Creating a Four-Quadrant Square Graph
Developing Your Persona
It is recommended that you complete this activity early in the course (and perhaps again at the mid-point) where you can gain an understanding of your musical identity. The activity involves asking you to rate your familiarity with a variety of musical genres (under the broader banner of the 4 AOIs) and then mapping the findings to produce a four-quadrant square chart as a representation of their persona. This is a starting point for discussion and to help your teacher begin to devise a suitable course for you.
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By no means exhaustive, firstly each of the four Areas of Inquiry (AOIs) was defined in terms of a number of musical styles and genres. To read more about the AOIs, you may visit HERE.
Area of Inquiry 1: Music for sociocultural and political expression
This area focuses on music that expresses and communicates social and cultural messages, conveys political ideas, and/or helps preserve social and cultural traditions (IBDP Music Guide p.23).
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Teacher only boxOf course, you are welcome to add/delete items from this list to suit your circumstances:
List of Possible Music Types Under AOI1
Area of Inquiry 2: Music for Listening and Performance
This area focuses on music that expresses and communicates intrinsic aesthetic values. Such music is sometimes referred to as "absolute music" (IBDP Music Guide p.23).
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List of Possible Music Types Under AOI2
Area of Inquiry 3. Music for Dramatic Impact, Movement, and Entertainment
This area focuses on music used for dramatic effect, music that supports choreographed movement or dance, and/or music that is incidental or intended to purposefully serve as entertainment (IBDP Music Guide p.23).
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List of Possible Music Types Under AOI3
Area of Inquiry 4: Music Technology in the Electronic and Digital Age
This area focuses on music created, performed, and/or produced using electronic or digital technologies. Such technologies are an important aspect of contemporary musical experiences, often transforming some of the ways that we understand and engage with music (IBDP Music Guide p.23).
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List of Possible Music Types Under AOI4
The next step in the process is to rate your familiarity, geographical proximity, as well as engagement levels with each genre listed above, according to the point system (0-3) that I have devised below.
Teacher only boxOf course, one can make adjustments to the listed music types above as you see fit. Likely, as well, a discussion will naturally take place as students are attempting to clarify the type of music described.
Here is an example of what a student may likely produce:
A couple of points worth noting:
- As there are a different number of music types under each of the FOUR Areas of Inquiry, the proportional relationship needs to be calculated accordingly
- Under the "Total for AOI" column, a sub-total appears for each, which for this particular student totals 61.
- The total points (the next column to the right) is merely a reminder of what is the total number of points possible for that particular AOI.
- For this particular student, therefore, the percentage for AOI1, for example, is calculated as follows:
AOI1: 12 / 61 * 100 = 19.67 (rounded up to 20%)
=(points tallied for AOI/total points for ALL AOIs x 100%)
The other percentages are calculated in a similar fashion.
- The final column just confirms that the total is 100%
The final stage in the process is to create a four-quadrant square chart, using Excel, to display these percentages in a manner that is more visually palpable. For instance, in this particular student's case, he has produced the following that represents his musical identity at that particular time in his musical journey:
Here is a personal reflection from the student on revealing this outcome:
Upon first being introduced to the Areas of Inquiry, I thought that my familiarity and background were likely more to feature in the AOI3 quadrant than any of the others. I was surprised to learn that I probably listen to more music that falls into the description of having 'aesthetic values' than anything else. It was also somewhat of an eye-opener to learn that there is so much more to AOI4 than just Hip Hop and EDM (and its sub-genres).
I look forward to delving into the forerunners of electronic music to help broaden my experiences. I am also excited to see how my persona may change over the course of this programme.
In order to do this, you may wish to visit Karina Adcock's video:
Teacher only boxIt is suggested that you perhaps chart your entire class to see how collectively your group of students appear. This could be the basis for further discussion and comparison.
It is also recommended that you complete this exercise at least once more during your programme (perhaps at the mid-point).
Here is a video that summaries all of the above that may be useful to you:
Further, you may wish to adapt the
Excel Spreadsheet (Downloadable) for Use in Making Four-Quadrant Square Graph