scholarly journals A Cognitive Basis for Choosing a Solmization System

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary S. Karpinski

This article focuses on the perception and cognition involved in music listening skills as essential criteria in selecting solmization systems. Drawing on many aural key-identification studies performed by various researchers, and on the model for music perception developed by Karpinski (".fn_cite_year($karpinski_1990).") and formalized in Karpinski (".fn_cite_year($karpinski_2000)."), it concludes that the first and most fundamental process listeners carry out while attending to the pitches of tonal music is tonic inference. In addition, a tonic is inferable without reference to a complete diatonic pitch collection. Melodies that are unambiguous with regard to their tonic might never employ all seven diatonic pitch classes, they might state those pitch classes only gradually, or they might even change the collection without changing tonic. Nonetheless, listeners are able to infer tonics quickly and dynamically under any of the above conditions. According to Butler (".fn_cite_year($butler_1992).", 119), “listeners make assessments of tonal center swiftly and apparently without conscious effort” certainly well in advance of inferring or perceiving entire diatonic pitch collections. This article examines the means through which do-based minor movable-do solmization most closely models this mental process and contrasts that with la-based minor and its inherent inability to model the pitches of a musical passage until all seven of its diatonic members are explicitly stated (or at least implicitly present). This is not to say that la-based minor is ineffective, but simply that do-based minor most closely reflects and represents the way listeners infer tonality.

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Taher ◽  
René Rusch ◽  
Stephen McAdams

Repetition and novelty are essential components of tonal music. Previous research suggests that the degree of repetitiveness of a line can determine its relative melodicity within a musical texture. Concordantly, musical accompaniments tend to be highly repetitive, probably facilitating listeners’ tendency to focus on and follow the melodic lines they support. With the aim of contributing to the unexplored area of the relationship between repetition and attention in polyphonic music listening, this paper presents an empirical investigation of the way listeners attend to exact and immediate reiterations of musical fragments in two-part contrapuntal textures. Participants heard original excerpts composed of a repetitive and a nonrepetitive part, continuously rating the relative prominence of the two voices. The results indicate that the line that consists of immediate and exact repetitions of a short musical fragment tends to perceptually decrease in salience for the listener. This suggests that musical repetition plays a significant role in dynamically shaping listeners’ perceptions of musical texture by affecting the relative perceived importance of simultaneous parts.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104837132110160
Author(s):  
Tiger Robison ◽  
Mara E. Culp

General music teachers can promote gender inclusivity in music classrooms through music listening activities. Helping all students feel included and honored could improve student learning and foster continued and diversified music listening in school and beyond. The purpose of this article, the first of three about gender inclusivity in general music, is to help music teachers create inclusive general music experiences to support all students during music listening activities. By knowing learners as individuals, teachers can help all students feel valued in music classrooms, which may serve to deepen and extend their music listening skills and preferences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. van Besouw ◽  
Benjamin R. Oliver ◽  
Mary L. Grasmeder ◽  
Sarah M. Hodkinson ◽  
Heidi Solheim

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a prototype interactive music awareness program (IMAP) for adult cochlear implant (CI) users. An unblinded, randomized crossover design was used. Twenty-one CI users were recruited and allocated to two groups. Group 1 received the IMAP first, followed by a retention of learning phase. Group 2 were given the IMAP after 12 weeks. Participants were instructed to undertake two half-hour sessions per week at home over 12 weeks. Both groups attended appointments at the start, halfway through, and at the end of the trial. At each appointment participants completed tests of speech perception, melodic contour identification, and instrument recognition, rated the sound quality of music, and indicated their music listening habits. Sixteen participants completed the study. Following training both groups showed improved instrument recognition abilities and feedback suggests further positive impact on participants’ lives. The findings suggest that the IMAP is beneficial for music perception and in particular, improved instrument recognition.


2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 120-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Gfeller ◽  
Jacob Oleson ◽  
John F. Knutson ◽  
Patrick Breheny ◽  
Virginia Driscoll ◽  
...  

