Ethnographic research is difficult, in the way it challenges the more scientific approach to research. Instead of going in with a theory, as is typical of deductive reasoning in most scientific approaches, an inductive approach demands that we begin with observation. The identification process is not identifying a problem and hypothesizing a solution, but identifying an interesting phenomenon, and immersing yourself in it. This is pretty easy to understand. We do no go in assuming we know how Mendelssohn responded to his reception in England, nor can one go into a study of Kabuki theatre in Japan claiming to know anything. Yet in that context, music is the focus, supported by research into the social, historical and cultural contexts, vis-à-vis fieldnotes and general immersion (especially in ethnomusicology) into the musical world.

One of the things I recall from my ethnomusicology course, was a simple question: What do you do, while in the process of writing your ethnography, you encounter information that challenges or contradicts what you have been writing in your analysis? It’s not a trick question.