Choosing Music and Science
I remember the first time I came across this programme on the Master's Portal website. I didn't fully understand how profound the field really was. It's a field where music meets different areas of science, such as computer science, psychology, biology, and more.
My passion for mathematics and physics, which I had studied on my own, together with my academic background in music composition, made me choose this field, a place where both my passions finally meet.
Finding My Area in computational musicology
When I arrived at the University of Jyväskylä, I spent my first year simply trying to learn and explore the different ways music and science can be combined through courses such as Music Computing, Music and Neuroscience, Embodiment in Music, and Music and Emotions.
Reading articles, giving presentations, doing both independent and group work, and writing research plans and short essays for different courses finally helped me find my own path: the combination of computer science and music known as computational musicology.
To work in this area, I went back to the mathematics I had learned years ago and tried to expand it further. I also stepped into the programming world and learned three programming languages: MATLAB, Python, and JavaScript. Along the way, I became familiar with the field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR) and started studying it more deeply.
An Amazing Project in MATLAB
One course that really helped me on this journey was Music and Computing 2. In it, we learned MATLAB along with two research toolboxes, MIRtoolbox and MoCap Toolbox, and did a project in MATLAB. I tried to improve some functions in the MoCap Toolbox, which taught me a lot. The most challenging part was writing my own functions from scratch instead of just using existing ones.
A Field Few People Know About
One thing that surprised me is how few people know this field exists. When I explain it to my friends, none of them can believe there is such an amazing multidisciplinary field, and they're always amazed by how interesting it is. It still surprises me that such a profound field isn't better known.
My Typical Day at JYU
Now I'm in my second year. A typical day for me means waking up, working on my master's thesis in MIR, attending classes, and sometimes hanging out and having discussions with friends, just like anyone else.
What I enjoy most is that my interest in this field keeps growing, and I want to learn more about it every day.
At JYU, the combination of nature and an academic environment makes this learning path even more fascinating. After a long day of working on my thesis, cycling by the lake is the most peaceful way to refresh my mind.
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