Music Rehearsal Research Articles

Autonomous 4? Learners’ Collaborative Problem Solving in Chamber Music Rehearsals With and Without a Coach

This investigation explored collaborative problem solving with and without a coach by analyzing problem-solving (PS) and problem-solving-prompting (PSP) behaviors by group members and coaches in six total coached rehearsals with three collegiate string quartets, and six autonomous rehearsals with the same string quartets. Teachers’ and learners’ PS and PSP behaviors were compared in three settings: autonomous chamber music rehearsals, chamber music rehearsals with a coach, and one-to-one instruction. Coaches and students performed the same problem-solving component behaviors and most of the same PSP behaviors as observed in one-to-one instruction and in rehearsals of a professional chamber ensemble. As in one-to-one instruction, coaches could engage learners in problem solving, and in this setting invite them to collaborate with one another, by asking questions and varying the specificity of feedback and directives. Coaches’ Attention Directives preceded the most learner problem solving and collaborative engagement. During autonomous rehearsals learners often switched leadership roles fluidly, often prompting one another to problem solve. Implications for a pedagogy of coaching and inclusion of small ensembles within music education are discussed.

Even better musicians: Acoustic enhancement in the music classroom

Music educators are using electronic sound reproduction and acoustic enhancement in primary and secondary schools – and are producing better musicians as a result. The development of musical ability is inherently tied to room acoustics; a supportive variable acoustic environment accelerates the ear training and critical listening skills to proficiently play or sing in an ensemble. This presentation will review findings from the past 20 years spent with these technologies in music education. How might sound reproduction be optimized for learning clarinet? How can acoustic enhancement reduce the potential for hearing loss and other playing injuries? Is a low ceiling ever beneficial in a music rehearsal space? (Hint: no – but we’ll attempt to address that, too).

“Hearing with the eyes” visual hearing in (a trio) music rehearsals

ABSTRACT Making music together relies, among other things, on the mutual hearing amongst co-performers and on the visual monitoring of each other’s actions and gestures. This is better facilitated when musicians share a mutual visual space where hearing and seeing play a primary role. However, drawing from workplace studies, linguistic anthropology, anthropology of the senses and multimodal interactional studies of sensoriality, we observed how mutual visibility was (tacitly) more important for coordination among musicians than they themselves were willing to admit. Thanks to the video recording of trio rehearsals, by experimentally suspending the sense of hearing, often regarded as a predominant sense in the playing of a musical instrument and to make music together, we realized that mutual visibility not only enables musicians to notice pertinent/relevant visual cues and professional gestures, but also to make sound visible and then audible, activating what we call visual hearing, a specific hybrid sense, that we captured in action.

A Study of Choreography Courses for Musical Theater Majors

Musical theater education in Chinese universities is generally focused on training musical performance talents, and the dance courses involved are also set up to enhance dance performance. The dance styles learned are mainly ballet, modern dance, jazz dance and tap dance, which are common in European and American musicals. However, in the actual musical rehearsal process, the use of dance to create dramatic characters, develop dramatic events, and show dramatic emotions and conflicts requires the skilled creative ability of the musical choreographer. The educational process of musical choreography is a multi-faceted process, which requires the choreographer to have a solid theoretical basis and flexible creative skills. By comparing with universities in Europe, America and South Korea that have musical theater major, this paper studies the advantages and disadvantages of musical theater major courses in Chinese universities in terms of choreography training. Based on the actual situation of China, this study finds the curriculum that conforms to musical choreography through multi-angle analysis of practice, creation, and theory.

“My guitar is my rifle”: Mexican migrants mobilising unconventionally through arts

Diasporas can create, transform, and exploit transnational networks to engage in political movements in their homeland and in their hostland, engaging in both electoral and non-electoral politics through political parties, political campaigns, and hometown organisations. However, the individual processes of subjectivation and its relationship with arts as a form of political engagement have been under-explored especially in contexts of violence and insecurity. This ethnographic paper sheds light on the micro-level of diaspora mobilisation by introducing the concept of “subjectivity” as a key term to analyse the transnational and unconventional political practices organised by migrants. As a result, this research aims to answer the following questions: (1) How are Mexican migrants becoming diasporic political subjects and creating spaces of transnational political activism in reaction to the context of violence in their homeland? (2) What makes them resort to art as a repertoire of contention against violence in their home towns? The paper introduces empirical examples collected in Brussels during 19 months of fieldwork with members of the Mexican diaspora, including semi-structured interviews with key informants and participant observation at political demonstrations, music rehearsals, charity concerts, gastronomic and artistic festivals, and political debates.

