Abstract
During music reading, performers create expectations of the upcoming music. When these expectations are violated due to changes in the notation, performers have to adjust their reading and adapt their motor responses to match this new information. In this study, we examine how selected background, outcome, and process measures reflect the successful handling of incongruences during music reading. Twenty-four performers were tasked with singing or playing versions of “Mary had a little lamb” in two different tonalities. Some versions contained a surprising element: a bar shifted down a tone. Selected outcome and process measures, such as performance accuracy and eye-movements during music reading (eye-time span, duration of first-pass fixations and pupil dilation), were analyzed. In sum, incongruence in music notation not only increased the number of performance mistakes, but incongruent melodies also led to micro-level changes in the reading processes. We propose that understanding the cognitive strategies for successful music reading requires going beyond the more traditional outcome measures and focus on the detailed analyses of the reading process itself.
Highlights
Western music notation is a symbolic language often applied in learning and performing on various musical instruments and singing
We present results concerning the relationship between performer-related cognitive characteristics and the number of correct variation performances and correctness of music performances
This study provides insight into how experienced music readers handle local incongruences in music, when they play and sing familiar music in two different tonalities
Summary
Western music notation is a symbolic language often applied in learning and performing on various musical instruments and singing. Knowledge about how musically experienced individuals read these incongruences in music scores is useful for music education, because it might help to understand how they try to adapt their reading strategies. This knowledge includes different elements, such as performance accuracy, knowledge of performers’ cognitive characteristics that might be associated with music reading, and knowledge of how the difficulties are solved during the actual reading process. We will briefly introduce a history of research about dealing with incongruence in music reading, with the purpose of informing the educational field about the development of the field as well as introduce our own, integrated approach
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