Music Informatics: A Modern Approach to Studying Music

As the relationship between music and technology grows stronger, researchers are finding new and innovative ways of interacting with music. Matthias Mauch, a researcher in music informatics at Queen Mary University of London, has explored a number of these complexities at great length.

As daunting as it sounds, music informatics simply involves research in areas such as the automatic transcription of music, chords, and chord progressions; key detection; and music classification. Since completing his PhD on audio chord transcription (Mauch, 2010), Mauch has been involved in projects like Songle (a lyrics-to-audio alignment program, http://songle.jp/), Driver’s Seat (an application with Last.fm that allows users to search for songs based on a variety of different musical factors, currently not publicly available) and DarwinTunes (an interactive program that uses the concept of evolution in music, http://darwintunes.org/).

While at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan, Mauch helped in creating a program (Song Prompter) that aligns chords and lyrics from just audio input and a text file containing the lyrics and chords (Mauch, Fujihara, & Goto, 2010; Mauch, Fujihara, & Goto, 2011). Once the audio is received by the program, it generates a visual display of the chords and lyrics of the audio input. This program was further modified to be used on a web interface called Songle. Songle allows users to listen to the songs and correct the Song Prompter output if there is, for example, an incorrect chord change (Goto, Yoshii, & Fujihara, 2011).

His next major project, Driver’s Seat, was a Spotify application for Last.fm. Driver’s Seat enables users to search for music by musical factors, as opposed to just by genre or similarity. For example, listeners can set the application to search for music that has a specific tempo, loudness, energy, percussiveness, ‘danceability’, and various other musical parameters. The application then provides a playlist that meets the requirements set out by the user. Driver’s Seat also includes specific presets, allowing users the option of listening to music with specific characteristics (e.g. music in A minor or music with complex rhythms).

In contrast to earlier projects, Mauch was also involved in the development of DarwinTunes, a model of evolution using music (MacCallum, Mauch, Burt, & Leroi, 2012). Sinusoidal wave forms undergo a process of evolution carried out by genetic algorithms and voter selection to create new music. The web interface of this project allows users to vote for their preferred sinusoidal wave forms on a 1-5 scale. Subsequently, the most popular wave forms “have sex” with each other creating “baby-loops”, while the least popular wave forms are filtered out. This is the process of a musical model of sexual reproduction with low level mutation. After only 150 generations, a steady rhythm could be identified. After 500 generations, the sound became more pleasant, with simple major chord harmonies. After about one thousand generations, very simple melodies began to emerge as the sound textures got more complex. Although 2000 generations didn’t produce much change in musicality, there were new sounds and short melodies. At 3000 generations, the loops had developed into complex, intertwining melodies with rhythmic accompaniment. As a musical model of evolution, DarwinTunes has provided us with a scientific application of music informatics research. This model demonstrates the evolution of culture in the absence of human creativity, solely based on listen selection.

Now at Queen Mary, Mauch has focused on the phenomenon of intonation drift; more specifically, the accuracy of pitch in singing. How and why do people sing out of tune, or even in tune? How do solo singers drift in intonation over a piece of music? Mauch’s latest research project explored the rate and the extent of which peoples’ pitch accuracy shifted while singing happy birthday (without words) three times. So far, the research has shown that most people drift very little in the overall pitch level (most people fall within half a semi-tone up or down over all 75 notes of the 3 repetitions of Happy Birthday). But interestingly, Mauch and his collaborators found that pitch error per note is quite large, especially in comparison to overall intonation drift. This is surprising because intuition would suggest that if pitch error per note is large, that would lead the overall intonation to shift as well. Despite this intuition, it appears that singers are somehow compensating for errors they make on individual pitch intervals. Mauch and his colleagues are still working on models that will explain these results.

Mauch’s presentation showed us some of the research currently being carried out in music informatics. He demonstrated how music can be used as a unique approach to investigate areas typically not considered to be of a musical nature, such as evolution. Mauch’s recent singing research brought us hope, suggesting that we may sing better than we think. However, we still don’t know why this disconnect between actual singing and our judgment of our singing occurs and how it can be connected to specific cognitive processes. As Mauch suggests, perhaps through collaboration with musicians, psychologists, and ethnomusicologists, we will soon be able to answer these questions while discovering even more practical applications of music informatics.

For more information on Mauch’s work visit: http://matthiasmauch.net/

Anita Paas and Angúl Castro

References

Goto, M., Yoshii, K., & Fujihara, H. (2011). Songle: a web service for active music listening improved by user contributions. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, 311-316.

Mauch, M. (2010). Automatic chord transcription using computational models of music context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Queen Mary, University of London.

Mauch, M., Fujihara, H., & Goto, M. (2010). Song prompter: an accompaniment system based on the automatic alignment of lyrics and chords to audio.

Mauch, M., Fujihara, H., & Goto, M. (2011). Song prompter: an interactive performance assistant with scrolling lyrics and chord display, In press.

MacCallum, R. M., Mauch, M., Burt, A., & Leroi, A. M. (2012). Evolution of music by public choice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA , 109(30), 12081-12086.

Doing the (Musical) Time Warp with Michelle Phillips

Sit down and think of your favourite song. Could you approximate the duration of that song in your head? As easy as this may sound, Michelle Phillips’ research has pointed out that we may be significantly worse at estimating the length of a song or piece than we think. It is astounding how time is so fleeting. Before madness takes its toll, however, listen closely for just a bit longer to how guest speaker Michelle talks us through the Musical Time Warp.