Independent music-making during Covid-19 and mental health.

In 2020, when the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic surfaced in the United States, physical distancing and quarantine practices terminated group music rehearsals, such as choirs and bands. This study explores the experiences of individuals who created music independently during the pandemic using a phenomenological approach. Using the qualitative methodology and semi-structured interviews, 14 participants who sang or played instruments independently during Covid-19 shared their experiences on music creation’s impact on their mental health. Two themes emerged from the data: music creation for comfort and mood management. It is important to understand how music creation can affect the mental health of individuals.

Two case studies in approach to the renovation of volumetrically challenged music rehearsal spaces

A music rehearsal room renovation can be acoustically challenging in that there is often limited room volume, lack of loudness control, and budget constraints. Two case studies detail these challenges. (1) The University of North Texas’ choral rehearsal room was due for renovation and with a volume of only 44,000 cubic feet, the room had to accommodate choral ensembles varying from 20–85 people for daily use, over 100 voices for an annual festival, and an added recital use. At an appropriate budget, the renovation used room shaping to simultaneously break up parallel surfaces and support voices while also adding adjustable acoustics to allow for tuning of the room for each rehearsal or performance. (2) The University of Texas at San Antonio’s large band, orchestra, and jazz rehearsal room lacked loudness control even with an approximate volume of 73,500 cubic feet to serve 30 – 70 + musicians. At a much more limited budget, the solution was to flip the orientation of the musician layout in the room to take advantage of the existing room geometry and to introduce variable absorption stored exposed to the room which increased the overall absorption while also giving the ensembles an opportunity to tune the room.

Architectural improvements to increase reverberation and reduce flutter echo in two music rehearsal rooms

New music rehearsal rooms at a small college suffered from flutter echo and very short reverberation times. The architecture of these rooms included visually elegant designs which the college wanted to retain if feasible. We coordinated with the college, the architect, and a wood worker to develop concept ideas for improvement which would be cost effective and retain the elegant architectural. By using finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation and mock-up listening tests, we evaluated the acoustic properties of these concept options. After completion of these tests and simulations, a design was implemented in each room based on acoustic performance and visual impact. We will present measurement results pre- and post-renovation, along with our methodology used for the FDTD analysis and mockup testing.

A new variable acoustics technology and the research behind it

The paper presents the room acoustic research behind the choice of design of a new variable acoustics technology. It discusses measurements from installations in labs and in a concert hall. Performing arts centres face the challenge of providing a good sound-experience for performers and audiences for a wide variety of types of performances. From theatre or amplified music one night to concerts of quiet chamber music the next. This calls, according to for instance ISO 23591, “Acoustic quality criteria for music rehearsal rooms and spaces”, for a variability of the reverberation time of a factor of almost 2 at lower frequencies. This standard, as well as recent research by the author is also debated.

Non-lexical vocalisations + “so_was” as a multimodal package in establishing joint decisions in music rehearsals

This study examines non-lexical vocalisations accompanied by the German deictic “so” or “so_was” as a multimodal package in music rehearsals. Focusing on the sequences prior to the performance of a piece, where this practice often occurs, I demonstrate that the multimodal package, vocalisations + “so” or “so_was”, is utilised by participants in the service of establishing a joint decision on how to perform the next part of a musical piece. The analysis shows that participants demonstrate the rhythm in which the next piece should be played and, by seeking their interlocutors’ approval in the next turn, orient to their shared deontic authority with regard to decisions about their joint performance.

