Exploring/Choosing a Topic - Music - Intro to Vocal Research

Getting started

Whether you are looking for information for a paper, background information, program notes, etc., plan out your research inquiry by thinking through what exactly you want to discover. The worksheets linked here can help you think through your strategy before you start your search.

Concept Mapping & Keyword Generation Worksheet

Guide to Basic Music Research
Research Paper Planner
This tool can help you track your steps in writing a paper. Once you add your due date, you will receive emails to help guide you through each stage of writing.

Find Background Information

Use the resources on this page to get to know a new research area or choose a topic for a new project, performance, or paper. This part of the process is not necessarily about finding sources you will use or cite in your final project, but about exploring to understand the basics of a particular area and come up with keywords to use when you search for sources later.

Open web searches (Google, Wikipedia, ChatGPT etc.)

It's okay to begin your exploration on Google or ChatGPT, as long as it doesn't end there. Use this time to explore potential topics, and to try out different keywords on potential topics. See below on some tips for using Chat GPT to generate topics for your research paper.

Timelines & Bibliographies

You might choose to peruse online timelines like those listed here, or bibliographies like those listed here that compile resources on underrepresented musicians.

Reference Sources (Dictionaries, Encyclopedias)

Try one of the specialized encyclopedias below to learn broadly from expert-written articles on your topic including lists of citations to important books and articles on that topic.

Books

Books are a great place to start your research because they take the time to explain things you may not understand (unlike journal articles which are more concise and specialized). You don't have to read the whole book! Go to the next tab for help with locating books.

Music Reference Sources

A list of specialized music reference works for vocalists.

Harvard Dictionary of Music
Important music dictionary for musical terms and forms. Also includes entries on geographic areas, musical topics, periods, etc.
Oxford Dictionary of Music online
Good starting point. Brief entries on people, places, musical terms and styles, etc. Part of the Oxford Reference collection.

Oxford music online This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive reference work for music in English, with continually updated content. Searches Grove Music Online initially; on search results pages, provides links to more results from The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford University Press.
IPA source : transcriptions and literal translations of songs and arias This link opens in a new window
Provides access to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of thousands of songs and arias. Also includes IPA and diction charts, pronunciation recordings, and other singing related resources.

LiederNet Archive
The LiederNet Archive is the world’s largest reference archive of texts and translations of art songs and choral works.

Music online. African American music reference This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of African American musical expression, including blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms through essays, biographies, discographies, interviews, images, lyrics and scores
Music online. Classical music reference library This link opens in a new window
Offers thousands of pages of reference materials on western classical music from many sources including dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference works on individual composers, etc. Spans the entire history of Western classical music, and brings together in one database authoritative reference titles like Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music.
Music online. The Garland encyclopedia of world music This link opens in a new window
Provides integrated online access to the ten-volume Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (audio and print editions available in the Fine Arts Library). Covers cultural music from all areas of the planet including genres, instruments, places, people, ensembles, and cultural groups. Includes audio examples. Alexander Street Press.

Generate topics for your research paper with ChatGPT

ChatGPT can be a useful tool when it comes to deciding what your topic should be for a research paper.

It’s not good for doing the actual searching because it makes up sources. See I can’t find the citations that ChatGPT gave me. What should I do?

But you can use it to help you:

Narrow down your topic ideas.
Come up with keywords for searching in library databases.
Construct a search strategy for those databases.
Recommend possible library databases to use for your topic.

Follow these steps to learn how.

Sign up for a free account on ChatGPT (if you haven’t already). Or go to https://chat.openai.com and log in to your account.

To prompt ChatGPT effectively, use this example:

Act as an expert academic librarian. I’m writing a research paper for [course] and I need help coming up with a topic. 
I’m interested in topics related to [subject]. Please give me a list of 10 topic ideas related to that.

Here’s an example:
Act as an expert academic librarian. I’m writing a research paper for Sociology and I need help coming up with a topic. 
I’m interested in topics related to climate change. 
Please give me a list of 10 topic ideas related to that.

Now go to ChatGPT and paste in your prompt.
Look over the list it gives you and find one topic that you’re interested in. If there isn’t one, ask ChatGPT to give you more topics. Keep going until you find a topic you like.

Now tell ChatGPT which of those topics you want to use.

Example: I like the topic, Climate Change Denial and its Societal Influence.

Then it will give you some sub-topics or research questions. If it doesn’t, ask for some.

Choose your specific research question from the list. If you don’t like any of them, ask for more. Keep going until you find one you want to use.

Now you can tell ChatGPT which research question you’re going to use. Ask it for some keywords to use when searching library databases.

Example: My research question is going to be this: Investigate the role of social media and online communities in propagating climate change denial and misinformation. 
Please list some keywords I can use when searching library databases.

You can use the keywords and phrases it gives you in Google Scholar, Google, and in library databases.

For more specific research, you can ask ChatGPT to give you some Boolean search strings to use in library databases.

Example: Please construct a few Boolean search strings I can use when researching this topic in library databases.

NOTE: ChatGPT will save all of this information for you, so next time you visit, you’ll see this conversation in your chat history on the left side.

Now that you have some search strings, keywords, and phrases, you can ask ChatGTP for advice on which library databases will work best for your topic.
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Example: Thank you! Now I'd like you to recommend 2 or 3 library databases that would be good to search for this topic.
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Go to our list of library databases and check to see if our library has the databases it recommends.
If we don’t have some of them, ask ChatGPT for more databases that would work for your topic. And Ask Us for help for more specific advice on the best databases for your topic.

Now you can use your search strings in those databases. If you need help with search strategies, see our tutorial: How Do I Create a Search Strategy?

Music - Intro to Vocal Research

Getting started

Find Background Information

Music Reference Sources

Generate topics for your research paper with ChatGPT

University Libraries