Psychology of Music Learning

1. Psychology of Music Learning Miksza PERCEPTION

2. R & B – Rhythm’s Function • A fundamental organizing component of music (Cooper & Meyer) • Perhaps more so than pitch information • May encompass cross cultural univerals • Gabrielsson • Performance – Sound Sequences – Response (experiential, behavioral, physiological) • “…anything pertaining to the temporal quality of a musical sound (Apel).”

3. R & B – Rhythmic Structure 1 • Mursell • Underlying beat, phrase rhythm • Cooper & Meyer • Pulse, meter, rhythm • Gordon • Macrobeats, microbeats, rhythm patterns • Creston • Meter, pace, accent, pattern • Gabriellson • Meter, accent on 1st beat, basic pattern, prominence of basic pattern, uniformity-variation or simplicity-complexity • Confound • Descriptions of ‘perceived structure’… …is it psychological or acoustical phenomenon that defines rhythmic structure?

4. R & B – Rhythmic Structure 2 • Clark – heirarchical structure of symbolic and abstract rhythmic events • Notation - tempo, duration events/silences, groupings, meter • Also grouping – pitch, timbre, dynamic • Also metrical – tension and release • Also interpretive – notated duration vs. resulting duration after articulation style is applied • Clark – problems with psychological investigation of rhythm • Assuming that formal structure and perceptual properties function in same way • Subjective variability of psychological processes • Tendency to confuse cultural norms with perceptual norms

5. R & B – Rhythmic Structure 3 • Beat vs. Meter problems… • Discrepancy between time signature vs. actual unit receiving beat • True beat, takt, tactus, metric beat • Typically defined by bar line and emphasis, but all music is not that mechanical • More than one metric level operating in most music • More perception than structure • Hypermeter – beats as bars/measures • Dalcroze notation of ‘bottom’ in time signature

6. R & B – Rhythmic Structure 4 • Tempo – the speed at which beats recur (Creston) • Accents (Creston) • Dynamic, agogic, metric, harmonic, weight, pitch, pattern, embellished • Accents (Lerdahl & Jackendoff) • Metric – reinforcing groupings vs. others • Accents (Kramer) • Stress, rhythmic, metric – all others just factors that cause these

7. R & B – Movement, Perception, Performance • “Competing” theories • Internal clocks, mental time-keepers (cognitive) • Dynamic systems – mental and motor interactions (behavioral, neural, neuromuscular) • Types of sensory feedback • Exteroceptive – events external to the body • Proprioceptive – created by body movements • Studies of stimuli travelling to the brain suggest that proprioceptive feedback may be linked to higher mental processes

8. R & B – Movement, Perception, Performance • Movement and Rhythm • Moog – children w/movement limitations scored lower than children without on rhythmic tasks • Internal time-keeper • Temporal codes stored in motor programs • Dynamic systems • From organizing processes in the neuromotor system itself • Methodological approach • Tapping with steady beat • Boils down to ‘cognitive/central control’ vs. ‘proprioceptive’ explanations

9. R & B – Cognitive Perspectives on Rhythmic Behavior • Beat/Tempo • Dowling & Harwood - beat serves as a cognitive framework for understanding rhythm • Fraisse - tempo defines beat also, based on Gestalt law of proximity • Methods • Tapping • Judging changes • Factors that influence beat perception

10. R & B – Cognitive Perspectives on Rhythmic Behavior • Beat/Tempo findings… • Spontaneous tempo adults:100-120, musicians:60-120 (Fraisse), 4 and 6 yr olds:150 (Drake et al.) • Probably both perceptual (attention to detail) and motor factors • Musicians perceive decreases in tempo quicker than non-musicians (Kuhn) • Decreases in tempo easier to perceive than increases in general (Geringer et al.) • Sheldon - contrary findings… • Even vs. uneven rhythms, style, initial tempo affect perception of tempo change (Wang & Salzburg)

11. R & B – Cognitive Perspectives on Rhythmic Behavior • Meter • It’s important to consider differences between notated and perceived meter • Tempo seems to be the biggest factor to consider • Dynamic placement and musical experience are also important factors

