Children’s verbal explanations of their visual representation of the music

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-581
Author(s):  
Sandra Fortuna ◽  
Luc Nijs
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Music Cognition ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Pattern Perception ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Time Dimension ◽  
Verbal Explanation

Recent findings in music research are increasingly confirming the embodied nature of music cognition. Assuming that a bodily engagement with music may affect the children’s musical meaning formation, we investigated how young children’s interaction with music, based on verbal description after listening versus body movement description while listening, may be reflected in the verbal explanation of their own visual representations of the music they listened to. In this study, 47 children (aged 9–10) without any formal music education participated in a verbal-based versus movement-based intervention. Before and after the interventions, children created a visual representation of the music and provided a verbal explanation of their drawing. Thematic analysis and statistical tests on the verbal data revealed a significant change in semantic themes, time dimension, and the number of music parameters gathered by children involved in body movement description of the music. Our results offer interesting insights on the role of body movement on children’s pattern perception and musical meaning formation.

scholarly journals Linking musical metaphors and emotions evoked by the sound of classical music

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562199123
Author(s):  
Simon Schaerlaeken ◽  
Donald Glowinski ◽  
Didier Grandjean
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Empirical Method ◽  
Mixed Effects Models ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Generalized Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Perceptual Characteristics ◽  
Valence And Arousal ◽  
Western Classical Music

Musical meaning is often described in terms of emotions and metaphors. While many theories encapsulate one or the other, very little empirical data is available to test a possible link between the two. In this article, we examined the metaphorical and emotional contents of Western classical music using the answers of 162 participants. We calculated generalized linear mixed-effects models, correlations, and multidimensional scaling to connect emotions and metaphors. It resulted in each metaphor being associated with different specific emotions, subjective levels of entrainment, and acoustic and perceptual characteristics. How these constructs relate to one another could be based on the embodied knowledge and the perception of movement in space. For instance, metaphors that rely on movement are related to emotions associated with movement. In addition, measures in this study could also be represented by underlying dimensions such as valence and arousal. Musical writing and music education could benefit greatly from these results. Finally, we suggest that music researchers consider musical metaphors in their work as we provide an empirical method for it.

scholarly journals Effects of Attentional Focus on Motor Performance and Physiology in a Slow-Motion Violin Bow-Control Task: Evidence for the Constrained Action Hypothesis in Bowed String Technique

2021 ◽  
pp. 002242942110347
Author(s):  
Emma Allingham ◽  
Clemens Wöllner
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Arm Movement ◽  
Slow Motion ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Electromyographic Activity ◽  
Constrained Action Hypothesis ◽  
Conscious Thinking

The constrained action hypothesis states that focusing attention on action outcomes rather than body movement improves motor performance. Dexterity of motor control is key to successful music performance, making this a highly relevant topic to music education. We investigated effects of focus of attention (FOA) on motor skill performance and EMG muscle activity in a violin bowing task among experienced and novice upper strings players. Following a pedagogically informed exercise, participants attempted to produce single oscillations of the string at a time under three FOA: internal (on arm movement), external (on sound produced), and somatic (on string resistance). Experienced players’ number of bow slips was significantly reduced under somatic focus relative to internal, although number of successful oscillations was not affected. Triceps electromyographic activity was also significantly lower in somatic compared to internal foci for both expertise groups, consistent with physiological understandings of FOA effects. Participants’ reported thoughts during the experiment provided insight into whether aspects of constrained action may be evident in performers’ conscious thinking. These results provide novel support for the constrained action hypothesis in violin bow control, suggesting a somatic FOA as a promising performance-enhancing strategy for bowed string technique.

Is Brain Research Relevant for Music Education?

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur W. Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Memory Recall ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
The Past ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
Musical Elements ◽  
The Brain

During the past several years Dr Harvey has presented seminars on ‘Music and the Brain’ throughout the United States and Canada. In the course of a weekend seminar in 1985 he was, once again, particularly impressed with the power of music to affect individuals in many different ways; musical performances (live and taped) evoked responses as diverse as excitement, tears, loneliness, increases in pulse rate, changes in breathing rate, spontaneous body movement, memory recall and imagery experiences. To understand just how the brain produces both biophysical and psychological responses to music requires a basic understanding of the human brain, the areas of the human personality affected through brain processes, and an awareness of the interactions of musical elements affecting us. In this article Dr Harvey outlines some of the directions of recent research.

Social Justice and Music Technology in Education

2015 ◽  
pp. 472-486
Author(s):  
Paul Louth
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Technology In Education ◽  
Mediating Effects ◽  
Musical Meaning

This chapter argues that educators have an ethical responsibility to be aware of the mediating effects of technologies, and that although technology in music education may either further the cause of social justice or hinder it, the latter will more likely occur when these mediating effects are left unexamined or assumed nonexistent. Following a brief introduction outlining this idea, the discussion is divided into two parts illustrating different sets of possible outcomes of mediation. First, the conditions under which technological instruction might either lead to a sense of empowerment or inculcate students into a consumerist mentality are examined. Second, the issue of whether technological instruction may indirectly cause musical meaning(s) to either become better contextualized or de-politicized is addressed. The chapter concludes that de-skilling, de-contextualizing, and consumerism, as potential impediments to social justice, are best countered by examining and drawing students’ attention to the mediating effects of technology use.

scholarly journals The use of metaphorical musical terminology for verbal description of music

