Musical Scale Research Articles

Gender-based comparison of salivary stress marker among healthy individuals after intervention with three melodic scales of Indian music - Exploration with a pretest-posttest design

Background: Music is used as entertainment, but it has potential health benefits. Evidence regarding Indian music in controlling stress is meager. Hindustani music (a type of Indian music) has its system of musical scales (ragas). Aims and Objectives: The objective was to evaluate change in stress using salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) after passive listening to Hindustani ragas and its variation with gender. Materials and Methods: Healthy individuals were randomly divided into three groups that received music intervention (ahir bhairav, kaunsi kanada, and bhimpalas ragas/scales). Stress was assessed with salivary alpha-amylase including pre, during, post-intervention (each for 10 min) among both the genders were compared. SPSS 20.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: All three ragas reduced sAA level (not significant). However, a significant difference in sAA level during and post music (P = 0.016) was observed. Conclusions: Passive listening to any of the three Indian scales reduced stress, like the western melodic scales. Music medicine (passive listening to music) thus has therapeutic implications as an alternative therapy for stressed/anxious individuals in medical disorders. Gender-specific effects with each melodic scale were noted.

Johannes Kepler’s pursuit of harmony

The great astronomer linked the speed of planetary orbits to musical scales—and to the harmonious interaction of humans on Earth during a time of religious warfare.

Akabeko Ensemble: Cultural multimodal helical computer music installation

In this study, we made “Aka-beko” choral ensemble. It comprises an octave of a chromatic musical scale, arranged in a helix and populated by animated oxen, instances of a regional mascot, who lift their heads and sing when triggered by events from a realtime MIDI keyboard controller. The application installation in the University of Aizu UBIC 3D Theater features stereographic display and spatialized sound.

ANALISA GAYA LAGU KLASIK GAMBANG KROMONG “POBIN KONG JI LOK’

Nowadays, the existing repertoire of the classic songs of gambang kromong is very apprehensive. Dozens of gambang kromong's classical songs developed comprehensively at the end of the 18th century, but in the present, there is only one song that is still possible to play, namely "Pobin Kong Ji Lok". Even, as a matter of fact, this song can only be played by an old music player. Based on the aforementioned problems, it is necessary to conduct documentation of "Pobin Kong Ji Lok" song, associated with an analysis of its musical style. "Pobin Kong Ji Lok" will be documented in the form of audiovisual, transcribed in the form of notation, then analyzed its style of music through the most prominent musical elements, including the musical scale, harmony, tuning system, rhythm, and the timbre of musical instruments.

EFL learners’ speaking proficiency and its connection to emotional understanding, willingness to communicate and musical experience

One of the main reasons for studying a foreign language is communicating with others, but many students do not feel confidently enough when trying to develop their speaking skills. Among adolescents’ frequent activities are that of listening to music while paying attention to song lyrics. We hypothesize that these musical experiences could influence their speaking skills. The present study aims to consider different factors that could influence students’ speaking proficiency. Among these factors, students’ emotional understanding, their willingness to communicate in a FL and their musical experience are considered. One hundred and twenty-four students of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the fourth year of Secondary Education from three different high schools in Spain took part in the study. Oral data were collected through individual interviews and three scales were administered to measure the different factors. Students’ musical experience and emotional response to music were measured through The Absorption in Music Scale, their emotional understanding of verbal texts through The Situational Test of Emotional Understanding – Brief, and their willingness to communicate in the EFL class through Willingness to Communicate Scale. Although no direct connection was found between students’ musical experience and their speaking proficiency, results demonstrate that students with high emotional understanding show better speaking skills and that students with musical experience exhibited higher emotional understanding. We detected a significant positive connection between emotional understanding and all the five parameters considered to assess students’ speaking proficiency. The connection between willingness to communicate in the EFL class and students’ speaking skills is even greater.

Brain networks underlying aesthetic appreciation as modulated by interaction of the spectral and temporal organisations of music

Music is organised both spectrally and temporally, determining musical structures such as musical scale, harmony, and sequential rules in chord progressions. A number of human neuroimaging studies investigated neural processes associated with emotional responses to music investigating the influence of musical valence (pleasantness/unpleasantness) comparing the response to music and unpleasantly manipulated counterparts where harmony and sequential rules were varied. Interactions between the previously applied alterations to harmony and sequential rules of the music in terms of emotional experience and corresponding neural activities have not been systematically studied although such interactions are at the core of how music affects the listener. The current study investigates the interaction between such alterations in harmony and sequential rules by using data sets from two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments. While replicating the previous findings, we found a significant interaction between the spectral and temporal alterations in the fronto-limbic system, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), nucleus accumbens, caudate nucleus, and putamen. We further revealed that the functional connectivity between the vmPFC and the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was reduced when listening to excerpts with alterations in both domains compared to the original music. As it has been suggested that the vmPFC operates as a pivotal point that mediates between the limbic system and the frontal cortex in reward-related processing, we propose that this fronto-limbic interaction might be related to the involvement of cognitive processes in the emotional appreciation of music.

