Musical Scale Research Articles

New music system reveals spectral contribution to statistical learning

Knowledge of speech and music depends upon the ability to perceive relationships between sounds in order to form a stable mental representation of statistical structure. Although evidence exists for the learning of musical scale structure from the statistical properties of sound events, little research has been able to observe how specific acoustic features contribute to statistical learning independent of the effects of long-term exposure. Here, using a new musical system, we show that spectral content is an important cue for acquiring musical scale structure. In two experiments, participants completed probe-tone ratings before and after a half-hour period of exposure to melodies in a novel musical scale with a predefined statistical structure. In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to either a no-exposure control group, or to exposure groups who heard pure tone or complex tone sequences. In Experiment 2, participants were randomly assigned to exposure groups who heard complex tones constructed with odd harmonics or even harmonics. Learning outcome was assessed by correlating pre/post-exposure ratings and the statistical structure of tones within the exposure period. Spectral information significantly affected sensitivity to statistical structure: participants were able to learn after exposure to all tested timbres, but did best at learning with timbres with odd harmonics, which were congruent with scale structure. Results show that spectral amplitude distribution is a useful cue for statistical learning, and suggest that musical scale structure might be acquired through exposure to spectral distribution in sounds.

The Relationship between Classroom Teachers' Self-efficacy in Teaching Music with Their Music Teaching Skills and Musical Development

Music education at primary school age is an essential field in the multidimensional development of children. In the first stage of primary education, the classroom teacher is obliged to give music lessons. Therefore, classroom teachers need to be equipped and have proficiency in the field of music. This study aims to examine the relationships between classroom teachers' self-efficacy for teaching music with their musical teaching skills, and musical development. The study was based on the correlational research model. Data were collected through the Self-efficacy in Teaching Music Scale and a questionnaire that aimed to collect information regarding the demographic characteristics of teachers and their competencies in music. The study was conducted with 405 classroom teachers from 51 primary schools located in the central district of Afyonkarahisar in Turkey. The results of the study indicated that the self-efficacy of classroom teachers in teaching music was at an intermediate level. It was found that the self-efficacy levels among classroom teachers who can play an instrument, accurately sing the songs they listen to, make students listen to music in lessons, make them play instruments, form choruses, participate in training sessions on music education, and want to take part in such events were significantly higher.

Maladaptive music listening strategies are modulated by individual traits

Music listening is a great resource for mental well-being, pleasure, and self-regulation, but it may also be maladaptive. Depression, for instance, has been shown to relate to music use that is characterized by rumination, avoidance, and mood worsening. However, we know little of the role of individual differences in such maladaptive music use. Hence, this study focused on examining the role of personality, empathic traits, emotional contagion, and the types of musical reward as predictors of maladaptive music listening. Participants ( N = 318) answered an online survey comprising measures for the abovementioned traits in addition to the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale (HUMS) as a measure of maladaptive music use. Results demonstrated that Unhealthy musical engagement was predicted by a variety of traits representing general negative emotionality (e.g., Neuroticism, Personal Distress, contagion for negative emotions). Structural equation modeling highlighted the importance of the empathic trait Personal Distress in mediating Unhealthy musical engagement. Finally, we deliberate if maladaptive strategies are indeed “maladaptive” for such individuals or merely a coping mechanism, which is indeed adaptive for them, aiding to combat depressive and anxious states thereby preventing them from “tipping over” into depression.

Multiparametric Analysis of Voice at Madhya and Taara Sthayi in Indian Carnatic Singers

ABSTRACT The objective of the study was to document the vocal parameters in Madhya sthayi and Taara sthayi in Indian Carnatic singers. The study deployed a prospective, observational, repeated-measures group design. The study comprised 15 trained Carnatic singers with a senior degree in Carnatic singing. Participants were asked to sing an ascending glide and descending glide from Madhya sthayi to Taara sthayi and back to the Madhya sthayi. The acoustic and the cepstral parameters were extracted at Madhya sthayi and Taara sthayi. As a part of spectral measures, harmonic amplitude differences were calculated at both registers of singing. The results showed that the average fundamental frequency at Madhya sthayi was equal to G# (C3 on the musical scale). At Taara sthayi, the average fundamental frequency was corresponding to F# (C4 on the musical scale). Among the acoustic measures, namely range of fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, and all the spectral measures, showed significantly higher mean values at Taara sthayi. The mean values of harmonic-to-noise ratio and the cepstral peak prominence were significantly higher at Madhya sthayi. The present study results captivate the attention of voice pathologists to develop pitch-specific normative data for the evaluation of voice in Carnatic singers.