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 627-641
Author(s):  
Milena Petrović ◽  
Marija Golubović
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Melodic Contour ◽  
Associative Thinking ◽  
Music Experience ◽  
And Performance

The aim of this paper is to indicate the importance of the metaphorical terminology and verbal description of music in education and performance due to inevitable role of emotions and embodiment in music experience. Metaphorical music terminology should follow the interpretative maturity, such as for the term scherzo, which would be joke for younger, but forced joke or all but prank for older musicians. For music beginners we can use extramusical verbal symbols: the pulse is represented as the stickman; major with the symbol of sun and minor with the symbol of rain; sequencing is presented with the picture of stairs; the picture of butterfly implies image-schematicity in interpreting the wave melodic contour; children understood duple meter through the picture of a soldier, while triple meter appreciated through the picture of a ballerina; staccato is experienced as a movement, but also as a visual and auditory metaphor. Multimodality plays an important role in music education, because it implies the integration of movement, sound, picture and verbal metaphors. Therefore, the musical experience is described and performance interpreted by following the direction from the emotional sound experience to its cognitive processing. Mul- timodal approach would increase associative thinking and enlarge individual associations on musical terms, which gives a better understanding of music and widens perspective in music education.

scholarly journals The Coupling of Action and Perception in Musical Meaning Formation

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter-Jan Maes ◽  
Edith Van Dyck ◽  
Micheline Lesaffre ◽  
Marc Leman ◽  
Pieter M. Kroonenberg
Keyword(s):  
Music Cognition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Musical Background ◽  
Action And Perception ◽  
Free Body

The embodied perspective on music cognition has stressed the central role of the body and body movements in musical meaning formation processes. In the present study, we investigate by means of a behavioral experiment how free body movements in response to music (i.e., action) can be linked to specific linguistic, metaphorical descriptions people use to describe the expressive qualities they perceive in the music (i.e., perception). We introduce a dimensional model based on the Effort/Shape theory of Laban in order to target musical expressivity from an embodied perspective. Also, we investigate whether a coupling between action and perception is dependent on the musical background of the participants (i.e., trained versus untrained). The results show that the physical appearance of the free body movements that participants perform in response to music are reliably linked to the linguistic descriptions of musical expressiveness in terms of the underlying quality. Moreover, this result is found to be independent of the participants’ musical background.

Inferential Analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Miksza ◽  
Kenneth Elpus
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Significance Testing ◽  
Population Parameters ◽  
Null Hypothesis Significance Testing ◽  
Sample Data ◽  
Inferential Analysis ◽  
Basic Approaches ◽  
Scientific Questions

Researchers often employ statistical techniques to test hypotheses and to express the relative certainty they have when making a claim about how statistics derived from their sample data might be representative of population parameters. This chapter illustrates the logic underlying inferential statistical tests. Inferential analyses involves a set of tools that music education researchers can use when posing scientific questions and seeking to refute their hypotheses. The chapter describes techniques that can be used for testing hypotheses and estimating population parameters on the basis of sample data. In doing so, the chapter emphasizes basic approaches to null hypothesis significance testing, interpreting effect sizes, and building confidence intervals. The chapter also provides a brief critique of null hypothesis significance testing as a tradition.

“He Sings with Rhythm; He is from India”

2019 ◽  
pp. 363-392
Author(s):  
Roger Mantie ◽  
Beatriz Ilari
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Children's Drawings ◽  
Music Assessment ◽  
Projective Technique ◽  
Children’S Drawings ◽  
Musical Elements ◽  
Children’S Thinking

This chapter provides a view of music assessment predicated on a belief that the what of assessment in P–12 music education should include understandings and attitudes about music and culture not typically ascertainable through traditional music assessment practices that focus on performing ability and knowledge of musical elements. Six vignettes show the various ways that children’s drawings, as a projective technique of visual representation, might be used to expose and discern (i.e., assess) children’s thinking, understandings, and attitudes about music and culture. It is argued that the multimodality of drawing and talking in response to musical prompts opens up rich potential to inform instruction that better accounts for the lifeworlds of children.

The Perception and Learning of Temporal Patterns

1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Garner ◽  
Richard L. Gottwald
Keyword(s):  
Event Rate ◽  
Temporal Patterns ◽  
Observation Time ◽  
Pattern Perception ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
Pattern Learning ◽  
Basic Pattern ◽  
Binary Event ◽  
Pattern Description

Subjects observed sequences of stimuli generated by the repetition of temporal patterns formed of eight elements, each element being a binary event. Rate of presentation varied from 0.8 to 8.0 elements per sec.; stimuli were either visual or auditory; there were 10 different basic patterns; and for each basic pattern there were a preferred and a non-preferred starting pattern. Subjects observed as long as necessary in order to give a verbal description of the pattern after terminating it. Difficulty (measured by observation time and accuracy of description) was related to basic pattern and generally increased with increased rate. Differences due to starting pattern were found only at low rates, while differences due to modality were found only at high rates. Similar effects were obtained with respect to pattern description. These consistently different effects of starting pattern and modality at low and high rates require a distinction between pattern perception at higher rates, which is phenomenally integrated, immediate, compelling and passive, and pattern learning at lower rates, which is unintegrated, derived, intellectualized and active. Even though a distinction between perception and learning is necessary, similar principles of pattern organization operate for both.

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