Levels Of Musical Experience Research Articles

Influences on Recognizing Style from Brief Glances at Piano Scores: A Commentary on Huovinen & Rinne (2023)

The study by Huovinen and Rinne (2023) examines the information derived from experts' brief glances at a piano score, using both quantitative and qualitative measures. Evidence for quick extraction of information using an intuitive route was presented. In this commentary, I offer some additional perspectives on how choice of composer may have influenced some aspects, potential involvement of subtle finger movements, changes that might differ over levels of musical experience, and how metacognitive judgments could be included in future work.

Musical Sound Quality as a Function of the Number of Channels in Modern Cochlear Implant Recipients.

ObjectivesThis study examined musical sound quality (SQ) in adult cochlear implant (CI) recipients. The study goals were to determine: the number of channels needed for high levels of musical SQ overall and by musical genre; the impact of device and patient factors on musical SQ ratings; and the relationship between musical SQ, speech recognition, and speech SQ to relate these findings to measures frequently used in clinical protocols.MethodsTwenty-one post-lingually deafened adult CI recipients participated in this study. Electrode placement, including scalar location, average electrode-to-modiolus distance (), and angular insertion depth were determined by CT imaging using validated CI position analysis algorithms (e.g., Noble et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2018, 2019). CI programs were created using 4–22 electrodes with equal spatial distribution of active electrodes across the array. Speech recognition, speech SQ, music perception via a frequency discrimination task, and musical SQ were acutely assessed for all electrode conditions. Musical SQ was assessed using pre-selected musical excerpts from a variety of musical genres.ResultsCI recipients demonstrated continuous improvement in qualitative judgments of musical SQ with up to 10 active electrodes. Participants with straight electrodes placed in scala tympani (ST) and pre-curved electrodes with higher variance reported higher levels of musical SQ; however, this relationship is believed to be driven by levels of musical experience as well as the potential for preoperative bias in device selection. Participants reported significant increases in musical SQ beyond four channels for all musical genres examined in the current study except for Hip Hop/Rap. After musical experience outliers were removed, there was no relationship between musical experience or frequency discrimination ability and musical SQ ratings. There was a weak, but significant correlation between qualitative ratings for speech stimuli presented in quiet and in noise and musical SQ.ConclusionModern CI recipients may need more channels for musical SQ than even required for asymptotic speech recognition or speech SQ. These findings may be used to provide clinical guidance for personalized expectations management of music appreciation depending on individual device and patient factors.

Long-term Changes in Musical Perception in Korean Cochlear Implant Patients.

The purpose of this study was to assess the long-term changes in music perception among cochlear implant (CI) patients using the Korean version of the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception test and questionnaires for music listening. Twenty-seven CI patients participated in this study. Their music perception ability was evaluated using the Korean version of the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception test, which consisted of pitch discrimination, melody, and timbre identification. The test was conducted at least twice after CI. A questionnaire was also used to quantify listening habits (LH) and level of musical experience (LE). The participants were divided into two groups according to the average of each test result from the first test. In the pitch discrimination test, the just-noticeable-difference limen values increased as the base frequency increased, and significant differences were observed between the results of 262 and 391 Hz (p = 0.006). In the good performance group, pitch discrimination in the second test did not significantly differ from the first test, but the pitch discrimination score significantly improved in the poor performance group. Similarly, timbre test results were significantly improved in the poor performance group. Neither group exhibited changes in the second test for melody identification. The scores for LH and LE significantly decreased postoperatively and did not recover during the follow-up period. Pitch discrimination and timbre identification improved in CI listeners who exhibited poor musical performance shortly after surgery. However, melody identification did not improve over time. LH and LE scores decreased after CI surgery without time-dependent improvement.

Ear Advantage for Musical Location and Relative Pitch: Effects of Musical Training and Attention.