Michelle Phillips, not to be confused with singer/songwriter of the Mamas and the Papas, came along to Goldsmiths, University of London, on 15^th November, to give us an overview on her latest work. Michelle currently studies with Dr. Ian Cross for a PhD at Cambridge University’s prestigious Centre for Music and Science and she completed a residency at London’s Science Museum in 2011 in order to collect data for her study on the phenomenon of musical time. The question that she sought to answer in obtaining this data was: what factors affect retrospective estimates of the time it takes to listen to a novel piece of music? Was it age, formal musical training, gratification from listening to music, or some combination of those factors? Do some of these factors affect the estimate more than others?

This study had 237 participants with ages ranging from 8 years old to over 80 years old. This great range of participants illustrates the fantastic opportunities for data collection that the Science Museum residency presents to researchers. All participants listened to a 37-second piece of music specifically written for this study by music researcher, Matthew Woolhouse, alongside a self-report questionnaire in which participants were asked to rate their experience of the music in terms of enjoyment, familiarity, valence, arousal, and finishedness on a scale of 1-7. In addition to this, some participants performed either a reference or a working memory task during the listening period: some experienced the same piece of music segmented into phrases by fading in and out to silence, and some experienced the piece at a different speed or with an increased level of dissonance. Michelle then instructed them to estimate how long it took them to listen to the musical piece from start to finish; the participants were not aware that she would ask them this question, so this experiment utilised a retrospective paradigm (estimating time of past experiences) and a verbal estimation method.

The majority of previous research (Block, 1997; Grondin, 2010) has largely focused on prospective estimate time (i.e. time as we are aware of it), so Michelle’s research offers a new viewpoint of musical time. Based on this previous research, she made four predictions about this experiment: firstly, that time estimates will be larger with age, especially in adults and teens; that children in the 5-8 year old age group will give more broad estimates of time because their concept of time at this age has not fully formed yet; that those who enjoy the music more will give longer estimates and that musically trained individuals will be more accurate in their estimations.

Michelle found that children in the aforementioned age group did, indeed, give much higher time estimates as compared to children in their early teens; furthermore, estimates of time increased from age 14 and up. The hypothesis regarding enjoyment and extended time estimates was also supported. She also found that musically trained individuals did give significantly shorter estimations, concluding that the contextual change model could explain these findings (Block & Zakay, 1997).

The contextual change model suggests that the perception of elapsed time seems longer if there are more changes in the environmental context, and because musicians are able to segment music in a more holistic (phrases or bars) rather than specific (notes) way, their perception of time is reduced because there seem to be less event changes to them. However, Michelle suggests a more attention-oriented explanation to account for the first three hypotheses (see Brown, 2008). She suggests that individuals who appreciated the stimulus the most gave the piece more attention than the others. Brown (2008) hypothesises that increased focused attention leads to longer time estimates, which would certainly account for this finding. Furthermore, the older participants in the samples were more likely to have allocated their attention to the piece; this again explains the findings concerning age. Finally, quantitative data confirmed anecdotal evidence suggesting that teachers’ estimations were somewhat decreased as compared to other professions.

Michelle’s research showed that the perception of time duration when listening to music is flexible, and is affected by non-musical and musical factors, including enjoyment, finishedness, age and musical training, in addition to whether working memory is being utilised whilst listening. Her work is comprehensive and thorough, while maintaining a very broad scope, laying the foundation for more detailed future investigations into particular effects, such as the impact of different emotional states upon estimates and possible interactions between factors such as age and tempo. It is clear from her results that music, as a complex, hierarchically structured stimulus, influences time perception in ways not satisfactorily accounted for by current cognitive models, and there is much exciting work to be done towards the construction of more suitable models.

Let’s do the (Musical) Time Warp again!

To discover more about Michelle’s research interests, go to http://www.mus.cam.ac.uk/applicants/graduate/phd/current-research-students/michelle-phillips/ and to read some further information on the Live Science program at London’s Science Museum, click here.

Fatima Al-Toma, Sinead McKenna Favier and Nick Sigsworth

References:

1.)    Block, R.A., & Zakay, D.: Prospective and retrospective duration judgments: A meta-analytic review. Psychonomic Bulletin &Review, 4(2), 184-197 (1997)

2.)    Brown, S.W.: Time and Attention: Review of the Literature. In: Grondin, S. (ed.) Psychology of Time, pp. 111-138. Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., Bingley (2008)

3.)    Grondin, S.: Timing and time perception: A review of recent behavioural and neuroscience findings and theoretical directions. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(3), 561-582 (2010)

4.)    Phillips, M., & Cross, I.: About Musical Time – Effect of Age, Enjoyment, and Practical musical Experience on Retrospective Estimate of Elapsed Duration during Music Listening. In: Vatakis, A. (ed.) Time and Time Perception, pp. 125-136. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2011)

Sing for your life!

Is singing good for you? Can it contribute to your sense of well being? These are the questions being asked by Professor Stephen Clift, who presented his talk to the Music, Mind and Brain students at Goldsmiths College on the 1^st November 2012.  Clift has a 25-year history in public health and has been involved in many projects persuading people to actively avoid risk-taking behaviours. Within the last 10 years he has been involved in a number of research projects at the Sidney de Haan Centre in Kent, each of which is concerned with developing a better understanding of the psychological and physical benefits of singing. Originally inspired by an article written by Susan Digby about promoting singing in primary schools, Clift has become increasingly interested in gathering evidence for the real and measurable impact of singing on health and well being. His research has looked at community singing groups set up in the east Kent area for people with a range of health issues including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Parkinson’s disease, Dementia and other mental health problems. 

