Tracking musical patterns using joint accent structure.

Abstract

Joint Accent Structure (jAS) is a construct that uses temporal relationships between different accents in a melodic pattern as indices of its complexity. Concordant patterns are ones in which the periodic recurrence of melodic accents form simple ratios with the period of temporal accents (e.g., 1:1, 1:2), whereas Discordant patterns have periods of melodic and temporal accents with a more complex accent period ratio (e.g., 3:2). Participants were told to selectively attend to and synchro- nize finger taps with accents in two experiments that examined attentional tracking to musical patterns having a or JAS. Results indicated that tapping was more variable with discordant than with concordant JAS patterns, both with respect to produced inter-accent time periods and with respect to the phase of taps relative to accent onsets. These findings are inter- preted in terms of real time attending and its control by event time structure. In listening to music one often experiences a sense of temporal anticipation that is crucial to the impact of a piece. We contend that part of this experience derives from the establishment of regular accent relationships in that piece. An accent may be defined as any element in an auditory sequence (e.g., a tone) that stands out from others, usually because it disrupts the context established by surrounding elements (e.g., it is longer in time or higher in frequency). Accents arise from changes along different specifiable dimensions (such as time or fre- quency); we refer to an accent defined by a change along one dimension as a distinct accent type. Instances of various accent types may mark out distinct time periods within a musical event, lending to it a coherent temporal structure. For example, a coherent melodic line may designate regularly occurring melodic-type accents by virtue of changes in contour, pitch distance or implied harmony, as this information arises from distinct move- ments of pitch in time. Similarly, a melody's rhythm may designate a series of temporal-type accents through