Trained musicians have been found to exhibit a right-ear advantage for high tones and a left-ear advantage for low tones. We investigated whether this right/high, left/low pattern of musical processing advantage exists in listeners who had varying levels of musical experience, and whether such a pattern might be modulated by attentional strategy. A dichotic listening paradigm was used in which different melodic sequences were presented to each ear, and listeners attended to (a) the left ear or the right ear or (b) the higher pitched tones or the lower pitched tones. Listeners judged whether tone-to-tone transitions within each melodic sequence moved upward or downward in pitch. Only musically experienced listeners could adequately judge the direction of successive pitch transitions when attending to a specific ear; however, all listeners could judge the direction of successive pitch transitions within a high-tone stream or a low-tone stream. Overall, listeners exhibited greater accuracy when attending to relatively higher pitches, but there was no evidence to support a right/high, left/low bias. Results were consistent with effects of attentional strategy rather than an ear advantage for high or low tones. Implications for a potential performer/audience paradox in listening space are considered.

Influence of Expressive Versus Mechanical Musical Performance on Short-term Memory for Musical Excerpts

Recognition memory for details of musical phrases (discrimination between targets and similar lures) improves for up to 15 s following the presentation of a target, during continuous listening to the ongoing piece. This is attributable to binding of stimulus features during that time interval. The ongoing-listening paradigm is an ecologically valid approach for investigating short-term memory, but previous studies made use of relatively mechanical MIDI-produced stimuli. The present study assessed whether expressive performances would modulate the previously reported finding. Given that expressive performances introduced slight differences between initially presented targets and their target-test items, expressive performance could make the task more difficult overall than did the previously used mechanical renderings. However, results revealed an even stronger improvement for the expressive pieces than for the mechanical pieces. The pattern of results was observed for participants varying in their level of musical experience, though the difference between expressive and mechanical conditions was more pronounced for the less-experienced participants. Overall, our study showed that the memory improvement phenomenon extends to more realistic musical material, which includes expressive timing characteristics of live performance.

Music Training and Vocal Production of Speech and Song

Studying similarities and differences between speech and song provides an opportunity to examine music's role in human culture. Forty participants divided into groups of musicians and nonmusicians spoke and sang lyrics to two familiar songs. The spectral structures of speech and song were analyzed using a statistical analysis of frequency ratios. Results showed that speech and song have similar spectral structures, with song having more energy present at frequency ratios corresponding to those ratios associated with the 12-tone scale. This difference may be attributed to greater fundamental frequency variability in speech, and was not affected by musical experience.Higher levels of musical experience were associated with decreased energy at frequency ratios not corresponding to the 12-tone scale in both speech and song. Thus, musicians may invoke multisensory (auditory/vocal-motor) mechanisms to fine-tune their vocal production to more closely align their speaking and singing voices according to their vast music listening experience.

Using the Krumhansl and Schmuckler Key-Finding Algorithm to Quantify the Effects of Tonality in the Interpolated-Tone Pitch-Comparison Task

We examined two models that quantified the effects of tonality on accuracy and reaction time in an intervening-tone pitch-comparison task. In each of 16 task conditions (standard tone-interpolated sequence-test tone, abbreviated as S-seq-T), the S and T tones, C₄ and/or C#₄, were separated by a three-tone sequence that was a random arrangement of one of the four triads, ${\rm{C}}_{{\rm{4Major}}} ,{\rm{C}}_{{\rm{4Minor}}} ,{\rm{C\# }}_{\rm{4}} _{{\rm{Major}}} $ or ${\rm{C\# }}_{{\rm{4Minor}}} $ . Both models were based on the tonal hierarchy (Krumhansl, 1990a; Krumhansl & Shepard, 1979) and the key-finding algorithm (Krumhansl & Schmuckler, cited in Krumhansl, 1990a); the key- finding algorithm was used to determine the best-fitting key for the first four notes of the condition (i.e., the S-seq combination). Model 1 (S-Tone Stability) determined the stability of the S tone given that key. Model 2 (T-Tone Expectancy) determined the expectancy for the T tone given that key. Over the 16 conditions, for three groups of 12 subjects, differing by level of training, mean proportion correct discrimination ranged from .53 to .95 and increased significantly across levels of musical experience. For the musically trained subjects, both models predicted performance well but neither model was dramatically more effective than the other; the combination of both models did produce an increase in predictability. For untrained subjects, tonality, as assessed by the key-finding algorithm in either model, was not significantly correlated with performance.

