For me, what hasn’t gone to plan has been my progress afterward. Coming back to New York, if anything I have taken in and learned so much from Quebec. I’ve immersed myself in a culture in a short amount of time that I’m not sure how to incorporate into my life away from Quebec. This is something I want to study in the future. Beyond musical performance, understanding different musical concepts are important to me. This project was the first step to me being formally exposed to the study of Ethnomusicology, the study of cultural music. This project made me extremely eager to continue studying it in college and has brought up the question of how do I continue with what I have learned about other types of music around the world. 

So far my goals have not changed and have only been emphasized during my trip. While in Canada doing my project I feel even more curious about what other musical philosophies around the world are. Going into this project I was expecting to hear and study new music. For me, however, the physical actions of going to Quebec and being mixed into a foreign-speaking community on my own was a big part of this experience later on playing the music. I think that leads to the importance of how my schedule was laid out. For me, I like having a loose itinerary. Sometimes things don’t work out and especially in music, I’ve noticed that people like to let things flow naturally. This is ironic because I’ve been around a rehearsed musical environment. When it comes to cultural music that is still preserved and played by its people. It’s a much different environment. It’s natural although the work that’s put into it I’ve noticed is the commonalities that one community would share through its art and music. A musician I met while in Gaspe, Guy Bouchard, explained to me how it’s important for a culture to stay rich and ingrained in the people because eventually, the learning of music is less of a rehearsed practice but more of a natural upbringing through a musical community. Of course, you still have to work hard as any musician does, but the meaning is different in so many ways through different cultures and parts of the world. My motivation for playing could be very different for many older musicians in Gaspé. I learned in an environment like that, it’s less commercial and composed. It’s more purposeful and not often do I carry a sense of empathy while playing music, but you do have to when studying cultural music. In the city, I and many other musicians play with a competitive drive that leads them to whatever they believe will make them successful. But in Gaspé, I feel success was never a final answer in the older musicians’ musical career, and if it was, their idea of success as a musician was different. But some may argue that it looks different for everyone.