Psychology of Music Learning

1
Psychology of Music Learning

• Miksza - Spring 08
• WEEK TWELVE
• PERCEPTION

2
R B Rhythms 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 adults100-120,
  musicians60-120 (Fraisse), 4 and 6 yr olds150
  (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
• Its 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