidence

Reliability

Persistence

Obviously there's many more but I think it's important to analyse the virtues we have, need and maybe need to develop to create a good working Ethos within my Profession Practice.

Thinking about my award title.

"The award I seek as a result of doing this programme is a BA(Hons) Professional Practice (Communication through the Arts)"

How does that sound?
Originally I wrote.."through singing", but I felt it was restricting?
Is it too broad? as at the moment I am only looking into how we communicate through singing.

I thought of using the word communication as alot of the course so far and my Inquiry so far has been learning about how, when and where we communicate, network with others?!
Hmmm...

Outcomes so far.. 4b

I have set up a discussion thread on our facebook page called Singing as a use of communication which is already proving useful and is helping me to expand off on other tangents to do with my inquiry. Being involved in other discussions is also causing me to recall knowledge to share with others and learn from their interesting points. So far the SIGs are extremely handy and seem to be getting frequent updates which sparks the thought that we check our facebooks more than our blogs!?
 Whilst researching I found an interesting site which could help people who's inquiry somehow revolves round childrens education like Joanna and Natalie.
http://www.singup.org/magazine/magazine-article/view/32-singing-for-special-needs/

I found this article that talks about singing helping children with special needs or learning difficulties; "Its common to hear words sung by a child who would be unable to speak the same words" This particularly stood out to me as it's another positive way of using singing to communicate to add to my list, helping my inquiry questions.

Other points that  have arised that Im going to follow  up, from professional associates, SIG members and other BAPP  people are-

• The contrast between plays and Musicals as they reach out  to people differently as plays don't use singing to communicate the story.
• The difference between Musical Theatre singing and other genres also how and why people relate to the different stlyes.
• Is it the melody, Lyrics, Production or voice that reaches out to people?

I am currently in the process of asking other profesional employees, associates and friends, so any thoughts or opinions would help me greatly to find some of my own evidence to work from.

?-??

Looking back on when I first started thinking about my Inquiry-http://jcgunnell.blogspot.com/2010/11/inquiry.html I realised that the answers wouldn't take long to find, resulting in dead ends, which I find uninspiring!
I want to infuse my current professional practice and interests with areas I would like to work in, in the future, therefore, keeping in mind my interest in the affect music has on our moods etc I broadened my horizons, looked at the bigger picture.
A question I came up with when asked for a big question during the last campus session was-
How can I reach out to others with my singing voice?
Again I feel this question has its restrictions, I'm not only interested in my voice, singing as a whole is such a universal use of communication. Singing reaches out to so many people, what is the attraction?
These thoughts lead to my current Big Question.
Why is singing such an important way of communicating?


Taking into account the 2d task on inquiry we did last term and the 4a task for this module; I came up with some sub-questions to help me along the way and perhaps open up some links for people to help create our SIGS.

• In which scenarios do we use singing to communicate?

          And why?

• What are the benefits of using singing as communication?
• Is it always used as a positive way of communication?
• Are humans the only species that use singing to communicate?

Hopefully this is a good starting point, to take it further and gather other associates points.

Any comments would be highly appreciated!

Practictioner Research helpful steps..

Investigating abstract ideas will lead to our Inquiry research.
 To clarify and condense the reader I put Scholarly Research (a way of posing and expanding questions; a way of expressing and communicating) into simple steps, guidelines that I aim to stick to during my researching process.

Study, Examination, Gather facts

~

Scrutinize and Asses findings

~

Seek relationships, find connections

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Discover Themes,  Emerge Ideas, Personal Interpretation

~

New Theories, Significance of discoveries.

These stages should help me to fully understand the topic I choose to research as the questions will lead to Problems which shall hopefully create opportunities!

Now for the Questions.....

Knowledge, My Knowledge?

Whilst the reader on Developing lines of professional Inquiry cleared up some of my confusions about knowledge it also resulted in a query on the different types..
Is my working situation Transdisciplinary or?
I work in many different areas of Musical Theatre, currently focusing on my singing and carrying the knowledge I've gathered in the past, through to my Solo Jazz side of my career; does that make my knowledge transdisciplinary as it is specific for that area of my profession and has been gained through personal experience to get me to where I am?
I wouldn't say much of the knowledge I need for my area of professional practice is Inter-disciplinary, as the core of my work at the moment is Performing or auditioning, rehearsing and preparing to perform. Unlike a singing teacher who would need to have the same knowledge and skills as me but also Need to know and manage the practice of education. However I feel there's a dosage of Propositional knowledge (practice based) Personal and Process Knowledge(tasks>expertise) using Information, planning and communication in all the aspects of my Professional Practice.

Term Two, Campus session and Thoughts.

I'm sure a few of us felt it took us a while to truly get into the last module, my main aim this term is to keep up, not get behind and stay focused and interested on the Tasks.
Tuesdays campus session was a great kick start to '3835' Rosemarys first question to us as Individuals was on Knowledge.
 "What do you need to know to be a professional practitioner?"
This set the cogs turning, we were asked to mould our answers into graphic visions, designs to express the things we need to know and how general the information is.
Straight away I related it to the layout of a theatre, the stalls being the closest to the stage (my profession)  represented the information and skills I need for my profession theses being-
Stalls-Techniques eg.singing, Methods eg.acting, Musicality eg. theory behind it...
The next section represented by the dress circle would be things that many of us need but the specifics would be different;
Dress Circle-How to express myself, reach out to the right audiences, Attract Audience( marketing),  Knowing the key Players for us to Network and Research,
The upper circle would represent the Generic Information/ Tools we would all use in our professions but differently.
Upper Circle-Communication, Time managing and Use of modern Technologies to benefit us.

After getting into small groups to mould ideas together all the ideas were presented to the group, other great visuals came up looking at different professions.
Other ideas included-
"The teachers" Used a Diamond Drawing to show the different segments of skills and information needed including the Transdisciplinary skills.
 The Audio and Graphic designer Portrayed the creative production through a Ladder Drawing with each step representing the stages of their creative Journey.
 Our group Including Mark, Nick and Nicole used Nicks idea of Building blocks to represent the groups of information- Generic, Adaptable and Specialized these levels Building the Foundation of our Professional Practice.

This exersize particularly helped me to understand that the knowledge we have acquired might be different, but the way in which knowledge is used in different professions might be similar to our own. Also that it's about finding our speciality within our sphere of Profession. I now realise I have much more to learn about the meaning of Knowledge by itself as well as look at my own and categorize it in more detail! Not just looking at the That but That- how- Who.