Acoustical criteria and design approaches for music education and rehearsal spaces

Case studies of three music education spaces will present acoustical measurement data with architectural features of the rooms compared to criteria from Sabine (1964), Pirn (1978), Gade (1988), Wenger (2008), and Tsaih (2011) among others to assess the sound qualities of the spaces. Among other qualities, reverberation time, room volume, hearing each other, and speech intelligibility are evaluated. Data are also compered to the Norwegian Standard NS 8178-2014. The case studies show how these criteria can be achieved given very different architectural systems employed in the rooms and describe the limits of where the qualities cannot be achieved due to the limits of program, budget, site, or space. Efforts are made to make each surface in the rooms acoustically productive in an optimized design to the extent practicable.

Too loud? Sound absorption and volume as related to music educators’ subjective response to rehearsal room loudness

Controlling loudness is important for successful music rehearsal rooms. Volume, sound absorption, and often shaping strongly influence music faculty acceptance regarding room loudness. We assessed various rehearsal rooms, as well as data collected by Ron McKay in his BBN days, regarding the sound absorption, volume, and educators’ subjective responses to loudness within the rooms, in an attempt to better understand correlations among these parameters.

Passing the Baton: Building Student Autonomy and Democracy in the Large Ensemble Setting

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomena of participation in a democratic large ensemble experience in a secondary public school setting. Specific research questions included (a) Do high school band students feel capable of performing a music work without teacher intervention? (b) In what ways do high school band students describe the experience of performing in a student-led large ensemble? (c) What music decisions were most often made by high school band students in a student-led large ensemble? and (d) Were there any changes in high school students’ perceptions of autonomy following a student-led large ensemble music rehearsal and performance experience? Findings illustrated that the democratic experience increased student autonomy and music discrimination across larger distances in the classroom as students listened to other nonsimilar sections. Furthermore, student voice, self-efficacy, and personal affect also increased as a result of the experience. Students felt empowered to offer their rehearsal critiques; however, a lingering concern is that participants continued to feel that their peers would not listen to their opinions on rehearsal issues or strategy usage.

Does the wall sound different? Variable acoustics in rehearsal rooms using small resonator structures in an acoustic panel.

As the name already states, multipurpose rooms are often used from various people for different intentions like meetings or musical practicing. One example are musical rehearsal rooms, where the acoustic specifications have to meet the requirements of musicians playing different instrument groups. To meet the desire for variable acoustics in a rehearsal room, musicians often like to adjust the room to there personal preferences, what is mostly done by adjusting the frequency dependent room decay curve (T60). Hence, a variable acoustic panel has been developed which consists of several small adjustable resonator structures. In a closed state, the structure acts like a resonator. Although Helmholtz resonators are mostly used at low frequencies, the acoustic panel can address acoustic resonance absorption in the mid-frequency range between 500 Hz and 1.500 Hz. The paper highlights especially the dimensioning of the resonators and its measurements in an impedance tube, a reverberation cabin and a reverberation room. Finally, the prototype of the acoustic panel has been analysed in different rehearsal rooms where musicians examine the panel and T60 differences between the open and closed state of the panel were measured.

Utilizing Chamber Music to Teach Non-Verbal Communication to Medical Students: A Pilot Initiative.

IntroductionThe importance of non-verbal cues in communication between physicians and patients is well published in the medical literature. However, few medical school curricula teach non-verbal communication. Chamber musicians employ non-verbal communication to coordinate musician intention. Observation of chamber musicians’ use of non-verbal communication may improve the understanding of non-verbal communication among medical students.MethodsA total of 72 medical students attended rehearsals of two world-renowned string quartets on a single date. Following a brief discussion and demonstration on non-verbal communication by musicians, students observed the non-verbal cues employed by the quartets during musical rehearsals. Authors provided pre- and post-surveys, which included closed and open-ended questions to assess understanding of non-verbal communication and confidence in identifying non-verbal cues with patients and healthcare providers. Close-ended questions used numerical scales. The authors used paired t-tests to compare mean numerical scores pre- and post-intervention and analyzed qualitative, open-ended responses thematically.ResultsOf the 72 students who attended the workshop, 63 (88%) completed both pre- and post-surveys. Comparison demonstrated significant improvement in students’ ability to appreciate non-verbal interactions among healthcare teams (p<0.05) and patients (p<0.05). Following the workshop, students commented that they appreciated the similarities in non-verbal cues between musicians and medical professionals.DiscussionChamber musicians and physicians share similarities, e.g., working in teams and performing specialized tasks; good communication is crucial to both. Observation of chamber musicians may serve as a vehicle to instruct medical students on non-verbal communication. Next steps include determining the longer-term impact of the workshop on confidence in communication by resurveying participants and comparing responses with those students who did not attend the workshop. Future studies are needed to assess the clinical impact of chamber music observation on medical students’ non-verbal communication skills.