Clift began his presentation by demonstrating how singing engages different systems within the body. He encouraged the audience to join him in a few simple vocal exercises, and used these examples to introduce the idea that singing is an activity that is powered by the lungs, and regular singing might have the ability to act as a kind of speech therapy for the voice. This can be especially important for older people with chronic health diseases such as Parkinson’s, a motor-coordination disease that can result in voice impairments, and COPD, a progressive lung disease in which lung capacity is significantly reduced. The basis of Clift’s research has to do with the fact that despite the chronic health problems experienced by people suffering from these diseases, they still manage to engage with music in a positive way. 

When Clift began his research in 2000, there was very little published on singing and well being, but in 2010 he completed a systematic mapping of research in the area which included 40 empirical reports, indicating a growth of interest in the field (Clift, Nicol, Raisbeck, Whitemore & Morrison, 2010). The research at the Sydney De Haan Centre has continued to build on this knowledge base with qualitative evaluations for different populations, including a randomised control trial in the Silver Song Clubs study (Skingley, Clift, Coulton & Rodriguez, 2011).  This project investigated measures of physical and mental health for older singing groups within the community, and in doing so, proposed that group-singing interventions for elderly people could be a cost-effective strategy for the NHS.

The Silver Song Clubs study (Skingley et al., 2011) investigated two groups of people: those who took part in a 12-week group singing program (the experimental condition), and those who carried on with life as normal, (the control condition). Participants completed the York SF-12 quality of life measure at the start of the project (baseline), at three months (at the end) and at six months (post).  Results suggested a significantly greater improvement in mental health quality of life for individuals who participated in the group singing condition compared with those continuing with normal activities. The effect was greatest immediately following the intervention, but still apparent three months after discontinuation.  There were limitations to the study, such as the short duration of the program, and the small geographical area in which the study took place, but the key findings indicate that singing groups for older people are likely to be cost effective as a health promotion strategy (Skingley et al., 2011).

Clift’s research has found the effects of singing to be beneficial regardless of age, gender, nationality or wellbeing status (Livesey, Morrison, Clift & Camic, 2012). A cross-cultural study spanning 1,000 choral singers in Australia, England and Germany has shed light on four areas that seem to hold a significant benefit; body control and posture, effects on breathing and lung function, energy and physical activity, and relaxation and stress relief (Clift, Hancox, Morrison, Hess, Kreutz & Stewart, 2009).

Although most of Clift’s research uses self-report questionnaires assessing participants’ mental well being, these measures are relatively accurate, as they give subjects the chance to reflect on themselves and evaluate the way they feel. However, for those more convinced by quantitative than qualitative data, Clift has also studied the effects of singing on individuals with COPD by measuring their lung capacity. His most recent piece of research has found a significant increase in both the volume exhaled in one second, Forced Expiratory Volume, and the maximum amount of air exhaled in one go, Forced Vital Capacity, within COPD patients that spent 10 months in a weekly singing group (in press). These are dramatic implications for beneficial effects on physical well being in a group of patients with a progressive and irreversible disease. The study ran across a period of 10 months spanning from early autumn to late spring, seasons in which COPD sufferers are most affected due to the icy cold wind and weather. However, participants’ feedback was filled with a heart-warming surprise, with some noting this to be the first winter in which they were not admitted to A&E with severe breathing problems. This is not only a relief for sufferers, but also has a huge impact on the NHS, as COPD is in fact the second most common cause of admissions to A&E in hospitals in the UK (British Lung Foundation, 2007). Decreasing the number of patients admitted to hospital will effectively save millions of pounds, with current costs spent on treatment of COPD, by the NHS, lying at £810 – £930 million per year (Department of Health, 2010).   

In conclusion, Clift’s research has contributed significantly by investigating the potential value of music and the arts in healthcare and health promotion. He captivated the students at Goldsmiths with his interactive presentation, as he discussed the effects of group singing on physical and psychological health, and the implications that the results of his studies have in terms of healthcare interventions. 

To read more about Clift’s work, go to the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health website, and to watch a short video on the East Kent ‘Singing for Health’ Network, click here.

 

Philipp Koch, Suzie Le Messurier and Steven Lyons

 

References:

British Lung Foundation (2007) Invisible lives: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD) finding the missing millions. London: BLF.

Clift, S., Nicols, J., Raisbeck, M., Whitmore, C., and Morrison, I. (2010). Group singing, wellbeing and health: A systematic review. The UNESCO Journal, 2, 1. 

Clift, S., Hancox, G., Morrison, I.,Hess, B., Kreutz, G.,and Stewart, D. (2009). What do singers say about the effects of choral singing on physical health? Findings from a survey of choristers in Australia, England and Germany. In J. Louhivuoiri, Eerole, T., Saarikallio, S., Himberg, T. and Eerola, P-S. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 7^th Triennial Conference of European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM 2009), Jyvaskkyla, Finland.

Clift, S., Hancox, G., Staricoff, R. and Whitmore, C. (2008). Singing and Health: A systematic mapping and review of non-clinical research. Canterbury: Canterbury Christ Church University.

Department of Health (2010). Consultation on a Strategy for Services for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in England. London: Department of Health.