12. R & B – Cognitive Perspectives on Rhythmic Behavior • Rhythm groups • Isochronous = equal • Sloboda - rhythms are perceived categorically as patterns, like basic speech phenomes… • Lerhdal & Jackendoff - model of rhythmic understanding based on grammar and psycholinguistics • Lack of empirical evidence, heavy emphasis of musical structure-formalist • Drake - segmentation in groups vs. hierarchical segmentation • Process oriented model • Found similar rhythmic errors results across age groups • Change in hierarchical segmentation as piece is learned

13. R & B – Cognitive Perspectives on Rhythmic Behavior • Rhythm groups (cont.) • Auditory stream segregation - separating pairs of sound sequences • Interaction of speed of presentation and distance (proximity) between frequencies • Frequency vs. noise may also result in stream segregation (similarity) • Context also affects rhythmic perception (e.g., melodic vs. non-melodic) • Sink - tempo, meter, rhythmic pattern, melodic patterns - four dimensions of structural perception • Gabrielsson - tempo primary grouping dimension

14. R & B - Expressive Timing • Bengtsson & Gabrielsson - professional musicians systematically vary performances from mechanical norm • Changing time ratios between notated values • Placing notes before or after underlying metric beats • Elongating phrase endings • Vienesse waltz… • Onsets of jazz rhythm sections (Rose) • Phrase lengthening of harmonic and melodic tension in Beethoven (Repp) • Ritard lengths (Sundberg & Verillo) • Judgments of appropriate related to training

15. R & B - Melodic and Harmonic Foundations • Cognitive emphases, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, music theory • Horizontal dimension: pitch sequences, melody • Selecting tones from a pitch continuum and placing them in temporal sequence • Attributes: pitch, rhythm, tempo, contour, timbre, loudness, spatial location, environmental reverberation • Recognition is also a function of expectancy

16. R & B - Melody Structure • Melodic contour: pattern of ascending and descending pitches • Pitch height: octave location • Chroma: specific chromatic pitch • Lundin • Propinquity - nearness, prominence of smaller successive intervals vs. larger intervals • Repetition - certain tones repeat with great frequency, 1, 3, 4 • Finality - cadence, final tones

17. R & B - Melody Structure • Perceptual organization: psychological factors influence apprehension of tonal sequence as a melody • Gestalt Laws • Proximity: close in time and auditory space as a melodic unit • Similarity: repeated tones as a unit • Common direction: moving in a common direction towards completion • Simplicity: organize in its simplest form • However, not rationalist or innate… …changes with experience/training • Schema - knowledge structures developed from experience, culture

18. R & B - Harmony • Vertical dimension: simultaneous pitch structures, harmony • Monophonic - melody alone • Polyphonic - two or more simultaneous melodies • Homophonic - melody with tertian accompaniment • A cultural phenomenon (Lundin, Farnsworth) • Tonality, harmonic movement, finality • Context dependent principles (Krumhansl et al.) • Identity, Distance, Asymmetry • Tonality • Tonal strength equation based on sung responses (Taylor)

19. R & B - Harmony • Psychological processes • Three influences • Reductionist - atomistic look at auditory elements (Seashore, Helmholtz) • Gestalt - perceptual organization (Wertheimer, Koffka) • Music theorists - tonality, terminology, music-based accounts • Models are descriptions of inferred psychological events

20. R & B - Harmony • Hierarchical perceptual structures • Krumhansl • Paired-similarity ratings • Triad, diatonic, chromatic • Matching exercise with interference tones • Diatonic interference tones easier to overcome than chromatic interference tones • Multidimensional scaling on similarity ratings • Tonal hierarchy cone - triad, diatonic, chromatic • Butler • Rare intervals determine tonal context • Minor seconds, tritones - represent cadences

21. R & B - Melodic and Harmonic Memory and Processing • Dowling & Harwood • Contour important for short-term memory of melody • Interval size and pitch chroma important for long-term melody • Information theory • Relation of redundancy and uncertainty is inverse • Redundancy = expectancy • Perceptual redundancy = structural and cultural redundancy • Lack of redundancy may be a problem with contemporary music