https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/13566 2017-07-10T07:56:12Z Kolomainen, Sara https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/54501 2017-06-15T22:06:28Z 2017-06-14T14:54:11Z

2017 Musical and social factors affecting attention regulation of children in band playing and mobile music making Kolomainen, Sara This study focuses on attention and hyperactivity regulation of children in band playing and mobile music making. The study aims at finding the musical and social elements that help children to regulate their attention, and lead to positive social interaction. Within the mobile music making, stand-alone playing and pair work scenarios are analysed. Within the band playing, instructed and improvised playing are compared. This research is a multiple case study with four participants: two children with ADHD and two comparison children without ADHD. Non-participatory observation is applied as the main data collection method. The data, in the form of video recordings, is analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Attention regulation of the children is labelled with the following four categories: on- task behaviour, selective on-task behaviour, passive off-task behaviour, and hyperactive off-task behaviour. Essential elements contributing to improvement of attention regulation and reduction of inattentiveness and hyperactivity found to be sitting independently, far from other musical instruments. Another element improving attention regulation was clear (and repeated) instruction that was preferably given before the children were at close physical proximity to the devices or band instruments. Clarity of the instruction played a key role in all the musical activities, and lack of it reflected in hyperactive off-task behaviour. Role of the music making session instructors was found to be significant. The overall result is that all the children had mostly good attention regulation in all of the musical contexts. The quantitative time-course analysis shows that with ADHD children 94 %, and with non- ADHD children 93 % of the total time of the analysed excerpts consisted of on-task or selective on-task behaviour. In the band playing there was slightly more hyperactivity by the children with ADHD than by the children without ADHD. There was slightly more selective on-task and passive off-task behaviour by the non-ADHD children than by the ADHD children in the mobile music making situations. When comparing the different musical contexts, hyperactive off-task behaviour was seen slightly more in the band playing than mobile music making context, while passive off-task behaviour was more prominent in the mobile music making than in band playing. When the children were asked to improvise with band instruments, percussion instruments, and especially drum kits were found to be the most challenging musical instruments in relation to attention regulation.

Bamford, Joshua https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/54190 2017-06-01T22:09:22Z 2017-05-31T06:44:19Z

2017 Social bonding happens in time : interpersonal synchronisation in the silent disco Bamford, Joshua Dance is a fundamentally social activity. Studies have begun to examine the role of movement in music for conveying emotional states, potentially revealing a useful mechanism for the communication of emotions, while other studies have found that joint synchrony increases interpersonal affiliation. However, music and movement studies have focused on individuals and comparatively few studies have involved multiple simultaneous participants. The aim of the proposed research is to examine the importance of synchrony in a dance setting for building interpersonal affiliation. This was tested using a Silent Disco scenario, in which participants heard the music in slightly different timing to each other. Participants were drawn from the population of a Finnish university, and were able to self-select partners. In a within-subjects design, it was found that pairs experienced a greater sense of interpersonal affiliation while in the synchronous condition than in the asynchronous conditions. Self-reported results were supported by behavioural measurements of interpersonal affiliation. Further analysis found a positive relationship between Trait Agreeableness and self-reported affiliation in the synchronous condition. These findings are discussed in the context of current research around synchrony and social bonding, and provide new insights into the role of synchrony in social dancing or therapeutic settings. It may be concluded that shared experiences are more effective at bringing us together when they are shared in time.