Musical Performance in Adolescents with ADHD, ADD and Dyslexia-Behavioral and Neurophysiological Aspects.

Research has shown that dyslexia and attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (AD(H)D) are characterized by specific neuroanatomical and neurofunctional differences in the auditory cortex. These neurofunctional characteristics in children with ADHD, ADD and dyslexia are linked to distinct differences in music perception. Group-specific differences in the musical performance of patients with ADHD, ADD and dyslexia have not been investigated in detail so far. We investigated the musical performance and neurophysiological correlates of 21 adolescents with dyslexia, 19 with ADHD, 28 with ADD and 28 age-matched, unaffected controls using a music performance assessment scale and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Musical experts independently assessed pitch and rhythmic accuracy, intonation, improvisation skills and musical expression. Compared to dyslexic adolescents, controls as well as adolescents with ADHD and ADD performed better in rhythmic reproduction, rhythmic improvisation and musical expression. Controls were significantly better in rhythmic reproduction than adolescents with ADD and scored higher in rhythmic and pitch improvisation than adolescents with ADHD. Adolescents with ADD and controls scored better in pitch reproduction than dyslexic adolescents. In pitch improvisation, the ADD group performed better than the ADHD group, and controls scored better than dyslexic adolescents. Discriminant analysis revealed that rhythmic improvisation and musical expression discriminate the dyslexic group from controls and adolescents with ADHD and ADD. A second discriminant analysis based on MEG variables showed that absolute P1 latency asynchrony |R-L| distinguishes the control group from the disorder groups best, while P1 and N1 latencies averaged across hemispheres separate the control, ADD and ADHD groups from the dyslexic group. Furthermore, rhythmic improvisation was negatively correlated with auditory-evoked P1 and N1 latencies, pointing in the following direction: the earlier the P1 and N1 latencies (mean), the better the rhythmic improvisation. These findings provide novel insight into the differences between music processing and performance in adolescents with and without neurodevelopmental disorders. A better understanding of these differences may help to develop tailored preventions or therapeutic interventions.

Tonality of Folk Funeral Chants in the Rzeszów Region

Folk religious chants have already been the object of scientific study for several decades. The matter of morphological features of the religious repertoire in the living tradition includes several basic factors, such as poetic text structure (versification, strophic structure), stylistic and formal properties, metre and rhythm, melodics, and tonal considerations (cf. B. Bartkowski, Niektóre ce-chy muzycznej metrorytmiki polskich pieśni religijnych żyjących w tradycji ustnej, “Summarium. Sprawozdania Towarzystwa Naukowego KUL” 1978, no. 3 (23), p. 250). The purpose of this article is to present and analyse the tonal phenomena occurring in folk religious chants performed throughout the funeral rite in the region of Rzeszów (Rzeszów region – a region in South-Eastern Poland inhabited by the ethnic groups of Lasowiacy and Rzeszowiacy, which covers the approxi-mate area of the current ten districts (Tarnobrzeg, Stalowa Wola, Nisko, Kolbuszowa, Leżajsk, Mielec, Ropczyce-Sędziszów, Rzeszów, Przeworsk, and Łańcut). -cf. Kolędowanie na Rzeszowszczyźnie, ed. K. Smyk, J. Dragan, Kolbuszowa – Kraków 2019, p. 8, and range maps, pp. 382–383), especially during the prayer for the deceased at home, the procession to the church, the procession to the cemetery, and the inhumation at the cemetery). The musical scales upon which the melodies of the individual chants are based have particular significance in terms of their musical shape. In fact, the tonality, which constitutes a note system, influences the interval structure, the relationships between individual notes, the melody and, indirectly, the regional conditions for the performance of the chants (cf. B. Bartkowski, Niektóre cechy…, p. 250). The material will be presented based on the scale range criterion while individual tonal phenomena will be presented using selected examples.

DoReMi Steering Wheel: Proposal for a Driving Assist System with Sound Display Depending on the Rotation Angle of Steering Wheel

It is difficult for novice drivers to improve their driving skills by themselves. One of the difficulties for novice drivers is the technique for driving on curves, such as the timing and amount of steering. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method to sensitively estimate the amount and timing of steering by using a sine wave of a musical scale corresponding to the steering angle. We called this method the “DoReMi Steering Wheel.” We also implemented a prototype system on a driving simulator and conducted experiments to check the usefulness of our system. The results showed no significant difference in the number of steering corrections between the DoReMi Steering Wheel and the standard steering wheel. Still, there was a significant difference in the subjective evaluation of the ease of driving on curves, suggesting that the DoReMi Steering Wheel may support driving.