The research examined whether performance by adult cochlear implant recipients on a variety of recognition and appraisal tests derived from real-world music could be predicted from technological, demographic, and life experience variables, as well as speech recognition scores. A representative sample of 209 adults implanted between 1985 and 2006 participated. Using multiple linear regression models and generalized linear mixed models, sets of optimal predictor variables were selected that effectively predicted performance on a test battery that assessed different aspects of music listening. These analyses established the importance of distinguishing between the accuracy of music perception and the appraisal of musical stimuli when using music listening as an index of implant success. Importantly, neither device type nor processing strategy predicted music perception or music appraisal. Speech recognition performance was not a strong predictor of music perception, and primarily predicted music perception when the test stimuli included lyrics. Additionally, limitations in the utility of speech perception in predicting musical perception and appraisal underscore the utility of music perception as an alternative outcome measure for evaluating implant outcomes. Music listening background, residual hearing (i.e., hearing aid use), cognitive factors, and some demographic factors predicted several indices of perceptual accuracy or appraisal of music. La investigación examinó si el desempeño, por parte de adultos receptores de un implante coclear, sobre una variedad de pruebas de reconocimiento y evaluación derivadas de la música del mundo real, podrían predecirse a partir de variables tecnológicas, demográficas y de experiencias de vida, así como de puntajes de reconocimiento del lenguaje. Participó una muestra representativa de 209 adultos implantados entre 1965 y el 2006. Usando múltiples modelos de regresión lineal y modelos mixtos lineales generalizados, se seleccionaron grupos de variables óptimas de predicción, que pudieran predecir efectivamente el desempeño por medio de una batería de pruebas que permitiera evaluar diferentes aspectos de la apreciación musical. Estos análisis establecieron la importancia de distinguir entre la exactitud en la percepción musical y la evaluación de estímulos musicales cuando se utiliza la apreciación musical como un índice de éxito en la implantación. Importantemente, ningún tipo de dispositivo o estrategia de procesamiento predijo la percepción o la evaluación musical. El desempeño en el reconocimiento del lenguaje no fue un elemento fuerte de predicción, y llegó a predecir primariamente la percepción musical cuando los estímulos de prueba incluyeron las letras. Adicionalmente, las limitaciones en la utilidad de la percepción del lenguaje a la hora de predecir la percepción y la evaluación musical, subrayan la utilidad de la percepción de la música como una medida alternativa de resultado para evaluar la implantación coclear. La música de fondo, la audición residual (p.e., el uso de auxiliares auditivos), los factores cognitivos, y algunos factores demográficos predijeron varios índices de exactitud y evaluación perceptual de la música.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Mencke ◽  
David Ricardo Quiroga-Martinez ◽  
Diana Omigie ◽  
Franz Schwarzacher ◽  
Niels T Haumann ◽  
...  

Predictive models in the brain rely on the continuous extraction of regularities from the environment. These models are thought to be updated by novel information, as reflected in prediction error responses such as the mismatch negativity (MMN). However, although in real life individuals often face situations in which uncertainty prevails, it remains unclear whether and how predictive models emerge in high-uncertainty contexts. Recent research suggests that uncertainty affects the magnitude of MMN responses in the context of music listening. However, musical predictions are typically studied with MMN stimulation paradigms based on Western tonal music, which are characterized by relatively high predictability. Hence, we developed an MMN paradigm to investigate how the high uncertainty of atonal music modulates predictive processes as indexed by the MMN and behavior. Using MEG in a group of 20 subjects without musical training, we demonstrate that the magnetic MMN in response to pitch, intensity, timbre, and location deviants is evoked in both tonal and atonal melodies, with no significant differences between conditions. In contrast, in a separate behavioral experiment involving 39 non-musicians, participants detected pitch deviants more accurately and rated confidence higher in the tonal than in the atonal musical context. These results indicate that contextual tonal uncertainty modulates processing stages in which conscious awareness is involved, although deviants robustly elicit low-level pre-attentive responses such as the MMN. The achievement of robust MMN responses, despite high tonal uncertainty, is relevant for future studies comparing groups of listeners' MMN responses to increasingly ecological music stimuli.


Author(s):  
Mirdza Paipare

Very few researches focus on music as an activity and most often it is linked to music perception, therefore – music psychology. Similarly the theories on this question are developed. Interrelations between music therapy and music psychology, as well as the role of listening and music listening in music pedagogy, psychology and music therapy are little researched. The goal of this article is to intentionally draw attention to the significance of this very common thing in our everyday lives – listening – in communication, development of cognitive and phenomenological skills and abilities (perception, recognition, describing, explaining). These skills and abilities are necessary in the work of pedagogue and psychologist, and especially music therapist.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 3939-3950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick S Barrett ◽  
Katrin H Preller ◽  
Marcus Herdener ◽  
Petr Janata ◽  
Franz X Vollenweider

AbstractClassic psychedelic drugs (serotonin 2A, or 5HT2A, receptor agonists) have notable effects on music listening. In the current report, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal was collected during music listening in 25 healthy adults after administration of placebo, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and LSD pretreated with the 5HT2A antagonist ketanserin, to investigate the role of 5HT2A receptor signaling in the neural response to the time-varying tonal structure of music. Tonality-tracking analysis of BOLD data revealed that 5HT2A receptor signaling alters the neural response to music in brain regions supporting basic and higher-level musical and auditory processing, and areas involved in memory, emotion, and self-referential processing. This suggests a critical role of 5HT2A receptor signaling in supporting the neural tracking of dynamic tonal structure in music, as well as in supporting the associated increases in emotionality, connectedness, and meaningfulness in response to music that are commonly observed after the administration of LSD and other psychedelics. Together, these findings inform the neuropsychopharmacology of music perception and cognition, meaningful music listening experiences, and altered perception of music during psychedelic experiences.


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