Livesey, L., Morrison, I., Clift, S. and Camic, P. (2012). Benefits of choral singing for social and mental wellbeing: Qualitative findings from a cross-national survey of choir members. Journal of Public Mental Health, 11, 1, 10-27.

Skingley, A., Clift, S. M., Coulton, S. P., and Rodriguez, J. (2011). The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a participative community singing programme as a health promotion initiative for older people: Protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMC Public Health, 11, 142. 

 

The Case of Repetition in Music

Musical repetition is a powerful tool. Repetition has been thought of as a musical universal by Nettl (Roseman, 1984) and has been present in a diverse range of cultures. In western music, there is even a sign within musical scores to denote repetition of bars of music. It is not nearly as common in other forms of art, which was found by Ferdinand Praeger (1958). Praeger greatly criticised the presence of repetition, stating that poets do not fall prey to this device on writing, and yet it is present in music. Some would call repetition childish and regressive and that it is shameful to have in a piece of art. However, this argument has two sides, as any good argument should. Fitch (2006) thought that repetition is a great design device in music that greatly separates music from language. In recent empirical research, Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis from University of Arkansas is at the forefront of this understudied and yet important aspect of music.

Repetition in music, when put quite simply, is when sounds or sequences are used more than once during a piece. A famous case of repetition occurs in the Daft Punk song ‘Around the World,’ depicted in the image above. It contains only one lyric and a repeating bass line, thus being a song made entirely out of repetition of simple elements, and yet is a very popular song. There is something powerful about repetition, and when the loop contains something pleasurable to a listener, it can be enjoyed for hours and seem to change as our attention drifts away and returns. Margulis proposed that we not only enjoy repetition, but also need it. Repetition allows for simple pieces of music to take on new semantic meanings. It also allows for listeners to participate by following the beat or even singing or playing an instrument along with a performer. Many different things can affect the occurrence of repetition, and that can in turn affect its influence. Although the notation can be the same in a measure, the timing, the outcome, nuances in playing, semantic satiation or levels of attending can all greatly vary, playing a part in how listeners perceives repetition. Deutsch (2008) found an interesting illusion, whereby repeating a spoken phrase multiple times can sound suddenly musical to the listener, which outlines how powerful repetition is in providing both structure and pleasure to listeners.

Recent studies (in progress) Margulis conducted looked at both elements of structure and listening pleasure by testing the average person’s ability to recognize repetition across repeated listenings and to enjoy repetition in unfamiliar types of music (both of these studies are forthcoming). The first study involved people who were not musical experts listening to classical piano pieces and identifying when they heard a repetition of a segment. The scored repetitions were ‘music-theory ignorant,’ only considering identical notes with identical values as repetitions and not similar motifs or contour patterns. Over repeated listenings, participants moved from recognizing shorter repetitions to longer repetitions (for example, from 1s repeated phrases to 5s repeated phrases). Margulis concluded that attention for repeated phrases moved from small-scale to large-scale, helping listeners to ‘zoom out’ to higher levels of musical structure. A visual example of this ‘zoom out’ ability is demonstrated in the picture below. What is actually just a set of black splotches can be seen as a Dalmatian sniffing the ground in the centre of the image when viewed on the global level. This complements the claim that repetitions aids in shifting focus of attention, serving as a guide for listening to the piece.

The second study looked at hedonic value vs. novelty, which was first proposed by Wundt in 1874. Participants were exposed to original and modified melodies based upon melodies from modern composers Luciano Berio and Elliott Carter. The created melodies had either direct repetition or delayed repetition of melodic material, and participants were asked to listen and rate the perceived enjoyability, interest, and artistry of each melody on 7-point Likert-like scales. These non-expert listeners found the melodies with immediate repetition most enjoyable and most artistic, and the melodies with delayed repetition were found to be most interesting. This study seems to suggest that there is an element of pleasure that comes from recognizing repetition, making novel or complex melodies easier to grasp and thus easier to enjoy.

Margulis presented her talk on repetition with great passion. She put forth a compelling and interesting argument outlining the importance of research into repetition and used excellent examples and literature to show why it is central to music. With her upcoming book, Repetition, Music and Mind, there will hopefully be more study and interest sparked in this area, not only for why it occurs but also how it can be used to help understanding and enjoyment of music.

–Paul Atkinson and Lindsey Thompson

 

 

Image 1: Daft Punk – ‘Around The World’
Image 2: Dalmatian Illusion The Intelligent Eye, R.L. Gregory, 1970

References

Deutsch, D., Lapidis, R., & Henthorn, T. (2008). The speech-to-song illusion. Journal of Acoustic Society of America, 124(4), 2471

Fitch, W. (2006). On the biology and evolution of music. Music Perception, 24(1), 85-88. DOI: 10.1525/mp.2006.24.1.85

Praeger, F. A. (1958). The Praeger picture encyclopedia of art: A comprehensive survey of painting, sculpture, architecture and crafts, their methods, styles and technical terms, from the earliest times to the present day. New York: F.A. Praeger.

Roseman, M. (1984). : The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts . Bruno Nettl. American Anthropologist, 86, 2, 439-440.

Wundt, W. (1874). Grundzu ge der physiologischen Psychologie, von Wilhelm Wundt. Leipzig: W. Engelmann.

Music as a Route to Lifelong Well-Being

Why do you enjoy music? Do you find it intensely pleasurable and addicting? Do you find yourself lost in the flow of the music? Does music connect you to other people and ideas beyond yourself? According to Keele University professor Alexandra Lamont, each of these approaches contribute to musical enjoyment and general well-being, with the maximal experience being achieved when all of these elements are combined.

