Psychology of Music Learning Miksza PERCEPTION

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).”

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 1 st 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

R & B – Cognitive Perspectives on Rhythmic Behavior Beat/Tempo findings… –Spontaneous tempo adults: , musicians: (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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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