Scaling behaviour in music and cortical dynamics interplay to mediate music listening pleasure

The pleasure of music listening regulates daily behaviour and promotes rehabilitation in healthcare. Human behaviour emerges from the modulation of spontaneous timely coordinated neuronal networks. Too little is known about the physical properties and neurophysiological underpinnings of music to understand its perception, its health benefit and to deploy personalized or standardized music-therapy. Prior studies revealed how macroscopic neuronal and music patterns scale with frequency according to a 1/fα relationship, where a is the scaling exponent. Here, we examine how this hallmark in music and neuronal dynamics relate to pleasure. Using electroencephalography, electrocardiography and behavioural data in healthy subjects, we show that music listening decreases the scaling exponent of neuronal activity and—in temporal areas—this change is linked to pleasure. Default-state scaling exponents of the most pleased individuals were higher and approached those found in music loudness fluctuations. Furthermore, the scaling in selective regions and timescales and the average heart rate were largely proportional to the scaling of the melody. The scaling behaviour of heartbeat and neuronal fluctuations were associated during music listening. Our results point to a 1/fresonance between brain and music and a temporal rescaling of neuronal activity in the temporal cortex as mechanisms underlying music appreciation.

[C G A T] Epita Matrix Genetics: Toward a Visualization of Genetic Codes via “Genetic Music”

The authors describe the scientific background and technical details of the visualization of the mathematics underlying genetic codes applied to musical scales. “Genetic Music” provides audible access to genetic structures that become visible based on the fundamental level of nature as permutations of space itself. The carriers of genetic information characteristically possess hydrogen bonds in quantities 2 and 3 in complementary pairs of nitrogenous bases [GACT] in DNA and [GACU] in RNA. Since hydrogen is observed to expose the symmetries of the Penrose Patterns, visual access is achieved by means of a 3D representation of Penrose kites and darts named “epitahedron.” Those pyramid-shaped polyhedra represent the numbers of hydrogen bonds (C=G=3, A=T=2) that generate musical equivalence between the genetic alphabet and the 7 notes of the Pythagorean scale, as well as further and distinct correlations with “Fibonacci stage” “Genetic Music” scales. The visualization must be played synchronously with the musical performance.

Comparison of music stimuli to support mindfulness meditation

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for different auditory stimuli in supporting mindfulness meditation. Undergraduate non-musicians ( N = 57) listened to four different auditory stimuli guiding them in a mindfulness meditation: script only (i.e., Script), steady beat (i.e., Beat), beat and harmonic progression (i.e., Harmony), and beat, harmony, and melody (i.e., Melody). This study used a within-subjects repeated-measures design with the four conditions counterbalanced and randomized across participants. Participants rated responses using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), completed the Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS), and ranked auditory stimuli according to preference and usefulness for mindfulness meditation. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on the MAAS scores, using the AIMS as a covariate, indicated no statistically significant difference between auditory stimuli. However, with the AIMS removed, the analysis revealed significant differences between stimuli, indicating that levels of absorption in music may moderate participants’ responses to auditory stimuli for mindfulness meditation. Friedman analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and post hoc analyses indicated that participant rankings of usefulness and preference were significantly different among conditions, with the Melody and Harmony conditions ranked highest.

Differences between scale steps and absolute interval sizes: A new test for intervallic awareness

Musical scales can be described as either an organization of scale-step degrees or as a pattern of absolute interval sizes. Even though experimental data show that these two melodic features might have different perceptual implications, not every music education method or psychology experiment separately accounts for them. The present study undertakes an investigation of scale steps, absolute interval sizes, and their cognitive role on melodic perception. The development and partial validation of a new psychometric instrument are reported, and the results are discussed in regard to its experimental and educational implications.

A comparative study of phonetogram parameters among female trained Hindustani classical singers, untrained singers and non-singers

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Vocal sound is based on the complex yet co-ordinated interaction of phonatory system, resonatory system and respiratory system. Phonetography is a practicable and readily accessible method to investigate and map the quantitative potentialities of vocal output. The objectives of the present study were to determine the phonetogram of trained (Hindustani classical) singers, untrained singer sand non-singers elicited from singing as well as speech task to see if statistically significant differences were present which may indicate an effect of training.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> 90 female subjects between the ages 20-45 (mean age 34.2 years for trained subjects, 26.3 years for untrained subjects and 25.8 years for non-singers) divided into three groups each group consisting of 30 subjects. For the singing task, the individuals had to phonate |a| at habitual level by traversing through eight musical scales. In the speech task, the subjects were asked to count from one to twenty in Bengali at habitat level and at Sustainable cohorts of intensity. This was recorded using phonetogram software Dr. Speech (version 4). The parameters considered were fundamental frequency, intensity, semitones and area. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> The study revealed that in both tasks singing and non-singing task for all three groups in all the four parameters of phonetogram significant differences were seen (p=0.000) at 95% level of confidence.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The present study depicted the phonetographic profile of a genre of trained singers and tracked out the parameters on which differences are pronounced between a trained and untrained singer and non-singer.</p>

