W11 MORE INTERVIEWS

This week I tried various way to carry on my research. The aim is still to understand my users as well as the instrument itself. I had some questions discussed during the tutorial this week. I talked to a musician, sent questionnaires to few musical teachers, went to two music stores, chatted with the children I met in Yunnan province three years ago by the internet. I also went to reuse center and called city council to ask help.

• Talk with Jim

I met Jim by accident; he is a musician play guitar in a band for years. It's an informal chat, but he gave me much advice. Mainly we talked about the user location of my project again, which had been confusing me for a long time. Although I had been to remote areas, I don't think I understand my users enough. It makes me been irresolute on the location of my project.

He recommended me to think through clearly and focus on one single musical instrument. Instead of building a musical instrument for them, I can try to teach them how to turn an inferior musical instrument like a cheap guitar to its best condition. He also showed me how to assess a guitar and how to fix it. According to the research, string instruments appeared its advantage on entertainment the most. He suggests me focus on guitar or guitar-like instruments as it has immense popularity worldwide and can be easy to start. It also will benefit me as I have experience of learning that for years.

• Questionnaire of musical teachers:

Eva L.

Q6: what level did students age 11 to 14 achieved on musical learning? Students can make fast progress at this age if they are motivated. My students range from grade 1 level to grade 4 level (Associated Board).

Q7: How do you find your students aged 11 to 14 on learning ability? I find that their skill level can be quite high but they have less creativity than younger pupils.

Q8: What is the motivation of students aged 11 to 14 to learn music? For many of them, it is a social activity; they want to play in groups in their high school. Some enjoy taking graded exams and going through the levels. Some are just continuing lessons from when they were younger.

Tom S.

Q8: What is the motivation of students aged 11 to 14 to learn music? INSTANTLY BEING ABLE TO PLAY POP SONGS

• Talk to purples online

I managed to find kids I met in that school in Yunnan provence they are about 13 years old now. Finally, I reached my target users. I verified the assumptions before. I talked to ZHENGNAN GUI and CHUNKING ZHANG.

1. They enjoy music, especially pop music like the works by Chinese pop singer ZHANGJIE and K-pop star G-Dragon and English pop songs. 2. They access to this music by download from website. Most of them access the internet through the cell phone. 3. Rarely have kids in their class play musical instruments. CHUNKING told me she wants to learn, but she doesn't have the chance. 4. They still haven't been introduced to basic musical knowledge in middle school. Music class remains to sing or been taken by math class.

• Re-redefine

The same problem keeps me from making the next step for so long. I'm still not clear on my design purpose. So every time anyone raises a new idea I'll boggle. As it is laborious to find quality user here, I have no confidence to decide my project. I still expecting someone tell me which is the right direction. After weeks of struggling, I recalled my origin of this project, what I saw in that remote primary school during my voluntary experience.

I received primary education in Beijing. Although the compulsory schooling policy is the same, there are vast differences in teaching resources. My peers and I learned how to read state and how to play melodic when we were 7 or 8. We even have to take performance exam on melodic in primary school. But when I came to university ten years later, it surprised me that rarely found students from other provinces know how to play a musical instrument or how to read music. When I came to that remote school in Yunnan province, I understand why even the teachers there don't know music.

My advanced aim was to enlighten children, let them play with it even create melody themselves so they may have the interest to learn a proper musical instrument in the future even start a career. I'm not trying to make everyone a musician in the future. The key is equal opportunity. The kid in the metropolis can learn whatever they want; there are chances that some of them found their interest and developed as the career or as a hobby through their life. But utmost kids in an impoverished area in China can't. Most of them don't even have the opportunity to touch an musical instrument almost none of them will have the future as an artist. That is the key; I want to provide an opportunity for them, that they can also have the possibility to do something in the field of music.

To make my project works in the real life, I must think how it would bee like to live in their environment. After all these weeks I finally concluded that raise their motivation of self-learning is the priority. Because in this scenario, they won't get any help from adults.

So I decide to make a guitar-like instrument as it is outstanding on entertainment and popularity which having positive affection on motivation.

Throughout this semester, I gradually became independent on my design scheme.