How to Write a Music Analysis Paper

An unavoidable fact of university life is that students must write papers.

Indeed, many students will write papers multiple times per course per term. It is not unusual for students undertaking a full course load to need to produce as many as four papers per fortnight, and this volume of essay writing can make it difficult for students to switch between subjects or writing styles quickly, or to adapt to new forms of writing as assignments pour in.

This article will look at music analysis papers in order to offer some perspective on the best way to write this type of paper. It is hoped that our tips will empower students like you to be able to develop their music analysis papers faster and more effectively.

So where to begin when you want to know how to write a music theory paper?

 

1. Read the Assignment

This might seem like a very basic beginning step, but it is essential that you read, digest, and thoroughly understand the assignment you are asked to write about.

The essay question will set the parameters for the writing that you do. While most questions aren’t trying to trick you, there are times when a question may be ambiguous or unclear, or when it is so open that finding the limits can be difficult. If there are any parts of the assignment that you don’t understand, it’s important that you speak with your instructor in order to ascertain whether your proposed topic will be an appropriate selection for your paper.

You don’t want low marks because your paper was off-topic.

 

2. Read the Rubric

Similarly, reviewing the grading rubric is an essential way of developing your paper to score top marks. The rubric lays out exactly what you need to do in order to achieve full marks for each category on which you will be scored.

By reviewing the rubric, you will essentially be receiving a sheet telling you what the tutor will be looking for in your paper. If you can confidently say that your paper addresses each criterion in the scoring rubric, you will be good-positioned to deliver a compelling music analysis paper that will earn you as much credit as possible from your instructor.

 

3. Listen to the Music

This is, of course, another obvious point, but if you are going to analyze music, it is important to actually listen to the music in question (or to read the music, if analyzing the notation).

There are far too many situations when students attempt to skip this step and write in generalities or otherwise crib information about the music from others’ writing.

This, however, is not recommended because it will quickly be obvious to your instructor that you lack a basic familiarity with the details of the subject about which you are writing. Always give the piece under consideration a fresh listen before you begin writing about it.

 

4. Consider Using a Writing Service

When you pay someone to do your essays for you online, you can benefit from cheap essays that provide you with insight from academic writing experts.

When you employ a professional service like WriteMyPaperHub to provide you with paper writing services, you can then free yourself from some of the burdens of prewriting, research, and analysis so you can focus on using a model paper to create a solid final draft faster and more effectively than you might with other methods of developing your own paper.

 

5. Compile the Technical Details

Your music analysis needs to provide the technical information necessary to analyze the music in question.

You will need to be able to relate the composer, the period of composition, the genre, style, duration, and its technical details. You will need to have this information on hand in order to complete your analysis and to refer to the construction of your paper.

Obviously, these details will be part of your final essay, but they will also be important in guiding you through the research process.

 

6. Research Your Paper Before You Write

Music analysis is not merely the recitation of one’s opinion. Instead, you must ground your views in facts, whether that be what the composer said about the composition, a discussion of the time period, or even previous scholars’ viewpoints on the composition.

You should be sure to make friends with your university’s library in order to explore academic and popular sources on your piece of music so you can begin to get a handle on what has been done before and what areas of research are still fruitful avenues for analysis. It is generally best to turn first to your school’s library because it will have access to full-text academic journal articles, which will give you a more complete overview of scholarly views on your topic than articles written for a popular audience.

 

7. Outline Your Paper

Before you write, you should develop an outline for your paper.

This often seems like a waste of time to students, but experience has proven time and again that writing an outline actually makes it easier to write the final paper and to complete your work quicker and more accurately. Even a simple outline can help you to avoid pitfalls as you write by keeping you on track and ensuring that you neither miss key points nor venture off onto an unproductive tangent that can cost you work.

Author: Ted Wilson