Dr. Lamont, the current editor of Psychology of Music, spoke to the students of the Music, Mind, and Brain course at Goldsmiths, University of London on the 26^th of January, 2012. Lamont’s research builds upon general concepts within the field of positive psychology to investigate how involvement in music contributes to well-being. Before discussing Lamont’s specific research, we will explain some basic terminology within the positive psychology field.

Positive psychology is a relatively new branch of psychology which looks at human activities which encourage pleasure, strength, and engagement. Positive psychologists delineate three critical components which are necessary to achieve a state of well-being (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

• Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure. Hedonism involves the maximization of positive affect and minimization of negative affect.
•  Engagement is the “pursuit of gratification through absorption in a given task or activity” (Lamont, 2011b, p. 230). This is related to a state of “flow,” which is characterized by intense concentration and loss of self-awareness and sense of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).
•  Meaning is involvement in something which is larger than oneself.

According to Lamont, music listening and performance create strong positive responses by capitalizing on any or all of these three routes to happiness. The first of three studies discussed in Lamont’s talk was related to strong emotional experiences in music, which expands on the work of Gabrielsson (2001). Lamont asked 46 undergraduates to describe their strongest remembered experiences in music listening. Lamont analyzed the responses using a qualitative approach, which is an in-depth analysis of specific narratives on a case-by-case basis to extract recurrent commonalities and themes. She adopted an idiographic analysis, which emphasizes each individual case as a distinct unit of analysis. This is in contrast to the approach employed in Gabrielsson’s (2001) research of content analysis, which tallies the number of times a certain response or theme recurs in the total sample.

Lamont found that the majority of strong listening responses were positive in nature and were experienced in live music settings (e.g. concerts and festivals) along with other people. Most involved familiar music, indicating that many participants were intentionally priming themselves toward an expected positive response. Interestingly, several experiences were also in unexpected settings, such as funerals or weddings, or in response to unfamiliar music. A variety of genres were represented, from classical through rock to hip-hop, with the majority focused on pop music. The following account details a strong listening experience which tapped into all three of the paths to well-being (hedonism, engagement, and meaning):

“A few years ago, I got on stage with a ska band called Lightyear. I was quite drunk and so were my friends who were with me. I was dancing with the singer and everyone was going crazy. I just remember thinking to myself no matter what life throws at you, you will always have music and it will always make you feel good.” (Lamont, 2011b, p. 236)

Lamont went on to discuss her soon to be published paper on strong emotional experiences in music performance (forthcoming in Psychology of Music). 35 student performers completed the task of describing their strongest emotional responses to music, in the same manner as the listeners in the aforementioned study. A main difference between performers and listeners was that performing can more often lead to negative emotional responses and anxiety. As in the listening responses, the majority of accounts were positive and involved other people (fellow performers and/or audience). The overall range of responses, however, was more varied across the sample. The most typical profile included mixed emotions, with anxious, self-centred feelings before and/or during the performance but positive post-concert appraisals which involved interpersonal relationships.  Lamont found clear references throughout to the three paths to well-being. Hedonism was accessed through pleasure in the success of the performance. Engagement and meaning were often attained through connection with other performers and the audience.

The final study Lamont discussed was related to lifetime involvement in music. Through an online questionnaire, Lamont acquired responses from amateur adult musicians across the world detailing their involvement in music from childhood to the present. Participants ranged in age from 21 to 83. A striking finding was the discontinuity of music making across the lifespan. Many participants were musically active in childhood, quit performing for a long period (due to familial and career obligations) and showed a renewed interest in music many years later, often by taking up a new instrument. As described by Linda (age 68):

“I sang as a teenager and I haven’t done anything since… It’s given me a new life, I mean a totally new life. 18 months ago, I was doing very little and was quite lonely. Now I’m in 4 different choirs, I’ve got some good friends and I’m very busy… It’s given me a whole new life again.” (Lamont, 2011a, p. 380)

Lamont related this return to musical involvement at a later age to Erikson’s model of stages of identity. According to Erikson (1959), each life stage has a potential crisis. Lamont explained that “music provides a way to negotiate many life transitions and identity crises, from leaving school through to retirement. For many middle-aged adults, involvement in music provides a way of exercising the need for generativity and care” (Lamont, 2011a, p. 381). Many older adults use music as a source of motivation and means of achieving integrity as part of their “end of life review,” the last phase in Erikson’s model.

 Erikson’s Stages of Identity

 All three studies discussed here lead to the conclusion that music is a major theme across the lifespan. They show that music is not only a means of short-term gratification, but a route to complete absorption in an activity which can provide a sense of connection to other people and ideas. Given the omnipresence of music throughout life demonstrated by this research, future implications may include the implementation of a wider range of musical activities for all stages of life. This could be achieved by providing diverse opportunities for musical activities in a community setting, such as in amateur choirs, adult music classes, and nursing home concert series. Lamont shows that even if you’re not a musician, music has the ability to touch you in an emotional and meaningful way. For those of you who have quit music or never played, it’s never too late to find music engaging and gratifying.

Amit Avron, Christopher Coupe, and Kelly Jakubowski

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). The flow experience and its significance for human   psychology. In Csikszentmihalyi, M., Optimal experience: psychological studies of flow in consciousness (pp. 15–35). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Erikson, E. (1959). Identity and the Life Cycle. New York: W.W. Norton and Company,    Inc.

