Exploring the Effects of Pitch Layout on Learning a New Musical Instrument

Jennifer Macritchie,Andrew Milne

doi:10.3390/app7121218

Abstract

Although isomorphic pitch layouts are proposed to afford various advantages for musicians playing new musical instruments, this paper details the first substantive set of empirical tests on how two fundamental aspects of isomorphic pitch layouts affect motor learning: shear, which makes the pitch axis vertical, and the adjacency (or nonadjacency) of pitches a major second apart. After receiving audio-visual training tasks for a scale and arpeggios, performance accuracies of 24 experienced musicians were assessed in immediate retention tasks (same as the training tasks, but without the audio-visual guidance) and in a transfer task (performance of a previously untrained nursery rhyme). Each participant performed the same tasks with three different pitch layouts and, in total, four different layouts were tested. Results show that, so long as the performance ceiling has not already been reached (due to ease of the task or repeated practice), adjacency strongly improves performance accuracy in the training and retention tasks. They also show that shearing the layout, to make the pitch axis vertical, worsens performance accuracy for the training tasks but, crucially, it strongly improves performance accuracy in the transfer task when the participant needs to perform a new, but related, task. These results can inform the design of pitch layouts in new musical instruments.

Highlights

Designers of new musical instruments can often be concerned with ensuring accessibility for users either with no previous musical experience, or for those who already have training in another instrument, so that they can alter or learn new techniques
In order to determine effect sizes and significances of the independent variables (Adjacency, Shear, LayoutNo, PerfNo), these variables were regressed on the dependent variable Inaccuracy
Due to fundamental differences in the training tasks compared with the test tasks, the method for calculating their respective Inaccuracy values differs

Summary

Introduction

Designers of new musical instruments can often be concerned with ensuring accessibility for users either with no previous musical experience, or for those who already have training in another instrument, so that they can alter or learn new techniques. Several claims regarding the optimal pitch layout of new musical instruments or interfaces have been made, but as yet there is little empirical investigation of the factors that may enhance or disturb learning and performance on these devices. Our previous conference paper detailed the impact of adjacency and shear on pitch accuracy for the transfer task [1]; in this paper, we take a more comprehensive approach by considering timing accuracy, and the training and retention tasks.

Results

Discussion

Conclusion