Johnson, Susan https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/53439 2017-04-03T22:05:10Z 2017-03-31T13:47:51Z

2017 The influence of rhythmic and spectro-timbral musical features on gait-related movement Johnson, Susan Music makes us move, and humans have the universal tendency to synchronise their movements to music. This phenomenon has been used in music therapy to help people with movement disorders regain control over their movements. Rhythmic auditory stimulation has shown promising results in gait rehabilitation in various clinical populations. In healthy populations, various differences have been found between movement while walking to musical and metronome stimuli in terms of stride length. However, insufficient research has been conducted concerning the musical features that could evoke this difference, and which gait-related movements might change under the influence of music. The aim of this motion capture study was to investigate the effects of various rhythmic and spectro-timbral musical features on gait-related movement and to explore the differences between various types of auditory cues and their connections to movement. Participants were asked to walk to a variety of musical and metronome stimuli, which were divided into four tempo groups, ranging from 80 bpm to 145 bpm. Cadence and walking speed tended to increase with tempo, though exact period-matching of cadence to tempo generally did not occur. Furthermore, cadence and walking speed increased with the musical features pulse clarity and spectral flux. Participants also moved more smoothly to slower songs than to moderate tempo songs and fluidity of movement was negatively correlated with pulse clarity, low-frequency spectral flux, and mean spectral flux. Furthermore, stride length and walking speed were increased while listening to metronome beats compared to when listening to musical stimuli and participants tended to adapt their cadence more to the tempi of metronome stimuli than to musical stimuli. Also, musical timing affected hand distance, with decreased hand distance occurring in music with swung timing compared to music with straight timing. These results suggest that musical features can have a significant effect on gait-related movements in young healthy adults.

Leimu, Mikko https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/52642 2017-06-19T22:03:08Z 2017-01-05T10:58:07Z

2017 Challenging equal temperament : perceived differences between twelve-tone equal temperament and twelve fifth-tones tuning Leimu, Mikko A listening experiment was arranged to evaluate perceptual preferences between two musical tuning systems: twelve-tone equal temperament (i.e. the current international standard) and twelve fifth-tones tuning. The latter being a system that, according to its author Maria Renold, provides a more accurate and aurally genuine reproduction of musical harmonics. Hence, it is considered a superior tuning method compared to the equal temperament tuning. 34 participants (mainly experienced musicians) evaluated realistic musical stimuli consisting of intervals, chords and simple musical sequences using a grand piano timbre. Results showed that the standard twelve-tone equal temperament system was found overall more in-tune, with ca. 68% of the participants preferred it over the twelve fifth-tones tuning. This is considered to be most likely due to enculturation affects, i.e. people have preferred the tonality that is more familiar to them. No evidence for the supposed aural genuineness of the Renold’s tuning systems was found. Instead, it may be concluded that intonation preferences in perceptual context are subject to high amounts of individual variation and clear definition of tonality preferences is often a difficult task.

Little, Noah https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/51324 2017-01-17T11:21:29Z 2016-09-12T19:30:25Z

2016 EDM and Ecstasy : the lived experiences of electronic music festival attendees Little, Noah This study aimed to provide a comprehensive exploration of the lived experiences of individuals who attended a multi-day electronic dance music festival. The present study was primarily interested in the perceived beneficial changes within the individual, following their festival experience. As well, we investigated if first time festival attendees perceived changes differed to those of returning individuals. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used to collect data from 12 individuals who attended the 2015 Electronic Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Six participants were first-time attendees while the remaining 6 were individuals returning to the festival. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Within the data emerged the following central themes: 1) escape 2) communitas, and 3) self-reported changes; there were 11 subthemes These findings add to the existing body of music festival literature, further contextualizing how music festivals are both experienced, and reflected upon by individuals. Three central themes from festival attendees were narrated: the ability to escape from everyday routines and surroundings, opportunities for social interaction and acceptance, and exploration of values alternative outlooks on life. Further, this study highlights the potential lasting changes individuals’ experience from attending electronic dance music festivals.

