This paper uses corpus analysis to explore relationships between tone and melody in folk and contemporary songs in Chaozhou, a Chinese dialect with eight lexical tones and a wealth of tone sandhi. Results suggest that: (1) there is a high degree of correspondence between tone and melody in Chaozhou song; (2) tone sandhi influences tone-melody correspondence; (3) tones realised in context can be categorised

Many studies have presented computational models of musical structure, as an important aspect of musicological analysis. However, the use of grammar-based compressors to automatically recover such information is a relatively new and promising technique. We investigate their performance extensively using a collection of nearly 8000 scores, on tasks including error detection, classification, and segmentation

Violin bowing is a specialised sound-producing action, which may be affected by psychological performance techniques. In sport, attentional focus impacts motor performance, but limited evidence for this exists in music. We investigated the effects of attentional focus on acoustical, physiological, and physical parameters of violin bowing in experienced and novice violinists. Attentional focus significantly

Previous studies on multisensory integration (MSI) of musical emotions have yielded inconsistent results. The distinct features of the music materials and different musical expertise levels of participants may account for that. This study aims to explore the neural mechanism for the audio-visual integration of musical emotions and infer the reasons for inconsistent results in previous studies by investigating

Music is a valuable aid for hospitalized adolescents as they navigate normative and non-normative stressors. Music-based interventions link these adolescents with composers who write music designed to facilitate emotional well-being; yet little is known about how each engage and find meaning in these interventions. This study examines the motivations and musical choices of composers of music for mental

Although there is an increasing number of studies investigating the effects of attending music programs and classes, research on the impact of gender role self-concept on the decision to attend music classes is limited. Current research highlights the significance of gender role self-concept in decision-making processes. Accordingly, we conducted path analysis on a sample of n = 353 fifth-graders to

A limited amount of previous research suggests that deteriorating socioeconomic conditions may be associated with greater popularity of music lyrics featuring negative emotional content and references to relationships. The present research considered this in charting popular music before and during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A dataset based on the song lyrics of the top-5 charting

This study aims to recognise emotions in music through the Adaptive-Network-Based Fuzzy (ANFIS). For this, we applied such structure in 877 MP3 files with thirty seconds duration each, collected directly on the YouTube platform, which represent the emotions anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. We developed four classification strategies, consisting of sets of five, four, three, and two emotions

ABSTRACT Making the link between human emotion and music is challenging. Our aim was to produce an efficient system that emotionally rates songs from multiple genres. To achieve this, we employed a series of online self-report studies, utilising Russell's circumplex model. The first study (n = 44) identified audio features that map to arousal and valence for 20 songs. From this, we constructed a set

A growing concern is the low number of learners who choose to participate in music during their high school years. Extending previous research by McPherson and O’Neill, this study explored South African high school learners’ motivation and value perceptions to continue with music as an elective in grade 10. A further objective was to understand how value perceptions vary according to grade, gender

Ensemble musicians engage with each other visually through glances and body motion. We conducted a case study to test how string quartet musicians would respond to playing conditions that were meant to discourage or promote visually communicative behaviour. A quartet performed in different seating configurations under rehearsal and concert conditions. Quantity of head motion was reduced when musicians'

The relationship between musicians and their musical instruments has influenced music engagement and musical structure across societies. In this work, we study how musicians react to changes in their instrument and the associations between keys and pitches using experiments that simulate the interface of the accordion. Seventeen accordionists, pianists and guitarists took part in the study. The results

ABSTRACT This article reports on a pilot project exploring the viability of a teaching-through-playing approach in chamber music instruction in higher music education. Literature suggests that teaching traditions such as the one-to-one setting need renewal, and socio-cultural theories of learning propose that collaboration and participation are a way forward. To explore this new approach, a multiple

ABSTRACT Recently, there have been attempts to improve the support for beginning music teachers by investigating their difficulties during their first teaching years. The purpose of the study was to describe Korean novice music teachers’ perceptions of their first years’ challenges. In this study, data were generated through participants’ reflective journals, two individual interviews per participant

ABSTRACT This paper reports a qualitative study that investigates how five different video-based online prototypes impacted in-service music teachers’ professional knowledge and their learning experiences. Through an examination of participants’ posts and interviews, the findings showed that video-based professional development (PD) could impact teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge as they afforded