Gabrielsson, A. (2001). Emotions in strong experiences with music. In P. N. Juslin & J.A. Sloboda (Eds.), Music and emotion: Theory and research (pp. 431-449). New York: Oxford University Press.

Lamont, A. (2011a). The beat goes on: Music education, identity and lifelong learning.     Music Education Research, 13(4), 369-388.

Lamont, A. (2011b). University students’ strong experiences of music: Pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Musicae Scientiae, 15(2), 229-249.

Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology - An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14.

A Musical Prescription for Health and Wellbeing

Musical Prologue

The Mozart effect was first described by Dr Tomatis and investigated by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993) in terms of the positive effects of listening to Mozart music on spatial-temporal reasoning. This was quickly misinterpreted by the masses as evidence that listening to Mozart music increases IQ. Since then, on-going debate and research has been focused on examining whether music plays a significant role in one’s health and wellbeing. As part of the 2011-2012 MMB invited speaker series, we had the pleasure of having the passionate Professor Raymond MacDonald share with us his thoughts and recent research on this topic.

His discussion stemmed from the premise that everyone is musical and suggested ten aspects of music which make it conducive to improving wellness:

• Music is ubiquitous
• Music is emotional
• Music is engaging
• Music is distracting
• Music is physical
• Music is ambiguous
• Music is social
• Music is communicative
• Music affects behaviour
• Music plays a key role in identity

MacDonald gave evidence for the usefulness of each of these aspects. For example, music as distracting was illustrated in a study in which pain tolerance increased when listening to favourite music compared to doing a diverting cognitive task (Mitchell, MacDonald & Brodie, 2006).

It was argued that each of these aspects is important for musical improvisation, which MacDonald described as having great potential to be involved in the improvement of health and wellbeing. He contested the idea that improvisation is the preserve of elite jazz musicians. The majority of research in this area has been focused on this musical genre, yet it has been suggested that we all participate in improvisatory dialogues from infancy (Trevarthen, 2008), which would imply that improvisation is not restricted to a specific style of music. MacDonald affirmed this view by playing video clips of very young children engaging in musical improvisation.

Music – An Intersection of Life

 MacDonald provided us with an inclusive view of music across many aspects of life and how musical activity in each of these domains can increase the wellbeing and quality of life.

‘Conceptualising music health and wellbeing as a field of study’ diagram used by Professor MacDonald

* Music Education

The positive influence that music instruction can have on cognitive skills was discussed. Research has shown that music instruction can promote brain neuroplasticity at both the structural and functional level (Pantev & Herholz, 2011). In addition, modest to significant associations between music training and cognition have been reported in domains such as speech and language (Manuela, 2009), reading (Moreno et al., 2009), spatial-temporal reasoning (Rauscher & Hinton, 2011) and arithmetic (Rauscher & Hinton, 2011). For example, reading and pitch discrimination abilities in speech were enhanced after 6 months of music training in 8 year-old non-musician children (Moreno et al., 2009). With regards to the mechanisms supporting transfer effects, recent evidence suggests that executive functions may play a mediatory role between music instruction and IQ (Dege, Kubicek & Schwarzer, 2011). However, whilst the value of music training shouldn’t be taken lightly, MacDonald cautioned against using it as a magical substitute for additional tuition in weaker academic subjects.

* Music Therapy

This discipline seeks to establish music as a clinical tool in affecting positive change in the health and wellbeing of individuals. Improvisation is a key technique used in music therapy. MacDonald elaborated on a study that interviewed cancer patients attending group music therapy. The findings demonstrated that the improvisatory nature of the sessions enabled participants to expressively communicate and connect with others through music, providing a sense of control over their illness and a shared bond with fellow patients (Pothoulaki, Flowers & MacDonald, in press).

* Community Music

MacDonald commented on the recent growth both in public singing and in papers published on this topic which emphasise its benefits. For example, participating in live music has been shown to relieve apathy in elderly people suffering from dementia (Holmes, Knights, Dean, Hodkinson & Hopkins, 2006). Studies in this area seem to reveal more consistently positive results with the older generation as compared to the younger population (Hampshire & Matthijsse, 2010). The growth of a musical identity and social bonding is evident in choirs and musical ensembles, supporting the view that music can aid health and wellbeing.

*Everyday Uses of Music

The great accessibility to music has led to music being an essential part of everyday life. Music impacts on many aspects of life: mood, psychological state, self-esteem, social grouping and concentration.

MacDonald highlighted the use of music as self-medication, through mood regulations and stress relief. Music is used by the masses as a free therapy within their control, governed by personal playlists, (Saarikallio & Erkkilä, 2011). Music can act as a form of company, or silence filler. The musical identities of the individuals and social networks provide support, improved confidence, feeling of control and even distraction from symptoms of illness, (Gallagher, Lagman, Walsh, Davis & LeGrand, 2009).

Future Musical Dialogues

MacDonald presented an inspiring talk on the uses of music in health and wellbeing incorporating many aspects we could all relate to, for example using music for mood regulation. Describing the four uses of music within psychology and education as being interrelated was an interesting way to represent the field in conjunction with other areas. It is clear to see that from the studies cited in this blog; this subsection of music psychology is still in its infancy with large scope for further research.

Longitudinal studies could provide a more substantial long-term effect of music’s role in health and wellbeing. Through the use of observational studies and experimental paradigms, causal evidence could be obtained. If such findings could be obtained, application to music therapy and education could be better informed and improved.