Effects of Tempo, Musical Experience, and Listening Modes on Tempo Modulation Perception

In this study, I investigated the effects of tempo direction, listening mode, and level of subjects' musical experience on speed and accuracy in tempo change detection abilities. Tempo-change and direction-change examples gradually decelerated, accelerated, or remained steady. Listening mode included listening only, listening and watching a conductor, and listening and moving. The two levels of musical experience were defined as music majors ( n = 80) and nonmajors ( n = 80). Subjects listened to music examples and manipulated a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) to demonstrate perception of tempo alteration. Analysis of data included subject response latency and accuracy. Experience was found to be a determinant in quantifiably different temporal response. Music majors more accurately detected tempo changes than did nonmajors. Subjects were generally better at detecting tempo acceleration over tempo deceleration. Subjects demonstrated a slightly lower degree of response accuracy when listening and watching a conductor compared to the conditions of listening alone and listening and moving. Most demonstrated shorter initial response latencies during tempo acceleration. The combined variables of experience, tempo-change direction, and listening condition had an interactive effect on response latency.

Effects of tone sets and serial orders on melodic tracking: Dependence or independence?

Forty listeners, differing in level of musical experience, indicated the serial order of eight tones in 32 sequences representing all combinations of four tone sets or scales (major, minor, chromatic, and three-semitone spacing) and eight serial orders. Responses were produced with a mouse, which controlled the vertical height (representing pitch height) of a series of eight sliders (representing the eight temporal positions in the sequence) on a computer screen. Response accuracy was higher for tone sets with wider frequency ranges, for serial orders with simpler contours, for sequences in which the tone set did not vary from trial to trial and for listeners with musical training. An interaction between tone set and serial order indicated their interdependent contributions to melodic tracking performance. This interaction was previously observed using a less refined technique [Cohen and Frankland, Canadian Acoustics (submitted)] and the results are here extended to more rapid sequences, to complementary response-time information and to specific serial position analysis of relative and absolute errors. [Work supported by NSERC.]

Recovery of the tonal hierarchy: some comparisons across age and levels of musical experience.

Two experiments examined the recovery of the tonal hierarchy from three melodic patterns—the major triad, the major scale, and the diminished triad. In the probe-tone technique, for each pattern, each of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale was rated as a completion note for the pattern. Pattern tones and probe tones were synthetic complexes of octave partials, amplitude-weighted according to Shepard (1964). First- through sixth-grade children participated in the first experiment, adults with three levels of musical experience in the second. For all subjects, the probe-tone ratings for the major-triad pattern indicated recovery of the full tonal hierarchy. For the major-scale pattern, children and adults successfully differentiated tonal function within the scale. Adults, however, showed greater sensitivity to key organization than did the children and were less influenced by pitch proximity. The diminished-triad pattern conveyed no musical meaning to the children and was tonally ambiguous for the adults. The importance of the major triad in establishing a sense of key is underscored. As patterns depart from this prototype, recovery of the tonal hierarchy may depend on the degree to which musical knowledge (intuitive and formal) is applied.

Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern

Widely recognized as the definitive work in its field ever since its original publication in 1962, Serial Composition and Atonality remains an unsurpassed introduction to the technical features of what is probably the most revolutionary body of work since the beginnings of polyphony. In the analysis of specific compositions there is first and last of all a concern with the musical surface--an attempt to trace connections and distinctions there before offering any deeper-level constructions, and to offer none where their effects are not obvious on more immediate levels of musical experience. In this sixth edition of the book, George Perle employs the new and more consistent terminology for the identification of transpositional levels of twelve-tone sets that he first proposed in Twelve-Tone Tonality (1977).