Seventy-two persons, who had begun voice lessons after 40 years of age, were invited to complete an online survey that focused on the singers’ experience, motivation, goals, health and well-being, repertoire, practice, and demographic information; 48 respondents (33 females, mean age 60.81 years, range 48.83–82.08, SD = 6.99) completed the questionnaire. Most participants indicated that enjoyment and

Small ensemble participation represents a unique form of human social activity involving a profound level of interpersonal and emotional communication. Previous researchers have suggested that engagement in group music making may have a positive influence on various social-emotional skills, including empathy. In line with this view, the initial study explored the relationship between small ensemble

Music’s power to trigger memories has rarely been tested; in particular, it is not clear what mechanisms govern memory retrieval elicited by musical cues. Previous research has suggested that memory retrieval is underpinned by two mechanisms: (1) distinctiveness—the probability that a cue will retrieve a memory declines with the number of stimuli previously encoded with that same cue and (2) incongruence—a

This study was undertaken with the intent of exploring three overarching research questions concerning music performance anxiety (MPA). The first objective was to collect descriptive accounts of the everyday experiences of MPA in educational settings. The second objective was to investigate the adaptive coping strategies students utilized to manage their MPA, which were distilled from the data in light

The present study investigated the effects of pairing a comedic movie trailer with emotive music on subsequent recognition memory of the events depicted in the trailer. In an independent groups design, the comedic trailer was paired with happy music (congruent condition) or sad music (incongruent condition). A no music condition served as the control condition. The results showed that participants

The role of music in second-language (L2) learning has long been the object of various empirical and theoretical inquiries. However, research on whether the effect of background music (BM) on language-related task performance is facilitative or inhibitory has produced inconsistent findings. Hence, we investigated the effect of happy and sad BM on complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of L2 speaking

We at the JRME are fortunate to be able to feature the recipients of the National Association for Music Education’s Senior Researcher Award. This biennial award is given to recognize significant, long-term contributions to scholarship in music education. This issue includes the address given by the most recent recipient, Dr. Estelle Jorgensen, at the 2021 biennial Music Research and Teacher Education

This paper investigates the impact of Dalcroze Eurhythmics on fostering creativity and autonomy in classical instrumental pedagogy. The research took the form of an arts practice investigation which included devising, rehearsing, performing and documenting two performance events, drawing on Dalcroze Eurhythmics techniques rather than conventional classical music approaches. Autoethnography and other

South African Higher Education Institution (HEI) Music Education (MusEd) lecturers’ perspectives regarding the contextual, institutional, biographical and programmatic forces that stem from the theoretical framework Samuel’s (2008) Force Field Model (FFM) were explored. The study was approached from an interpretivist paradigm and conceptually drew qualitative data generated from eight case studies

Recent research has shown that formal musical training has a wealth of benefits in terms of cognition, mental health, social skills, and even speech perception. Of these benefits, there is strong support for a relationship between formal musical training and an improved ability to recognize emotions in speech prosody. Given this connection, interpersonal relationships stand to benefit from improved

In three studies, we explore the subjective construal of associations between music preferences and social class. Two small-scale studies (N = 100, N = 70) and one study involving a large representative sample of the Italian population (N = 1,045) reveal that (a) people hold well-defined stereotypes on how music preferences are linked to social class, (b) that these stereotypes do not map onto actual

The relationship between parameters extracted from the musical stimuli and emotional response has been traditionally approached using several physical measures extracted from time or frequency domains. From time-domain measures, the musical onset is defined as the moment in that any musical instrument or human voice issues a musical note. The onsets’ sequence in the performance of a specific musical

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is one of the main problems experienced by music students. It manifests in affective, cognitive, somatic, and behavioral symptoms that can occur regardless of the quality of the musical performance. The aim of this study was to perform a regression analysis to determine the variables that contribute to the prediction of MPA in conservatory students. A total of 295 Spanish

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among beat perception, error detection, and musical experience. We presented monophonic rhythms using a piano timbre along with two measures of beat perception (Harvard Beat Finding and Interval Test [BFIT] and Goldsmiths Beat Alignment Test) and a measure of melodic error detection. College musicians’ (N = 43) ability to detect rhythm errors

ABSTRACT Our study explored how adolescents’ experiences and musical preferences might relate to musical identity, and the likelihood of engaging in musical activities as adults. Participants were 170 first-year university students, both music majors and non-music majors. A questionnaire collected participants’ responses regarding beliefs about music, as well as self-reported ratings of musicality

