Karen Wise

Em trabalhos anteriores desenvolvemos um teste de memoria que mede a capacidade da memoria de curto prazo e memoria operacional para melodias: o teste de amplitude melodica . Nesse teste o participante ouve sequencias crescentes de notas e deve repeti-las cantando na mesma ordem ou na ordem inversa a apresentacao. No desenvolvimento desse teste, observamos que uma avaliacao mais ampla das habilidades de percepcao e producao vocal poderia trazer respostas sobre quanto o desempenho no teste de recordacao pode ser afetado por essas habilidades, e permitiriam que o teste tambem fosse aplicado em sujeitos com menor grau de afinacao. Este e um trabalho em desenvolvimento, cujo objetivo principal e inserir testes mais elaborados de habilidades musicais de percepcao e producao vocal, levando essas medidas em consideracao na analise do desempenho no teste de amplitude melodica. Ate o momento foi realizado um Experimento Piloto com 15 participantes para analisarmos a adequacao dos procediment...

This chapter begins by investigating perspectives on practice and creativity in the scholarly literature and in both practical and pedagogical writing, and it argues that to date little attention has been paid to creativity in relation to individual practice. To redress this, the chapter then explores the creative processes that underlie the practising of classical musicians, focusing on the findings of a research project that allowed participants to identify aspects that they considered important to the creative development of their performances. Creative processes to do with moment-by-moment practice strategies are discussed, along with those resulting in the creative development of interpretations and a sense of ownership in music-making. This discussion leads to a series of insights concerning musicians’ creative ways of working, how technical and expressive elements can be interrelated and integrated, the nonlinear nature of the creative processes in question, and what practice...

Musicians commonly speak of mental practice and score analysis in referring to strategies widely used by performers. However, these terms may not be universally understood in the same way. To address this, 89 experienced musicians were surveyed as to their views and experiences concerning mental practice and score analysis, using a mixture of closed/rating scale and open-ended questions. They were asked what they understood by these terms and what information these strategies enabled them to obtain from the score. Results suggest that mental practice and score analysis are both considered useful, though mental practice more so. Content analysis identified the main characteristics of mental practice as: occurring away from the instrument; involving several types of imagery, often in real time; and focusing on performance preparation, particularly aspects of execution and realisation. During mental practice, the score tended to function more as a memory aid, an orientation guide, and as a point of reference for interpretation. Score analysis was considered more theoretical, though still relevant for performance preparation at a range of levels from exploratory to detailed. During score analysis, information primarily increased musical understanding of the piece, and related to both structural (e.g. form, harmony) and aesthetic (e.g. tempo, phrasing) aspects. The findings are discussed in terms of the current understanding of mental practice and score analysis in the literature, and the relationship between them. Mental practice and score analysis do have similarities, such as their benefit to performance preparation, and distinctions, for instance concerning their specific aims. However, they may be best considered as lying on a continuum of strategies for performance practice and enhancement, rather than as two distinct behaviors.

Research has suggested that around 17% of Western adults self-define as “tone deaf” (Cuddy, Balkwill, Peretz & Holden, 2005). But questions remain about the exact nature of tone deafness. One candidate for a formal definition is “congenital amusia” (Peretz et al., 2003), characterised by a dense music-specific perceptual deficit. However, most people self-defining as tone deaf are not congenially amusic (Cuddy et al., 2005). According to Sloboda, Wise and Peretz (2005), the general population defines tone deafness as perceived poor singing ability, suggesting the need to extend investigations to production abilities and self-perceptions. The present research aims to discover if self-defined tone deaf people show any pattern of musical difficulties relative to controls, and to offer possible explanations for them ( e.g. perceptual, cognitive, productive, motivational). 13 self-reporting “tone deaf” (TD) and 17 self-reporting “not tone deaf” (NTD) participants were assessed on a range...

Although singing is a universal human activity, many adults in Western society exclude themselves from singing, often self-defining as “non singing” or “tone deaf.” This chapter focuses on singing difficulties in adults (excluding vocal injury or illness), in particular, difficulties with singing acceptably in tune, or poor pitch singing. It examines the ways in which poor pitch singing has been defined and assessed in psychological research, and considers the relationship between singing pitch accuracy and cognitive mechanisms of pitch perception and sensorimotor coordination. The chapter outlines the very different profiles of singing performance associated with self-defined “tone deafness” and congenital amusia (a musical perceptual learning disorder), and places these in the theoretical context of neuropsychological and developmental research, drawing on models of singing development in children. Finally, the potential for adult vocal and musical development is illustrated with ...