The role of improvisation was a key feature in MacDonald’s lecture. Improvisation has links to all four aspects of the music, health and wellbeing diagram. MacDonald described how improvisation brings a freedom to the individual allowing for self-expression, not available in many other forms of expression. It is from this that improvisation should be encouraged and developed across all areas of music.

The everyday uses of music within wider society are at the forefront of research at the moment with growing choirs, media interest and a need for community in times of austerity. The role of music in individual lives beyond singing could be investigated further and be used to inform new approaches in music therapy and education.

MacDonald is a leading force in music, health and wellbeing and his passion for the subject truly came across. Definitely whet the research appetite!

Trina Liew, Sheryl Parke & Ruth Peskett

References

Dean, R.T. & Bailes, F. (2010). Cognitive processes in musical improvisation: Some prospects and implications. Retrieved December 26, 2011 from: http://www.improvcommunity.ca/research/cognitive-processes-musical-improvisation-some-prospects-and-implications

Dege, F., Kubicek, C., & Schwarzer, G. (2011). Music lessons and intelligence: A relation mediated by executive functions. Music Perception, 29(2), 195-201.

Hampshire, K. R. & Matthijsse, M. (2010). Can arts projects improve young people’s wellbeing?  A social capital approach. Social Science and Medicine, 71(4), 708-716.

Holmes, C., Knights, A., Dean, C., Hodkinson, S., & Hopkins, V. (2006). Keep music live: Music and the alleviation of apathy in dementia subjects. International Psychogeriatrics, 18(4), 623-630.

Gallagher, L. M., Lagman, R., Walsh, D., Mellar, P. D., & LeGrand, S. B. 2009. The clinical effects of music therapy in palliative medicine. Supportive Care in Cancer, 14(8), 859-866. DOI: 10.1007/s00520-005-0013-6

Manuela, M.M. (2009). Effects of early musical training on musical and linguistic syntactic abilities. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1169, 187-190.

Mitchell, L. A., MacDonald, R. A. R., & Brodie, E. E. (2006). A comparison of the effects of preferred music, arithmetic and humour on cold press or pain.  European Journal of Pain, 10, 343-351.

Moreno, S., Marques, C., Santos, A., Santos, M., Castro, S.L., & Besson, M. (2009). Musical training influences linguistic abilities in 8-year old children: More evidence for brain plasticity. Cerebral Cortex, 19, 712-723

Pantev, C. & Herholz, S. (2011). Plasticity of the human auditory cortex related to musical training. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 2140-2154.

Pothoulaki, M., Flowers, P. &  MacDonald, R.A.R. (in press). A qualitative study of the psychological processes involved in music therapy sessions with cancer patients. The Journal of Music Therapy.

Rauscher, F.H. & Hinton, S.C. (2011). Music instruction and its diverse extra-musical benefits. Music Perception, 29(2), 215-226.

Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Ky, K.N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365, 611.

Saarikallio, S., & Erkkilä, J. 2011. The role of music in adolescents’ mood regulation, Musicae Scientiae, 15, 139-145.

Trevarthen, C. (2008). The musical art of infant conversation: Narrating in the time of sympathetic experience, without rational interpretation, before words. Musicae Scientiae, Special Issue, 11-37.

The Exceptional World of Blind and Autistic Children

Gaining understanding through music.

Adam Ockelford PhD, Southlands College, University of Roehampton

24 November 2011

When watching the countless YouTube videos of the often extraordinary talents of blind and autistic children, many of us cannot imagine having these exceptional musical skills at such a young age. But why, with their social and perceptual impairments and difficulties communicating, would blind and autistic children develop such impressive musicianship?

Adam Ockelford spoke on this topic on 24^th November 2011 to the Music, Mind and Brain students at Goldsmiths’ College. Well-known as teacher to Derek Paravicini, a blind, autistic musical savant, Ockelford has worked with many children with such developmental differences, and he has developed a theory for their musical development based on their exceptional early cognitive environments (EECEs).

Autism, present in about 1% of children, is characterised by impaired social interaction, impaired communication, and stereotyped behaviours. These obstacles often manifest in difficulties in social reciprocation as in conversation or peer relationships (Boomsma, et al., 2008). Similarly, blind children may also have difficulties with shared attention because of lack of visual input. 

Ockelford cites that these differences cause blind and autistic children to experience the world differently in following ways: an early fascination with everyday sounds that have musical qualities (like the vacuum cleaner), the tendency to flick and strike objects like glasses and bowls to produce sounds, and difficulties understanding the representational quality of language. This different understanding of the world leads Ockelford to posit his first hypothesis about the consequences of EECEs: all sounds are processed in musical terms. A blind or autistic child may not be interested in the function of the vacuum cleaner or a water glass, but they will attend to the pure tones produced by the objects.

Adam Ockelford

Perhaps resulting from this fascination with pure tones, there is a higher prevalence of absolute pitch in blind and autistic individuals (4 in 10 for blind and 1 in 20 for autistic, compared to 1 in 10,000 in Western cultures). Absolute pitch, according to Deutsch, Henthorn, and Dolson (2004), is “the ability to name or produce a note of particular pitch in the absence of a reference note” (p. 339). Deutsch, et al. (2004) propose that absolute pitch is a trait with which everyone is born, but to be exhibited, it must be cultivated through language development.

