scholarly journals Modelling perceived syncopation in popular music drum patterns

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 205920431879146
Author(s):  
Florian Hoesl ◽  
Olivier Senn

Recent studies suggest that rhythmic syncopation is a relevant predictor for groove. In order to validate these claims, a reliable measure of rhythmic syncopation is required. This article investigates whether a particular notation-based model for estimating syncopation in Western popular music drum patterns adequately predicts perceived syncopation. A listening experiment was carried out with 25 professional musicians. Six popular music drum patterns were presented to the participants in all 15 pairwise combinations, and the participants chose the pattern from each pair that was more syncopated (win), compared to the other pattern (lose). Perceived syncopation was defined as the proportion of wins for each stimulus. The experiment showed that the model works well in general, but that it overemphasises the weight of syncopes on weak metric positions. This exaggerates the syncopation value of one particular drum pattern and generally leads to inflated syncopation values in the upper syncopation range. In consequence, the fit between the model and perceived syncopation was poor, even when flexible logarithmic functions [Formula: see text], p < .001) or exponential approach functions ([Formula: see text], p < .001) were used to link the model predictions to perceived syncopation. The model was revised and a numeric optimisation process was carried out to improve its fit. The revised model produces syncopation estimates that have a linear relationship with the perceived syncopation measures and a good fit with the data ([Formula: see text], p = .469). However, this revised model is based on only six drum patterns that cover a very limited range of rhythmic phenomena. In order to create a general model of syncopation in popular music drum patterns, further modelling work is necessary that involves a larger number and a wider variety of patterns.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Inglis

Since 2011, the town of Wrexham has hosted the annual Focus Wales festival, showcasing local and international talent across a three-day event to an audience of 15,000. What sets this festival aside from many of the other, similar events happening around the country is its emphasis on music education alongside simply performance. On top of the various shows that take place over the course of the bank holiday weekend, Focus Wales also presents interactive events featuring industry experts, film screenings, and art installations; as well as a conference that presents talks from professional musicians, promoters, radio DJs, academics and more. This article looks into the ways in which Focus Wales has approached musicological discourse over its ten-year history, and how it has contributed to popular music education in Wales.


2019 ◽  
pp. 102986491983917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Senn ◽  
Toni Amadeus Bechtold ◽  
Florian Hoesl ◽  
Lorenz Kilchenmann

Groove is a common experience in music listeners, often described as an enjoyable impulse to move in synchrony with the music. Research has suggested that the groove experience is influenced by listeners’ musical taste and their familiarity with a musical repertoire. This study reports the results from an online listening experiment in which 233 participants rated the groove quality of 208 short clips from different Western popular music styles. Findings show that participants’ familiarity with a song, its musical style, and listeners’ preference for that style have a considerable effect on the groove experience. Overall, pop and funk stimuli triggered a stronger groove experience than rock stimuli. Listeners had a tendency to give high groove ratings to music they had heard before and to music that belonged to a style they liked. Results also show that professional musicians had a tendency to experience more groove in response to funk compared to pop music, whereas non-musicians experienced more groove with pop compared to funk. Together, these effects explained approximately 15% of the groove ratings’ variance. In sum, listeners’ attitudes and their musical backgrounds have a considerable impact on their experience of groove.


1975 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 899-913
Author(s):  
Robert B. Herrmann

Abstract The observed relationship between magnitude and duration is shown to be a result of the particular shape of the signal coda as a function of time. If the envelope of the coda follows a t−q relationship with increasing time, then the magnitude, mτ, based on a duration τ is consequently of the form m τ = q log ⁡ 10 τ + r . A study of the duration-magnitude and duration-moment relationships for a set of central United States earthquakes indicates that the linear relationship between mτ and log10τ is valid only over a limited range. The departure from the simple linear dependence is explained in terms of instrumental response and the shift of the source-spectrum corner frequency with increasing event size.


Popular Music ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Cloonan

Recent years have seen two noticeable trends in Popular Music Studies. These have been on the one hand a series of works which have tried to document the ‘local’ music scene and, on the other, accounts of processes of globalisation. While not uninterested in the intermediate Nation-State level, both trends have tended to regard it as an area of increasingly less importance. To state the matter more boldly, both trends have underplayed the continually important role of the Nation-State.


1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 433-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Ferrier ◽  
Angela Kesthely ◽  
Eva Lagan ◽  
Conrad Richter

A model for cytosolic Ca2+ spikes is presented that incorporates continual influx of Ca2+, uptake into an intracellular compartment, and Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release from the compartment. Two versions are used. In one, release is controlled by explicit thresholds, while in the other, release is a continuous function of cytosolic and compartmental [Ca2+]. Some model predictions are as follows. Starting with low Ca2+ influx and no spikes: (1) induction of spiking when Ca2+ influx is increased. Starting with spikes: (2) increase in magnitude and decrease in frequency when influx is reduced; (3) inhibition of spiking if influx is greatly reduced; (4) decrease in the root-mean-square value when influx is increased; and (5) elimination of spiking if influx is greatly increased. Since there is good evidence that hyperpolarizing spikes reflect cytosolic Ca2+ spikes, we used electrophysiological measurements to test the model. Each model prediction was confirmed by experiments in which Ca2+ influx was manipulated. However, the original spike activity tended to return within 5–30 min, indicating a cellular resetting process.Key words: calcium, electrophysiology, mathematical modelling.