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurship mostly occurs in business studies after general education. This study considers how the informant, Anna, first identified herself as a young music hobbyist, then as a musician and music teacher, and finally as an entrepreneur in music. The main question driving this narrative study is, ‘How might identity formation processes as a musician and a music teacher influence identity

ABSTRACT This article argues that coloniality is an ongoing feature of university music education in Nigeria. It uses a multiple colonialisms framework in exploring Nigerian higher music education systems as historical and contemporary sites of colonialism within which Nigerian universities engage in music knowledge generation to reach this conclusion. It relies on information gleaned from scholarly

ABSTRACT Our study examines the impact of student performance level, student gender and content matter on the verbal strategies (literal language, technical instruction and images and metaphors) teachers use in guitar masterclasses. After recording and transcribing 60 guitar masterclasses, of which 40 were selected for the final sample, we operationalised the variables as follows: independent judges

ABSTRACT This study deals with the meaning that musicians and non-musicians attach to two contemporary railway noise compositions as conveyed through verbal and audio-graphic responses. The purpose of this mixed-method study was twofold: (1) to examine similarities and differences between musicians and non-musicians in their responses to contemporary train-noise music; (2) to explore the effect of

Mind wandering is a prevalent and ubiquitous phenomenon. Several studies suggest that mind wandering benefits creativity if it occurs in the incubation period of a creative problem-solving task. However, it could be impairing real-time expression of creative behavior if it occurs during the course of a creative task. This dissociation between incubation and performance suggests that mind wandering

In this historical study, I present the emergence and evolution of Jamey Aebersold’s Play-A-Long volumes and their key role in bringing jazz improvisation to formal music education. Drawing on oral histories and using a framework from sound studies, I present chord-scales and pattern playing as Deweyan conceptual technologies that assist beginners in developing a mature technique. I recount how Aebersold

Performing music at the highest levels involves great competitiveness. When each performance represents a major personal challenge, success is no longer solely dependent on a high level of technical mastery: the psychological aspects of the performance also have a decisive impact. The concept of flow is presented as a phenomenon associated with significant improvements in the musician’s performance

In the context of falling recruitment to Initial Teacher Education programmes in the UK, this article focuses on motivators and demotivators affecting undergraduate students’ attitudes towards training as a teacher and considers these under the broad headings of altruistic (such as wanting to share a love of the subject and working with young people) and pragmatic (stable career, regular salary, good

The critical role of disciplinary literacy in enhancing understanding and engagement within arts-based subjects has drawn increased recognition amongst researchers and practitioners alike in recent years. The successful integration of disciplinary literacy into the classroom however has been challenged in equal measures by a prevailing sense of confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the concept

This study aims to highlight the uniqueness of the English choristers’ education, what special musical skills it passes on to youngsters and how these may help them in later life. It investigates the perceptions of 30 ex-choristers who attended a broad selection of English choir schools between 1940 and 2010 using semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that music training of choristers forms

Curriculum design is a domain that infrequently forms a discrete element of initial teacher training, or continuing professional development for music teachers in English secondary schools. Classroom music teachers, teaching Key Stage 3 (KS3) learners (11–14-year olds), are, however, required to design their own curriculum. Teachers are accountable to school leaders for curricula they implement, and

The constrained action hypothesis states that focusing attention on action outcomes rather than body movement improves motor performance. Dexterity of motor control is key to successful music performance, making this a highly relevant topic to music education. We investigated effects of focus of attention (FOA) on motor skill performance and EMG muscle activity in a violin bowing task among experienced

(2021). The Politics of Diversity in Music Education. Music Education Research. Ahead of Print.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of focus of attention instructions (i.e. focus on the solo, accompaniment, or collaboration) on listeners’ performance evaluations. Participants (N = 159) were inservice band directors who listened to and evaluated the accuracy and expressivity of four excerpts of Haydn’s Concerto for Trumpet in E-Flat Major, which we created by synchronizing recordings

Spanish Conservatories of Music are educational institutions where, for the most part, the culture of Modernity is upheld and an aesthetic musical paradigm is enshrined. In this paper, therefore, it was important to reflect, firstly, on the teaching practices they implement and which have remained faithful to Positivist assertions, in the face of the different educational laws that have been passed

Music-based interventions and music lessons modulate cognitive functions, such as language or attention. However, the specific and differential effects of musical activities are a new focus of research. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of musical improvisation, a focal musical intervention, on the emotional memory of 4- and 5-year-old children. Each child individually looked at

