Ryohei Kimura presents on his experience learning music and how the four ways of knowing impacted his development as a musician. He discusses how perception and emotion specifically helped improve his trumpet skills for his first band concert. Perception of his own sound and matching others was important, while controlling his emotion put him in the best mindset to perform well. This experience taught him to manage his feelings and emotions, which will benefit his learning and situations going forward.

1. Ryohei Kimura
Senior Seminar
Dec. 4th 2011
Presentation Script
Hello, my name is Ryohei Kimura. I am Japanese and 18 years old. I have been
attended at ISB for 4 years. Today, I am going to present my influential experience of
learning music that consists of the ways of knowing.
Q: So basically what are the four ways of knowing?
They are Reason, Emotion, Perception, and Language. Reason usually is
considered to be more certain than perception since it consists of radical thinking.
Since some ideas are based on our own feelings, Emotion sometimes is good way to
achieve knowledge. Any knowledge from Perception is based on what we see or hear.
These ways of knowing can be beneficial and obstacle on achieving knowledge.
Q: What are the specific examples of learning experience in music?
My example would be my first instrumental band concert at ISB. I will be talking
how this experience has been affected by the ways of knowing.
First, I have started playing my musical instrument, trumpet, when I enrolled
ISB in the beginning of 9th grade. Thus, I was required to practice a lot in order to
increase my instrumental skill and be ready for the coming up concert on October.
During this process of improving my skills, two ways of knowing have affected on
improving my skill.
Q: So what are two ways of knowing that have affected you in improving you musical
skill?
The ways of knowing that affected my experience are Perception and Emotion.
In performing musical instrument, Perception is the most important way of
knowing that affect my performing skills. Perceiving sound both from own instrument
and other instrument in band is extremely important.

2. Ryohei Kimura
Senior Seminar
Dec. 4th 2011
As a musician in large band, we are required to listen to our sound and try to
match our sound with others. Moreover, we are also required to tune our instrument
before rehearsal and performance. These actions are totally necessary to increase the
unison of sound of whole band which makes the audience very impressed.
Next, Emotion is part of the important factor in playing instrument. Usually,
musicians are unable to play well when they are depressed or feel grounded. In
contrast, they play really well when they are in happy mood or excited mood.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to control their emotion as musicians.
However, being too easy-going makes your performance not well, since you
have less concentration and will not be careful about your sound and might make
mistakes a lot. Thus, as musicians, we must keep our nervousness medium which leads
to the best performance during the concert.
Q: How will this experience approach to your further learning in the future?
This learning experience in music will help on my learning in the future even
though playing trumpet is only a part of my hobby and I do not intend to play it as a
professional in the future. Especially, managing my emotion in the performance will
help to manage my feelings and emotion in any situation I encounter, even if it would
not be connected to playing musical instrument.
Q: How would you reflect what we have learned in Senior Seminar class?
Through the studies in Theory of Knowledge during this semester in Senior
Seminar class, the relationships between different ways of knowing and areas of
knowing have helped me to understand the benefits and limitations of knowing.