1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 845-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. CONSOLI ◽  
Z. HIOKI

We perform a detailed comparison of the present LEP data with the one-loop standard model predictions. It is pointed out that for mt = 174 GeV the "bulk" of the data prefers a rather large value of the Higgs mass in the range of 500–1000 GeV, in agreement with the indications from the W mass. On the other hand, to accommodate a light Higgs it is crucial to include the more problematic data for the τ FB asymmetry. We discuss further improvements on the data which are required to obtain a firm conclusion.


Author(s):  
Christopher Dunn

Chapter 2 explores the connections between the artistic avantgarde and the counterculture. A small, but influential group of artists sometimes identified as “marginal” or “underground” coalesced in the aftermath of Tropicália. Cultura marginal may be located at the intersection of two cultural phenomenon: On one hand it had deep affinities with the emergent counterculture. On the other hand, cultura marginal was indebted to the mid-century constructivist avant-garde, especially neo-concretism. The author discusses the work of experimental artist, Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, who developed a series of environmental and performative works that demanded the active participation of spectators to create meaning. The author explores Oiticica’s dialogue with experimental writer and songwriter, Waly Salomão, whose work circulated within the rarified field of experimental writing, while also finding a mass audience through popular music, notably in the performances of Gal Costa. The author devotes a section to the journalist and artist Torquato Neto, who promoted cultura marginal and also performed in “Nosferato no Brasil,” a celebrated example of Super 8 film. Finally, the author analyzes the publication Navilouca, a graphic and textual project that brought together key figures of cultura marginal and the avantgarde.


2019 ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
Alison Stone

Chapter 9 explores how rhythm functions and affects us in popular music, restricting that term to the post-1950s period, and arguing that in such music, measured time becomes a resource for creating fields of energy that empower us as embodied human agents. One typical layer of sound in popular music is what the chapter identifies as “explicit” rhythm: a constant (metrical) layer of percussion that has no precise pitch. In relation to this layer, the rhythmic qualities of all the other layers of sound—vocal/melodic, harmonic, bass-lines, etc.—are heightened, as they emphasize beats that fit in with or pull against the (metric) level emphasized by the percussion. This gives the music a pronounced rhythmic character that appeals to our bodies by providing opportunities to move creatively with the emphases sounded by the different layers of the music. The account is illustrated with the example of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”


The use of complex variable theory to express problems in generalized plane stress is well known, but methods of finding particular solutions are available for only a limited range of problems. This paper and its sequel will develop a new technique, reducing certain problems with mixed boundary conditions to second order functional differential equations, whose solutions can be found in series form. Exact solutions are given to three fundamental problems of the diffusion of load in an infinite two-dimensional elastic sheet to which a semi-infinite elastic stiffener is continuously attached throughout its length. The first problem has a load applied to the end of the stiffener, with its line of action along the stiffener and its reactions at infinity. In the other two problems the stiffener end is unloaded but a uniform tension is applied to the sheet at infinity, in one case parallel to the stiffener, in the other perpendicular to it. Expressions for the load in the stiffener and for the direct and shear stresses in the sheet are found and plotted in non-dimensional form.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 205920432091684
Author(s):  
Ivan Jimenez ◽  
Tuire Kuusi ◽  
Christopher Doll

Although Western tonal syntax can generate a very large number of chord successions of various lengths and degrees of complexity, some types of music, from Renaissance dances to recent pop, tend to rely more heavily on the repetition of relatively simple, short harmonic patterns. Doll recently identified short chord progressions commonly found in North American and British popular music and proposed that these chord progressions can be stored in long-term memory in the form of harmonic schemata that allow listeners to hear them as stereotypical chord progressions. However, considering the challenges that many listeners face when trying to consciously grasp harmony, it seems likely that the feelings of remembering chord progressions varies from listener to listener. To investigate these potential differences, we asked 231 listeners with various levels of musical training to rate their confidence on whether or not they had previously heard six diatonic four-chord progressions. To control for the effect of extra-harmonic features, we instantiated the chord progressions in a way that resembled the piano of a famous song and controlled for participants’ familiarity with that song and whether they had played its chords. We found that ratings correlated with typicality for the two groups of participants who had played an instrument for at least one year and to a lesser extent for the other participants. Additionally, all our players thought of specific songs more often and mentioned songs that better matched the stimuli in harmonic terms. What we did not find, however, was any effect associated to how long participants had played an instrument or the type of the instrument they had played. Our research supports the notion that both musical training and extra-harmonic features affect listeners’ feelings of remembering chord progressions.


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