Kwan, Pui Yin https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/50620 2016-06-28T22:03:55Z 2016-06-28T12:02:55Z

2016 The effect of music performance anxiety, context, modality and observers' music expertise on judgment of musical performances Kwan, Pui Yin Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is known to affect musicians at different levels. Recent studies have shown that anxiety can induce changes in non-verbal behaviours, and that non-verbal behaviours could affect perception and production of a musical performance. However, it remains unclear how effectively cues associated with MPA are perceived via different modalities (audiovisual, audio-only & video-only). The present study aims to investigate the impact of MPA, performing contexts and modalities on the observers’ ratings of expressivity, performance quality and inner state, and whether these ratings would be affected by the observer’s level of music expertise. Eight performers completed the revised Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (K-MPAI) and were also recorded performing a repertoire of their choice in both the presence and absence of an audience. Excerpts of the performances were presented to 53 observers in the three modalities. Observers were asked to rate the excerpts in terms of expressivity, performance quality and the performer’s inner state. The main findings included: 1) Anxiety impaired expressivity and performance quality ratings, especially in the video-only condition; 2) The high-anxious performers were susceptible to trait anxiety, while the mid-anxious and low-anxious performers were effected by the performing context; 3) The high-anxious performers were perceived as being the most anxious in the audiovisual and video-only conditions; 4) The low-anxious performers were perceived as being the most anxious in the audio-only condition, although this finding may have been affected by the acoustic properties of the music; 5) Visual cues seemed to be more dominant in perceiving expressivity and anxiety, while auditory cues played a more important role in performance quality evaluation; 6) Musical training affected assessment of expressivity and performance quality but not the perception of anxiety. The results highlight the importance of visual and auditory cues in performance evaluation, and provide practical implications for online and blind auditions.

Diapoulis, Georgios https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/50334 2016-06-20T22:03:21Z 2016-06-15T17:19:13Z

2016 Exploring the perception of expressivity and interaction within musical dyads Diapoulis, Georgios Bodily gestures in music performance play an important role in the perception and appreciation of music by the audience. Performance variations can be identified by observers even when no auditory cues are available; visual kinematic information has been demonstrated to be crucial in identifying expressive intentions. The current thesis explores violin dyads performing an unfamiliar song. High quality optical motion capture was employed to record full body movement. We applied the standard paradigm to study the perception of expressive performance. Our aim was to predict perceptual ratings of expressivity from movement computations. That is, to deduce secondary aspects of musical gestures, namely intentions, from primary aspects, namely physical movement. Our hypotheses were that perceived expressivity is dominated by vision and that ancillary gestures carry significant cues for observers. For this purpose, a web-based perceptual experiment was conducted using short duration stimuli that were rendered as point light representations. Sound and vision, vision only, and sound only stimuli were employed to explore interactions across different modalities. Preliminary movement analysis showed that the musicians performed with greater amounts of kinetic energy in the more exaggerated expressive conditions. We extracted low level kinematic features based on instantaneous velocities of the markers of interest. We applied principal component analysis on the motion capture timeseries data, and we performed multiple linear regression and linear discriminant analysis to assess our hypotheses. We extend previous findings about visual perception in dyadic context, and we provide an account of idiosyncratic movements in violin performance.

Bartley, Fern https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/50276 2016-06-16T22:03:01Z 2016-06-13T08:46:13Z

2016 The optimal musical pause : the effects of expectancies, musical training, and personality Bartley, Fern The musical pause is an acoustic space between musical phrases, and is an important auditory quality because it can enhance tension by delaying the expected. It has been proposed that expectancies develop from long-term schematic knowledge learned through exposure; however, the dynamic attending theory indicates that expectancies arise from localized short-term knowledge found in the stimulus. This study aims to measure the optimal duration of the pause by assessing the influence of low-level musical features, long-term familiarity, musical ability, and personality. Musical excerpts were chosen from a variety of genres to include two phrases (separable by a silence), from which participants were asked to create and to rate the pauses. Results indicated that, while preferences and choices of pause durations were partially influenced by low-level features, they were more often affected by long-term schematic learning. Despite discrepancies in the relationship between the pause and metre, there was high consensus that pauses not exceeding three beats were favoured. Results also implied that expectations might change depending on the listening intent of the individual, which could have implications for perceptual differences between performer and audience.