Optimization Method on the Tuning, Sound Quality, and Ergonomics of the Ancient Guitar Using a DSP-FEM Simulation

The key parameters musicians consider when they evaluate the quality of a musical instrument are its tuning (reproducing a musical scale), sound quality, and ergonomics. Musical instrument makers, even up to this day, primarily base their practice on empirical knowledge and costly physical experimentation. A computational model that combines all the aforementioned key parameters is presented to predict the building details of an instrument. The simulation of the instrument is introduced to a multi-objective optimizer to calculate its optimal set of geometrical and material features, considering the importance of the three key parameters. For a string musical instrument this approach is based on a hybrid model of Digital Signal Processing simulating the vibrating string and of Finite Elements Method simulating the effect of the body. The simulation technique has been validated by building an ancient guitar and comparing its recordings with its analogous digital model. The proposed method can be put into practice to investigate the building details of any instrument by introducing the relevant simulation and the objective’s function parameters. This work is expected to provide a powerful tool for the musical instrument makers towards a more efficient design of a bespoke instrument.

A listening experiment comparing the timbre of two Stradivari with other violins.

The violins of Stradivari are recognized worldwide as an excellence in craftsmanship, a model for instrument makers, and an unachievable desire for collectors and players. However, despite the myth surrounding these instruments, blindfolded players tendentially prefer to play modern violins. Here, we present a double blind listening experiment aimed at analyzing and comparatively rating the sound timbre of violins. The mythic instruments were listened to among other well regarded and not so well regarded violins. 70 listeners (violin makers of the Cremona area) rated the timbre difference between the simple musical scales played on a test and a reference violin, and the results showed that their preference converged on one particular Stradivari. The acoustical measurements revealed some similarities between the subjective ratings and the physical characteristics of the violins. It is speculated that the myth of Stradivari could have been boosted, among other factors, by the specimens of tonal superior quality, which biased favourably the judgment on his instruments and spread on all of the maker's production. These results contribute to the understanding of the timbre of violins and suggest the characteristics that are in a relationship with the pleasantness of the timbre.

DoReMi Steering Wheel: Proposal for a Driving Assist System with Sound Display Depending on the Rotation Angle of Steering Wheel

It is difficult for novice drivers to improve their driving skills by themselves. One of the difficulties for novice drivers is the technique for driving on curves, such as the timing and amount of steering. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method to sensitively estimate the amount and timing of steering by using a sine wave of a musical scale corresponding to the steering angle. We called this method the “DoReMi Steering Wheel.” We also implemented a prototype system on a driving simulator and conducted experiments to check the usefulness of our system. The results showed no significant difference in the number of steering corrections between the DoReMi Steering Wheel and the standard steering wheel. Still, there was a significant difference in the subjective evaluation of the ease of driving on curves, suggesting that the DoReMi Steering Wheel may support driving.

Adaptation and Validation of Short Test of Music Preference Scale for Students With Music and Non-Music Majors

Music is a universal phenomenon however, despite its unified properties, the taste and preference of music may still vary as a function of ethnicity and culture. So, the present study aimed to adapt and validate the short test of music preference scale for music and non-music Pakistani students. In Phase I, the cultural adaption of the scale was carried out while the content validity index (Lawshe, 1975) was also established. However, in phase II, the Short test of Music Scale (STOMP) was validated, yielding confirmatory factor analysis. For the empirical evaluation, a sample of 561 students, including both 286 music and 275 non-music students of undergraduate level with the age range of 18-26 years were recruited. The psychometric evolution of STOMP turned into excellent validity and reliability estimates for first-order constructs. Moreover, strict measurement invariance was established for STOMP across music and non-music students. The validation of this scale would be a little effort to pave the way for music psychology to make research available to measure the construct indigenously.