ABSTRACT The purpose of this case study was to examine the perspectives of three Black instrumental music students related to their experiences attending a predominantly white summer music camp for high school students in the United States. Analysed through a conceptual model of culturally responsive teaching in music, data sources included semi-structured interviews with individual participants, a

Numerous studies have demonstrated the capacity of choral singing to improve human well-being and that, in certain sectors of society (including older adults, prison populations, underprivileged social groups, and mentally illness groups), choral singing bears several benefits. Thus, this descriptive study proposed a comprehensive structural model of the dimensions that comprise choral singing’s contribution

This study explored how lyrics, participant-selected music, and emotion trajectory impact self-reported emotional (happiness, sadness, arousal, and valence) and physiological (heart, respiration, and skin conductance rates) responses. Participants were matched (based on sex, age, musicianship, and lyric preference) and assigned to a lyric or instrumental group. Each participant experienced one emotion

Glottal adduction is a crucial aspect in voice education and vocal performance: it has major effects on phonatory airflow and, consequently, on voice timbre. As the voice is a non-visible musical instrument, controlling it could be facilitated by providing real-time visual feedback of phonatory airflow. Here, we test the usefulness of a flow ball (FB) training device, visualizing, in terms of the height

While the ensemble is a ubiquitous learning environment within jazz education, opportunities to learn through engagement in ensemble performances and industry-level recording opportunities are rare classroom environments tertiary jazz music institutions offer. This qualitative study examines jazz performance contexts within an Australian tertiary music course, exploring students’ learning experience

Previous research has led to the hypothesis that poor-pitch singing is the result of a weakness in the auditory/vocal loop. The present study evaluated this hypothesis in a training paradigm that used visual feedback to augment potentially faulty auditory-vocal associations. Following pretest with the Seattle Singing Accuracy Protocol (SSAP), participants were randomly assigned to one of three 20-min

Self-efficacy belief is a strong predictor of successful performance. Developmental differences in the acquisition of self-beliefs have been attributed to myriad individual and contextual factors, including teacher influence. The aim of this mixed-method study was to examine collegiate music students’ perceptions of teaching methods that strengthened or weakened music performance belief. A questionnaire

Orchestras all over the world have concert programs in various formats for children, including some designed for preschoolers. Presenting concerts to children in kindergartens and schools is a long-standing tradition in Israel. The uniqueness of these programs and their main innovation is the preparatory work and process through which the children are prepared for the concert—which is the culmination

The coherent organisation of thematic material into large-scale structures within a composition is an important concept in both traditional and cognitive theories of music. However, empirical evidence supporting their perception is scarce. Providing a more nuanced approach, this paper introduces a computational model of hypothesised cognitive mechanisms underlying perception of large-scale thematic

A previous study showed that ‘bright’ vowels (i.e. front vowels, which have higher second formants) are favoured for on-beat words in hip-hop music. Here we partially replicated these findings in a more diverse sample of pop songs from the Rolling Stone Corpus. Stressed monosyllables were classified by their vowel’s place of articulation and their metric position. Bright vowels were 9–13% more likely

This paper reports on an exploratory study in the field of electroacoustic music aimed at understanding whether a sensation similar to that associated with the concept of “cadence” in relation to tonal music can be identified when listening to sounds diffused in space. Using a variety of patterned stimuli in a perceptual experiment, we asked listeners to evaluate the completeness of multiple trajectories

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between high school jazz band directors’ efficacious sources, self-efficacy for teaching strategies, and pedagogical behaviors. Participants (N = 264) completed the Jazz Band Director Self-Efficacy for Teaching Strategies Scale and responded to items about their formal and informal learning experiences, school characteristics, and demographics

A number of studies suggest a link between musical training and both specific and general cognitive abilities, but despite some positive results, there is disagreement about which abilities are improved. This study aims to investigate the effects of a music education program both on a domain-specific competence (meta-musical awareness), and on general domain competences, that is, cognitive abilities

ABSTRACT Sweden’s Art and Music Schools (SAMS) have assumed some responsibility for facilitating refugee children’s social inclusion. This article investigates how the inclusion of refugee children in SAMS is introduced by leaders as well as how the theme is constructed and addressed as a topic in policy documents (related to the national policy process for SAMS). Two data sets constitute the empirical