Music, mystique and Shakespeare’s sonnets

This is an English version of a paper that has been published in the Russian journal, Ideas and Ideals (2019, pp. 11-30). Shakespeares Sonnets (1609) contains several rhyming patterns that were regarded at the time as ‘anomalies’. In a list of ‘Rules’ for poetry published in 1585, the very first prohibition laid down by King James VI of Scotland was that a syllable should never be rhymed with itself. In 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England. And yet, in Shakespeare’s sonnets, the very first of King James’s prohibitions is broken rarely, but repeatedly. If Shakespeare’s successive sonnets are aligned with the successive notes in musical scales for the canonical series of the Renaissance ‘modes’, then the locations of Shakespeare’s rhyme-anomalies coincide reliably with the locations of the notes that are significantly discordant with the tonic according to a musical theory that was published in 1619 by the astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler’s master-work The Harmony of the World (1619) was dedicated to King James I of England. This work opens with a Dedication to King James, in which King James’s celebrated political successes were credited to his understanding of the ‘celestial harmonies’. It is argued here that Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence constitutes a ‘microcosm’ that formally echoes Kepler’s theory of the ‘macrocosm’ and ‘the harmony of the spheres’. If Shakespeare could somehow have brought the formal patterning in this ‘microcosm’ to the attention of potential patrons in the Jacobean Court, then he could reasonably have hoped that this might curry favour with those among them who shared ‘Platonic’ interests like those of Kepler.

Predicting Music Achievement From the Sources of Self-Efficacy: An Exploratory Study

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the 4 sources of self-efficacy and achievement in music performance. I used a correlational design to examine (a) the extent to which each source of self-efficacy predicted achievement; (b) differences in the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement by instrument type, age, and sex; and (c) the relationship between self-efficacy and years of ensemble enrollment. Participants (N = 73) were secondary school band and string orchestra students auditioning for elite ensembles. Responses from the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale reflected self-efficacy and audition scores represented achievement. Consistent with other studies, enactive mastery experience exhibited the strongest relationship with the composite construct of self-efficacy. I found verbal/social persuasion, however, to be the strongest predictor of achievement in music performance. This finding highlights the influence of verbal and social messages on achievement prior to critical performances. No differences were found when comparing the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement among groups differentiated by instrument, age, and sex. In addition, no correlation was found between self-efficacy and years of ensemble enrollment. Recommendations include extending existing psychological models to incorporate the sources of self-efficacy and using experimental designs to examine the influence of self-efficacy building activities on musicians.

Atom music: exploring the atomic world through sound

Atom music is a fun and educational way to investigate the sound of the atomic world using music synthesis techniques to create atom “songs.” Students gain insight into the structure of sound and its relation to the structure of matter using Fourier analysis. By correlating the bright lines appearing in atomic spectra to audible tones, individual atom notes can be identified. These notes then comprise a musical scale that is unique to each element. From these scales, atom songs can be created using programs such as Audacity, Logic or Max. Specific atomic traits can be incorporated that allow for creativity in the making of an atom song. Digital synthesizers let the user create waveforms to any specification and allow students to explore the atomic world by creating their music. Simple molecules can be mimicked by combining the music of different atoms to form atom “bands.” More advanced students can use signal processing methods to gain deeper insight into the atom’s sound. Examples of how atom music has been used can be found in a recent article published online by Physics Today titled Composing Atom Music. This presentation explores some of the methods and software used to create atom music.

The Sounds of Music: Science of Musical Scales

The Sounds of Music: Science of Musical Scales

On the One Hand or on the Other: Trade-Off in Timing Precision in Bimanual Musical Scale Playing.

Music performance requires simultaneously producing challenging movement sequences with the left and right hand. A key question in bimanual motor control research is whether bimanual movements are produced by combining unimanual controllers or through a dedicated bimanual controller. Here, 34 expert pianists performed musical scale playing movements with the left or right hand alone and with both hands simultaneously. We found that for the left hand, scale playing was more variable when playing with both hands simultaneously rather than with one hand at a time, but for the right hand, performance was identical. This indicates that when task constraints are high, musicians prioritize timing accuracy in the right hand at the cost of detriment of performance in the left hand. We also found that individual differences in timing substantially overlap between the unimanual and bimanual condition, suggesting control policies are similar but not identical when playing with two hands or one. In the bimanual condition, the left-hand keystrokes tended to occur before right-hand ones, and more so when the hands were further apart. Performance of the two hands was furthermore coupled so that they tended to be early and late together, especially in the beginning and end of each scale. This suggests that experts are able to achieve tightly coupled timing of scale playing movements between the hands. Taken together, these findings show evidence for partially overlapping and partially separate controllers for bimanual and unimanual movements in piano playing.

