The Effect of Various Instructional Conditions on Expressive Music Performance

This study is a comparison of the effectiveness of three approaches used to elicit expressivity in music students' performances: (a) aural modeling, (b) verbal instruction addressing concrete musical properties, and (c) verbal instruction using imagery and metaphor. Thirty-six college pianists worked with three melodies, one in each instructional condition. With each, subjects first gave a baseline performance, then received instruction for performing more expressively, and then gave a final performance. Subjects also verbally reported their thoughts during the process. Results confirmed that musicians can accommodate all three types of instruction used in the study and that each has strengths and weaknesses related to the characteristics of the music being performed and the musicians themselves. Additionally, analysis of the verbal reports suggested that musicians may use a cognitive translation process whereby they convert metaphor/imagery information into more explicit plans for changing the expressive musical properties of their performance (e.g., loudness, tempo, articulation). August 22, 2005 January 30, 2006

Explaining Expressive Performance: Component Cognitive Skills in an Aural Modeling Task

This study is an examination of musicians' expressive performances, in an aural modeling task, paying special attention to the skills of goal imaging and motor production. Twenty-five university musicians heard expressive piano excerpts preceded by expressionless “deadpan” versions to use as the bases of comparison. After giving imitative performances of each expressive model, subjects indicated the perceived dynamic and tempo contours of the model by drawing on a chart. Multiple regression analyses were used to explain the dynamic variations of subjects' expressive performances. A theoretical model designated “contextual goal image” consisted of (a) subjects' previous attempts at performing in a deadpan manner (indicating the expressive conventions automatically applied to the excerpts' musical contexts) and (b) their line drawings of what they perceived in the models. Overall, the contextual goal image model explained a large proportion of the variance in performance, indicating the importance of supplementing automatically applied performance conventions with an explicit goal performance plan.

The Relationship between Explicit Planning and Expressive Performance of Dynamic Variations in an Aural Modeling Task

The present study is an examination of the performance of expressive dynamic variations by advanced pianists in an aural modeling (imitative) performance task. Twenty-four university musicians listened to expressive performances of short piano excerpts played for them via MIDI on a Yamaha Disklavier acoustic piano. These expressive models contained idiomatic features (musically appropriate) and nonidiomatic features (musically inappropriate). After hearing each model, subjects reported their thoughts regarding dynamic variations they had heard and then attempted to imitate the model in their own performance on the piano. Results indicated that expressive performance of dynamic variations is influenced by the performer's explicit identification of dynamic features and their incorporation into a specific goal performance plan. Analyses of individual dynamic features revealed that subjects who identified features consistently performed the features differently than did the subjects who did not identify them. Subjects who identified features played nonidiomatic features more accurately and played idiomatic features at more pronounced overall levels.