Effect of specific melodic scales of Indian music in reducing state and trait anxiety: A randomized clinical trial

Music is an aesthetic stimulus that evokes a subjective experience in every individual involved with it. Music as a modality to reduce anxiety and stress has been researched scientifically across the world, but evidence regarding Indian musical scales (ragas) is meager. Healthy individuals were randomly divided into four groups where three groups—A ( Ahir Bhairav), B ( Kaunsi Kanada), and C ( Bhimpalas)—received a music intervention (10 min) while Group D was the control group. Anxiety was scored using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) before and after the intervention. Data analysis was done using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). All three scales reduced STAI scores significantly, with Scale B causing the maximum reduction in the score. After adjusting for the pre-trait scores, it was observed that age ( p = .002) and gender ( p = .018) affected the post-trait scores. A regression analysis on gender showed a significant association of trait scores in Group C ( p = .01; odds ratio [OR] = 0.125). Scales A and C had more beneficial effects in females while Scale B was beneficial among males. Thus, listening to any of the three chosen Indian scales reduced anxiety. Listening to music does have therapeutic implications for anxious and stressed individuals.

Music Students' Use of Mobile Applications for Learning Purposes

This paper analyzes the use of mobile applications for learning purposes by music education department students. The survey design was used as the research method. The Mobile Application Usage in Music Learning scale developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. After the validity and reliability studies were carried out, the scale was applied to 505 music education students from 5 universities. As a result of the research: It was found that the mobile application usage levels of the music education students were moderate, mobile application usage levels changed according to gender but did not change according to grade level, musical instrument type, and operating system used. At the end of the research, suggestions were made about the participant groups, the use of the scale, and mobile applications.

Confiabilidade Inter-examinadores da Escala de Relação Criança-Terapeuta na Experiência Musical Coativa para validação no contexto brasileiro

A Escala de Relação Criança-Terapeuta na Experiência Musical Coativa é utilizada desde a década de 1960 nos Estados Unidos. Esta escala avalia em sete graus os níveis de participação e a qualidade de resistividade observáveis durante um atendimento de Musicoterapia. Para que ela seja utilizada no Brasil, é necessário um processo de validação. Escolhemos para esse processo o Modelo Universalista de Validação. Com base nisto, medimos a equivalência de mensuração da escala através do teste de confiabilidade inter-examinadores. Os escores Inter-examinadores apresentaram média de correlações (Spearman) fortes, indicando evidências de confiabilidade para a versão brasileira da escala.

The relationship between music performance anxiety and self-efficacy in sixth- to eighth-grade instrumental students

The purpose of this nonexperimental, quantitative study was to test social cognitive theory as it relates self-efficacy to anxiety. Music performance anxiety (MPA) and music performance self-efficacy (MPSE) were tested within a stratified random sample of Grades 6–8 instrumental music students ( N = 228) enrolled in middle schools located within the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. To determine levels of MPA and MPSE, participants completed the Music Performance Anxiety Inventory for Adolescents (MPAI-A) and the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES). A correlational research design was used to test both the strength of the relationship between MPA and MPSE and the extent to which MPA could be predicted by two sources of self-efficacy: mastery experience and verbal/social persuasion. Results revealed a statistically significant, weak negative correlation between MPA and MPSE and a significant predictive relationship between MPA scores and the linear combination of mastery experience and verbal/social persuasion. Recommendations for future research include an investigation into the following: (a) the relationships between verbal/social persuasion and MPA among middle school-aged students, (b) strategies for teaching self-efficacy as a coping mechanism for MPA, and (c) how the relationship between MPA and MPSE is affected by proximity to performance.

Development of the Caregiver Confidence using Music Scale

Music serves as an important tool to improve the health and wellness of individuals in healthcare settings. In times of high caregiver burnout, therapeutic outlets such as music for care receivers and providers are becoming increasingly important. This paper presents the first iteration of the Caregiver Confidence using Music Scale (CCuMS), an assessment tool designed to evaluate caregivers’ readiness to adopt music care. Music care is defined as the informed and intentional use of music by anyone to improve the quality of care. The CCuMS was derived from a hierarchical cluster analysis of the Music Care Training program’s Level 1 post-evaluation survey (Post-MCTL1). Thematic interpretation of the statistical outputs from the cluster analysis was completed, resulting in the first iteration of the CCuMS. Initial validation methods that were feasible with current data were conducted. Specifically, face validity, content validity and convergent validity were calculated using Pearson correlations. The CCuMS shows promise as a measurement tool for use in healthcare settings due to the moderate correlation between the Post-MCTL1 and the CCuMS scale (r=0.524), and the strong correlation between the music care training thematic questionnaire and the CCuMS (r=0.970).