The Sounds of Music: Science of Musical Scales

Both, human appreciation of music and musical genres transcend time and space. The universality of musical genres and associated musical scales is intimately linked to the physics of sound, and the special characteristics of human acoustic sensitivity. In this series of articles, we examine the science underlying the development of the heptatonic scale, one of the most prevalent scales of the modern musical genres, both western and Indian.

Music Teachers’ Psychological Needs and Work Engagement as Predictors of Their Well-Being

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate whether music teachers’ psychological needs and work engagement predicted their well-being. The term “well-being,” referring to human optimal condition, was adopted from self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2001). Participants (n = 218) completed a survey that consisted of the Music Teacher Engagement Scale, the Music Teachers’ Psychological Need Measure (comprised of autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and the Subjective Well-Being Inventory (Sell & Nagpal, 1992). We conducted a stepwise multiple regression analysis using work engagement, autonomy, competence, and relatedness as the predictor variables and a composite well-being rating scale score as the criterion variable. For music teachers with 0 to 9 years and 30-plus years of experience, relatedness was the stronger predictor of well-being. However, among teachers who had 10 to 19 and 20 to 29 years of experience, competence was determined as a strong predictor.

Music-based emotion regulation and healthy and unhealthy music use predict coping strategies in adults with substance use disorder: A cross-sectional study

While many people use music for emotion regulation, there is a dearth of empirical inquiry investigating if music-based self-regulatory factors correlate with and predict coping in adults with substance use disorder (SUD). The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore music-based emotion regulation, healthy and unhealthy music use, and coping strategies in adults with SUD on a detoxification unit via correlational and multiple regression analyses. Participants ( N = 194) completed the Brief Music in Mood Regulation Scale, the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale, and the Brief COPE. Correlations and multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine which music-based emotion regulation factors were related to and predicted coping. There were a plethora of significant relationships between music-based factors and coping. Regression results indicated that solace predicted acceptance and entertainment predicted venting. Healthy music use predicted active coping and humor, while unhealthy music use predicted venting, denial, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame. Generally, unhealthy music use predicted maladaptive coping while healthy music use predicted adaptive coping. As music use is common for people with SUD, it seems that music-based emotion regulation training may have the possibility to augment adaptive coping skills with the ultimate goal of increasing the likelihood of recovery.

A Self-Consistent Sonification Method to Translate Amino Acid Sequences into Musical Compositions and Application in Protein Design Using Artificial Intelligence.

We report a self-consistent method to translate amino acid sequences into audible sound, use the representation in the musical space to train a neural network, and then apply it to generate protein designs using artificial intelligence (AI). The sonification method proposed here uses the normal mode vibrations of the amino acid building blocks of proteins to compute an audible representation of each of the 20 natural amino acids, which is fully defined by the overlay of its respective natural vibrations. The vibrational frequencies are transposed to the audible spectrum following the musical concept of transpositional equivalence, playing or writing music in a way that makes it sound higher or lower in pitch while retaining the relationships between tones or chords played. This transposition method ensures that the relative values of the vibrational frequencies within each amino acid and among different amino acids are retained. The characteristic frequency spectrum and sound associated with each of the amino acids represents a type of musical scale that consists of 20 tones, the "amino acid scale". To create a playable instrument, each tone associated with the amino acids is assigned to a specific key on a piano roll, which allows us to map the sequence of amino acids in proteins into a musical score. To reflect higher-order structural details of proteins, the volume and duration of the notes associated with each amino acid are defined by the secondary structure of proteins, computed using DSSP and thereby introducing musical rhythm. We then train a recurrent neural network based on a large set of musical scores generated by this sonification method and use AI to generate musical compositions, capturing the innate relationships between amino acid sequence and protein structure. We then translate the de novo musical data generated by AI into protein sequences, thereby obtaining de novo protein designs that feature specific design characteristics. We illustrate the approach in several examples that reflect the sonification of protein sequences, including multihour audible representations of natural proteins and protein-based musical compositions solely generated by AI. The approach proposed here may provide an avenue for understanding sequence patterns, variations, and mutations and offers an outreach mechanism to explain the significance of protein sequences. The method may also offer insight into protein folding and understanding the context of the amino acid sequence in defining the secondary and higher-order folded structure of proteins and could hence be used to detect the effects of mutations through sound.