Keipi, Aaro https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/49916 2016-05-25T22:02:26Z 2016-05-25T06:37:17Z

2016 The inspiration in improvisation : identifying and classifying the approaches to emotion-based musical improvisation Keipi, Aaro The purpose of this study was to identify the naturally occurring approaches that musicians use to improvise and to analyse the relationships between the approach used, the improviser’s musical experience, and the quality of the resulting improvisation. 16 participants took part in three group improvisation and discussion sessions, and the improvisations of the final session (80 in total) were recorded and rated by experts on emotions- and quality-related aspects. The approaches mentioned by participants in the final session were organised into five distinct categories: technical, musical inspiration, nuanced emotion, visualized scene, and personal experience. Significant negative correlations were found between the technical approach and two distinct ratings for the quality of the resulting improvisation. No significant correlations were found between musical experience and the tendency to use a particular approach. Finally, two methods of organizing the approaches were proposed: (1) a scale of that places all five approaches to improvisation on a single continuum with cognitive and intuitive extremes and (2) a multi-layer categorization to use with multiple complementary approaches.

Tenhunen, Anssi https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/49891 2016-05-24T22:02:11Z 2016-05-23T13:22:07Z

2016 Effects and justification of loudness war in commercial music Tenhunen, Anssi Äänekkyys (engl. loudness) on todistetusti ja tunnustetusti yksi helpoimmista tavoista välittää paremmuuden tunnetta, ja täten sitä on usein käytetty äänentoistossa ja äänitallenteissa. Kuitenkin digitaalisen tallennuksen ja toistoalustojen (kuten CD:n) myötä raja kuinka kovalle äänen voi laittaa on täyttynyt, mutta musiikkia edelleen työnnetään rajoja vasten ja tämä voi aiheuttaa äänenvääristymistä eli säröytymistä, joka usein katsotaan epämiellyttävänä. Tämä tutkimus yrittää selvittää, mitä on kynnys hyväksyttävän äänekkyyden ja epämiellyttävän äänekkyyden välillä. Testiin osallistui 25 koehenkilöä jotka kuuntelivat 100 äänekkyydeltään normalisoitua äänileikeparia erilaisilla tonaalisuuden ja dynamiikan käsittelyllä. Tulokset osoittivat, että taajuuskorjainkäsittely havaittiin ja karsastettiin verrattuna käsittelemättömään leikkeeseen lähes lineaarisesti käsittelyn määrän kasvaessa. Oallistujat joko eivät kuullut eroa tai heillä oli enemmän toleranssia dynamiikkaprosessoreille, mutta vastaukset hyppäsivät selkeästi vastaavanlaisiin lineaarisiin tuloksiin toleranssi-kynnysarvon ylittyessä. Täten dynamiikkaprosessorit antavat masterointiprosessille prosessissa, ja siten myös äänekkyyssodalle, merkittävän edun, kun yritetään saavuttaa äänekkyyttä ennen kuultavissa olevaa säröytymistä. Mutta koska äänekkyyden normalisointi on yleistymässä, dynamiisen alueen minimoimisella saatava etu mitätöityy.; Loudness has been proven and acknowledged to be one of the easiest ways to convey something feeling “better”, and thus it has been frequently used technique in sound playback and recordings. However, with the invention of digital recording and playback mediums such as the CD, the limit of how loud sound can go has been met, but music is still being pushed to the limits and even further which can cause audible distortion, which often is viewed as unpleasant. This study tries to find out what is the threshold of acceptable loudness vs unpleasant loudness. A test was conducted where 25 test subjects were played 100 clips of volume matched clips of the same recording with different sort of tonal and dynamic range processing. Results showed that equalizer was perceived and disliked when compared to the unprocessed clip in linear fashion to the amount of processing, and participants either did not hear a difference or had more tolerance to limiters, but after a clear threshold point the results jumped to similar linear results. Thus using a limiter does give the mastering process and in that sense, the loudness war, a significant advantage when trying to achieve loudness until you reach the audible point of distortion. But as loudness normalization is becoming more common, the advantage gained from pushing the loudness further is nulled.