Distinguishing between musical excerpts learned by novices individually or in pairs

TY - JOUR

T1 - Distinguishing between musical excerpts learned by novices individually or in pairs

AU - Schiavio, Andrea

AU - Popescu, Tudor

AU - Kempf, Adrian

AU - Timmers, Renee

N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: AS acknowledges the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), by which this research was funded (project number P32460). For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Funding throughout the duration of this project was also received by the STARS programme of the University of Padova (grant awarded to TP), and earlier by the European Commission’s MSCA framework (“Seal of Excellence” awarded to TP). Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.

PY - 2023/12/2

Y1 - 2023/12/2

N2 - In a previous study, we found that musical learning of novices was equally accurate (in terms of playing the correct rhythms and pitches) when learning in a solo or duo setting. Intrigued by these findings, we conducted a follow-up experiment investigating whether the learning outcomes differed in subjective terms as perceived by listeners judging the performances. Here, expert musicians were asked to discern whether melodies learned under conditions of synchrony, turn-taking, or imitation were likely learned individually or with a partner. In addition, they evaluated the learners’ proficiency in playing the melodies, assessing expressiveness, the clarity of their articulation and phrasing, as well as the overall coherence of the performances. Listeners showed differential responses to both the learning condition and the pairing (solo or duo) in which the melodies were learned. Although the outcome did not yield salient-enough results for significant clusters of responses to emerge, our findings could inspire future research to delve into the question of discernible signatures between individual and group musical learning by adopting a longitudinal approach.

AB - In a previous study, we found that musical learning of novices was equally accurate (in terms of playing the correct rhythms and pitches) when learning in a solo or duo setting. Intrigued by these findings, we conducted a follow-up experiment investigating whether the learning outcomes differed in subjective terms as perceived by listeners judging the performances. Here, expert musicians were asked to discern whether melodies learned under conditions of synchrony, turn-taking, or imitation were likely learned individually or with a partner. In addition, they evaluated the learners’ proficiency in playing the melodies, assessing expressiveness, the clarity of their articulation and phrasing, as well as the overall coherence of the performances. Listeners showed differential responses to both the learning condition and the pairing (solo or duo) in which the melodies were learned. Although the outcome did not yield salient-enough results for significant clusters of responses to emerge, our findings could inspire future research to delve into the question of discernible signatures between individual and group musical learning by adopting a longitudinal approach.

KW - articulation

KW - coherence

KW - expressiveness

KW - music perception

KW - phrasing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85178206281&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/03057356231212408

DO - 10.1177/03057356231212408

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85178206281

SN - 0305-7356

JO - Psychology of Music

JF - Psychology of Music

ER -