An adaptive large neighborhood search for the multiple-day music rehearsal problems

This paper presents an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) framework to solve the Multiple-Day Music Rehearsal Problem (MMRP), where music pieces with different player sets and durations are arranged in a predefined number of rehearsal days so that the total days of attendance and waiting times experienced by all players are minimized. Two variants of the MMRP, namely the MMRP without setup times (MMRP-0) and the MMRP with setup times (MMRP-1), are herein explored based on mathematical formulations of the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) and the Music Rehearsal Problem (MRP). Extensive computational results on 120 generated instances and 78 benchmark instances indicate that the ALNS is greatly efficient as it can provide equivalent or better solutions than the exact method and a benchmark heuristic from the literature, with much less computational time. We also find that the ALNS tends to perform better in large and complicated MMRP settings, considering that it outperforms the time-restricted CPLEX in 34 out of 120 generated instances and successfully finds 4 new best-known solutions to 8 large benchmark instances.

Notes on B-SHARP: Bedside Songs to Relax and Heal Patients

Notes on B-SHARP: Bedside Songs to Relax and Heal Patients

Preferred dimension ratios of small rectangular rooms.

Rooms for music rehearsal, sound studios, control rooms, etc., need a smooth frequency response. For that reason, the frequencies of the room modes should be spread as well as possible, and this is controlled by the aspect ratios of the dimensions. The relative variance of the frequency spreading of the lowest 25 room modes is applied as a quality criterion. The results have revealed that the length-width ratio is much more important than the width-height ratio. The length-width ratio should be within 1.15-1.45. The height can be chosen more freely without compromising the acoustical quality.

Flexible control of acoustic conditions in a music rehearsal space using airbeds

Henry Wood Hall is a former church in central London which was successfully repurposed as an orchestral rehearsal space. However, the trustees of the hall desired a more flexible use of the space and in March 2018 instructed the LSBU Acoustics Group to develop, test and install a flexible solution which would create a balanced acoustic suited to smaller ensembles and voice. This would require the reduction of the reverberation in the hall at low frequencies. The solution should, for a modest budget, be flexible enough to be changed within the hour-long break between sessions. Laboratory tests were undertaken on inflated airbeds in the LSBU reverberation chamber to determine the low-frequency sound absorption potential of these consumer goods. The model with the most promising performance was selected and dependence on inflation was determined. Room acoustic measurements were taken in the hall before and after the airbeds were installed, showing the desired level of reduction in reverberation time in the lower frequency bands.

Dashboard system to track cumulative exposure to sound levels during live music instruction

During music rehearsals, students and teachers are regularly exposed to unsafe sound levels; hearing loss is a major concern among musicians. By providing real time feedback to music instructors, we can persuade them to modify their teaching methods to achieve safe listening conditions. To accomplish this, we created a user-friendly dashboard that displays the cumulative sound energy being collected in real-time. Since there are few standards for limiting music exposure, we used NIOSH standards for industrial noise exposure as the permissible exposure limit (PEL). Circular dials on the dashboard were programmed to display the amount of exposure relative to the PEL. To aid in identifying the type of exposure, each dial represents the amount of sound accumulation in a band of frequencies relative to typical human speech: below (15Hz–85 Hz), at (85Hz–252 Hz), and above (242Hz–24 675 Hz). The dashboard also displays an equalizer representing the instantaneous microphone input. After each session, the cumulative exposure data can be sent out in email format. Inexpensive and convenient to use, this dashboard will enable music instructors to make informed decisions on how to best modify their teaching approaches to reduce the risk of hearing loss.