Analysis of between-diagnoses differences in music-based affect regulatory strategies in adults with mental health and substance use conditions: Implications for transdiagnostic application

According to the Stress Vulnerability Model, affect regulation is crucial to manage stressors and promote recovery for adults with mental health conditions. Education regarding music-based affect regulation can be delivered in group formats using a transdiagnostic approach to increase access to services and vicarious learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if there were between-diagnosis and between-substance differences in music-based affect regulation via the Brief Music in Mood Regulation Scale (B-MMR) and Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale (HUMS) subscales in adults with mental health and substance use conditions. Adults with mental health ( n = 147) and substance use ( n = 221) conditions completed the B-MMR and HUMS. Analyses of variance were conducted with participants’ mental health diagnosis or primary substance as independent variables and the B-MMR and HUMS subscales as dependent variables. There were only significant between-substance differences in revival and discharge subscales, with participants addicted to heroin having higher mean scores than participants addicted to alcohol. No other result was significant. Due to an overall lack of between-group differences in diagnoses and substances, transdiagnostic theory has applications for educating adults with mental health and substance use conditions about music-based affect regulation in group formats.

Social Support as a Facilitator of Musical Self-Efficacy.

Previous research has shown that musical self-efficacy is one of the predictors of academic achievement, but few studies have analyzed the function of social support in the construction of musical self-efficacy. In this study we analyze the relationship between three sources of support perceived by music students – parents, teachers, and peers – and their influence on levels of self-efficacy for learning and for public performance. We analyze three groups of students under the hypothesis that relationships among those variables can vary with age and the level of education. A total of 444 students enrolled in six Spanish music schools, two music universities, and four advanced music schools, completed the Social Support Scale for Music Students, as well as the General Musical Self-Efficacy Scale. Results reveal significant relationships among the aforementioned variables, with considerable variation according to academic level. For the youngest students enrolled in advanced music schools (conservatorios profesionales), the role of parents and teachers was crucial, especially for predicting self-efficacy for learning, which, in turn, is the best predictor of self-efficacy for public performance. For the 16–18-year-olds enrolled in the same advanced music schools, their peers play a particularly relevant role in reinforcing their self-efficacy for learning. Social support had a negligible influence on the self-efficacy of university-level students, but they did experience a strong relationship between self-efficacy for learning, on the one hand, and public performance, on the other. We interpret these results in view of potential long-term careers in music, relating them with a series of different agents.

Symmetry, Combinatorics, Artificial Intelligence, Music and Spectroscopy

Symmetry forms the foundation of combinatorial theories and algorithms of enumeration such as Möbius inversion, Euler totient functions, and the celebrated Pólya’s theory of enumeration under the symmetric group action. As machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques play increasingly important roles in the machine perception of music to image processing that are central to many disciplines, combinatorics, graph theory, and symmetry act as powerful bridges to the developments of algorithms for such varied applications. In this review, we bring together the confluence of music theory and spectroscopy as two primary disciplines to outline several interconnections of combinatorial and symmetry techniques in the development of algorithms for machine generation of musical patterns of the east and west and a variety of spectroscopic signatures of molecules. Combinatorial techniques in conjunction with group theory can be harnessed to generate the musical scales, intensity patterns in ESR spectra, multiple quantum NMR spectra, nuclear spin statistics of both fermions and bosons, colorings of hyperplanes of hypercubes, enumeration of chiral isomers, and vibrational modes of complex systems including supergiant fullerenes, as exemplified by our work on the golden fullerene C150,000. Combinatorial techniques are shown to yield algorithms for the enumeration and construction of musical chords and scales called ragas in music theory, as we exemplify by the machine construction of ragas and machine perception of musical patterns. We also outline the applications of Hadamard matrices and magic squares in the development of algorithms for the generation of balanced-pitch chords. Machine perception of musical, spectroscopic, and symmetry patterns are considered.

Music Preference Dimensions and Personality Traits Among University Students

The present study explored the relationship between music reference dimensions and personality trait. This study comprised of three stages. In Stage-I, adaptation of Short Test of Music Preference Scale (STOMP; Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003) was done. In Stage-II the psychometric properties of adapted STOMP Scale and NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrea, 1992) were determined on a sample of 60 students (20-25 years). Stage-III involved measuring the relationship between music preference dimensions and personality traits on sample of 250 students age range of 20-25 years. Results revealed that extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness showed positive association with intense and rebellious music, upbeat and conventional music, and reflective and complex music. Whereas extraversion and openness to experience was negatively associated with energetic and rhythmic music. Additionally, neuroticism was negatively related with reflective and complex music, and agreeableness has negative relation with intense and rebellious music. Conscientiousness has negative relationship with reflective and complex, intense and rebellious, and upbeat and conventional; while exhibited positive relationship with energetic and rhythmic music. Future implications of the study were also discussed.