Ockelford challenges, however, that absolute pitch could develop outside of language; for blind and autistic children, absolute pitch seems to precede the ability to name notes. Ockelford expanded this argument by showing a video of Freddie, age 10, an autistic student who pretends to “play” notes on the piano not by hovering his fingers over the keys while he sings the pitch. Ockelford joked that Freddie had no reason to play the notes because he could hear them in his head, and wasn’t that just redundant?

Ockelford also proposes, based on case studies from his blind and autistic students, that absolute pitch is acquired. For one child, Nick, age 4, Ockelford noticed a change from reproducing simple pieces in C to reproducing simple pieces in their ‘correct’ key.

Ockelford then moved on to his second EECE theory that declares that blind and autistic children process sounds in music-structural terms. Because language is full of complex syntax and semantics and its development is mostly visually driven, it is hard for autistic or blind children to achieve language skills.

Music, however, does not require external symbols but rather consists of non-semantic patterns that often repeat or imitate each other. This self-referential nature of music allows blind and autistic children to use it as communication.

Ockelford underlines his arguments with a brilliant example of the very common and popular song, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. As shown in the figure below, the song is characterised by a very simple pattern (two repeated crotchets) that is copied and imitated throughout the song. Overall the song is 80% repetitive and it can be understood because the ‘notes point to each other’ instead of relating to an external meaning. 

Adam Ockelford, http://www.gmth.de/zeitschrift/artikel/400.aspx

Because music is repetitive and self-referential, autistic and blind children may use music as a proxy language and use musical structures to express themselves. A common phenomenon is that autistic and blind children have echolalia, a “disordered speech in which an individual persistently repeats what it hears” (Zapor, Murphy & Enzenauer, 2001, p. 70). By repeating words, the children attempt to process language at a simple, repetitive level, more like music processing (for more information about echolalia, see Saad & Goldfeld, 2009).

To summarise the two theories, EECE1 states that autistic and blind children process all sounds in musical terms, and EECE2 predicts that these children process sounds in musical structural terms. What, therefore, are the consequences of EECE1 and EECE2? Ockelford predicts three outcomes resulting from the exceptional early cognitive environment theories, as shown in the graph below: exceptional musicality, self-taught instrumental skills, and using music as an expressive, proxy language.

Possible outcomes for the consequences of exceptional early cognitive environments: processing all sounds as musical sounds and processing sounds in terms of musical-structures.

As blind and autistic children process everyday sounds as music and use musical structures to express themselves, they often develop exceptional musicality or self-taught instrumental skills. Music also becomes a tool to communicate and sometimes they even create a proxy language. Ockelford demonstrated this by presenting a video of little Theo, age 2, who has invented a proxy language made of music-like sounds and hummed musical fragments, which enable him to communicate with his mother who has learned to understand him. 

The expansion of these skills can be even more extreme if a child is both blind and autistic. An outstanding example of this brings us back to Derek Paravicini. Derek’s ability to remember and recreate pieces he has heard only once seems unparalleled.

While Ockelford’s theories are rooted mainly in case studies and personal experiences, his line of reasoning was very impressive and empirical studies could be used to validate his hypotheses. One study that bolsters Ockelford’s argument was conducted by Daweson, Warrenburg, and Fuller (1982) who found greater right hemisphere activation in autistic participants during a language task. Normally, during a linguistic task, the left hemisphere is dominant, whereas the right hemisphere would be expected to be dominant in a music listening task (Altenmüller, 2001). With Ockelford’s behavioural evidence that language and music are not as separated in autistic individuals, this physiological evidence makes sense.

As an extension of the Daweson, et al. (1982) study, additional insight might be gained from an EEG study of the lateralization of auditory evoked potentials (AEP), specifically comparing linguistic processing with musical processing in blind and autistic children and adults. The study could be performed while the children are sleeping by presenting two types of stimuli: short stories and melodies. This study could confirm Ockelford’s argument that music processing happens differently in blind and autistic individuals.

Overall, Ockelford’s hypotheses allow us insight into the ways autistic and blind people may understand the world. As Trisha Van Berkel writes, “It is about finding a way to survive in an overwhelming, confusing world…It is about developing differently, in a different pace with different leaps.” 

 Ruth Reveal & Nora Schaal

References:

Altenmüller, E.O. (2001). How many music centres are in the brain? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 930, 273-280

Boomsma, A., Van Lang, N.D.J., De Jonge, M.V., De Bildt, A.A., Van Engeland, H., & Minderaa, R.B. (2008). A new symptom model for autism cross-validated in an independent sample. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(8), 809-816.

Dawson, G., Warrenburg, S., & Fuller, P. (1982). Cerebral lateralization in individuals diagnosed as autistic in early childhood. Brain and Language, 15, 353-368.

Deutsch, D., Henthorn, T., & Dolson, M. (2004). Absolute pitch, speech, and tone language: Some experiments and a proposed framework. Music Perception, 21(3), 339-356.

Saad, A. G. de Faria & Goldfeld, M. (2009). Echolalia in the language development of autistic individuals: a bibliographical review. Pro-fono: revista de atualizacaocientifica, 21(39), 255-60

Van Berkel, T. Autism Alert Wiltshire. Retrieved from http://www.autismalertwilts.com/index.htm

Zapor, M., Murphy, F. T., Enzenauer, R. (2001). Echolalia as a manifestation of neuropsychiatric systemic lopus erythematosus. Southern Medical Journal, 94(1), 70-72