Discourse Community Reflection Paper

A discourse community is a group of people who share common interests, goals, and beliefs. In order to become a part of a discourse community one to should appeal to logic, credibility, and emotions. Appealing to logic can occur through the representation statistics and facts, appealing to credibility can be shown through past experiences, and appealing to people’s emotions can be seen through telling personal stories. People use these strategies in order to become a part of something different and new. I will demonstrate how I became a part of the piano playing discourse through researching information on my own, showing my past experiences, and explaining the passion and attachment that I have for the piano.

I was always drawn in by the beautiful

Some may say that having my cousin teach me beforehand made learning the instrument a lot easier. Although it helped a lot I still had to put countless hours on my own when I started learning from my teacher. I was just as confused as any other person who would start to learn a new instrument because I was thrown in a world with a whole new set of vocabulary and terms. I still had to learn how to read sheet music quickly, and play melodies. There were also things that my cousin was not able to teach me, and I had to learn on my own like positioning and counting rhythm. I spent hours reading through musical theory books so that I could understand the background and general makeup of playing the piano. My time and dedication to learning allowed me to become a good piano player and showed that I belonged in that community.

Becoming a part of the piano playing discourse community allowed me to become a part of a new family in which I felt accepted. Being a part of it has taught me many new things that do not apply just to the community itself but to life in general. I tried to learn about the basic notes before starting classes, I asked to be taught a few songs beforehand as well, and after I joined