Transcript SysMusDay Graz, 23 March 2011

What do errors in
performance tell us
about music cognition?
Richard Parncutt
Centre for Systematic Musicology
University of Graz
Conference “Excellenz durch Umgang mit Fehlern”
University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz
11-12 November 2011
Centre for Systematic Musicology
Uni Graz, Austria
Bernd Brabec
Ethnomusicology
Michaela Schwarz
Secretary
Erica Bisesi
Expression in piano music
Martin Winter
Music and minorities
Daniela Prem
Timbre in Jazz
Fabio Kaiser
History of music cognition
Systematic musicology
Possible definitions
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The how and why of music
General questions about music
“Systematic” approach
Not history or ethnology
Six subdisciplines
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Philosophy
Physics
Physiology
Psychology
Sociology
Computing
Music psychology
• Topic of research: music
– Production: Performing
– Reception: Listening, movement, aesthetics
– Creation: Composition, improvisation, audiation
• Approach & methods: psychology
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Perception, cognition
Motivation, action
Personality, development
Biology, health
Mistakes and creativity
"In creative problem-solving, a mistake is an experiment to learn
from, valuable information about what to try next. People ... are
often afraid of making mistakes, which can be embarrassing,
even humiliating. But if you take no chances and make no
mistakes, you fail to learn, let alone do anything unusual or
innovative. Research suggests that creative people make more
mistakes than their less imaginative peers. They are not less
proficient - it's just that they make more attempts than most
others. They spin out more ideas, come up with more
possibilities, generate more schemes. They win some; they lose
some."
Goleman, D., Kaufman, P., & Ray, M. (1992). The creative spirit. New York: Penguin.
Stand:
2.6.2011
Academic quality, peer review, ERROR
Peer review procedure
• anonymous reviewers identify ERRORS
• authors must admit ERRORS
• authors must correct ERRORS
Academic quality depends on
• researcher’s awareness of own arrogance
• ability to laugh at her/himself
• willingness to cooperate (“team spirit”)
The Snobby
International
Peer-Reviewed
Journal of
Music
Education
(SIPRJME)
Editor:
Samuel Snob, PhD
Aus meinem Proseminar „Empirische Musikpsychologie“:
Fehlerkultur, Chaos und Kreativität
„Wenn wir wüssten was wir
taten, wäre es nicht
Forschung, oder?“ (Einstein)
“…man muss noch Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern
gebären zu können” (Nietzsche , Also Sprach Zarathustra, 1886)
Stand:
15.7.2011
Aus meinem Proseminar „Empirische Musikpsychologie“:
Kreativität und Unordnung
• Wir lernen “empirisch” von Fehlern.
• Kreativität kann aus Not entstehen.
• Klare Anweisungen schränken ein.
 Optimales Lernen bei mittlerer (Un-)Ordnung!
Daher:
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Meine Vorschläge hängen vom Stand Ihres Projektes ab!
Es gibt keine “absolut richtigen” Antworten auf Ihre Fragen!
Stand:
18.3.2011
Cultural differences
“The Germans pride themselves on their efficiency, organization,
discipline, cleanliness and punctuality. These are all
manifestations of Ordnung ‘Order’ which doesn’t just just mean
tidiness, but correctness, properness, appropriateness and a host
of other good things. No phrase warms the heart of a German
like ‘alles in Ordnung’ … The categorical imperative which no
German escapes if ‘Ordnung muss sein’…”
Barkow, B. N. O. X., & Zeidenitz, S. (1993). Xenophobe‘s guide to the Germans (p. 12).
London: Oval.
Interpretation: The British envy efficient German infrastructures e.g.
public transport. They would like to have some of that Ordnung.
Stand:
15.7.2011
Psychologists are skeptics!
• Empirical evidence is better than
– personal experience (danger of ERROR!)
– practical application (danger of ERROR!)
All claims by practitioners are suspicious!
Even trivial findings are interesting!
(Psychologists also use too much Powerpoint!)
Intercultural ERROR
Approaches to correctness, error, order, chaos…
• Germany/Austria versus Britain/Italy
• Education versus psychology (different disciplinary “cultures”)
ERRORS to avoid:
• Ignoring intercultural differences
• Pretending they don‘t exist
Solution:
• Create atmosphere of equal dignity and mutual respect. Then talk!
Examples:
• Parncutt, R., & McPherson, G. E. (Eds., 2002). The science and psychology
of music performance. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Conference on Applied Interculturality Research, Graz, April 2010
A conference on error management in
music education…
What can a music psychologist contribute?
• What do music psychologists know about ERRORS?
• How can ERROR research be applied in musical practice?
Art psychology: A comedy of ERRORS?
Perceived artistic value
“Great art” is moderately original?
“ERRORS” are very original?
Ok but
boring
Going a
bit far…
Great!
ERROR
Perceived originality
Inspired by Williamon et al, in Deliege & Williamon (2006) Musical Creativity
ERRORS and listening
some psychological research
Poor tone quality is confused with poor
intonation (Madsen & Geringer, 1976)
Claims about intonation (“just”?)
may be unfounded
(Devaney et al., 2011)
ERRORS and listening
Conductors need good audiation skills
•To identify ERRORS in rehearsal (Byo & Sheldon, 2000)
•To develop interpretations
Audiation:
• ability to imagine and understand music (Gordon, 1986)
• most important musical skill? (Mainwaring, 1941)
ERRORS and instrumental technique
Examples of learning by trial and ERROR
• String instruments: complex relationship between
– Bow pressure, speed, angle, distance from bridge
– Loudness, timbre
• Wind instruments: complex relationship between
– Lip pressure, air flow, pitch
– Loudness, timbre
• Keyboard instruments:
– Which fingers produce which results?
– Leaping without looking
• In all cases: relationship depends on
– player
– Instrument
Research idea: observe children practising alone, study process in detail
ERRORS and practice
• Elements of deliberate practice
– Well-defined task
– Informative feedback
– Opportunities for repetition & ERROR correction
(Ericsson et al 1993)
• Students who practice “deliberately” are
better able to correct ERRORS (Barry, 1990)
ERRORS are integral to skill acquisition
ERRORS and piano performance
Russian pianist Nikita Magaloff
performed all Chopin piano solos (1989, aged 77)
MIDI files with c. 300 000 notes
Analysis by automatic score matching
•Inserted notes: 3.6%
– higher in Scherzos, Ballades, Polonaises
– 65% are quieter than other local notes
•Omitted notes: 3.5%
– higher in Etudes, Polonaises, Sonatas
•Substituted notes: 1.5%
– higher in Rondos, Sonatas and other pieces
•Insertions > omissions in treble, v-v for bass
•Inner voices sometimes consistently omitted
(Flossmann, Goebl
& Widmer, 2010)
A model of cognition
in piano performance
Auditory feedback
Score or
memory
interpretation
notes
realisation
structure
fingering
Cognitive processing time
in music performance
Time interval between read/recall & realisation
• How can we measure it?
Clue: page turners for pianists
• turn too soon  ERRORS
• turn too late  ERRORS
A model of cognition
in piano performance
Hand-eye span (Sloboda, 1976)
Score or
memory
interpretation
notes
realisation
structure
fingering
A model of cognition
in piano performance
Hand-eye span (Sloboda, 1976)
Interpretation
ERROR
Score or
memory
Memory
ERROR
interpretation
notes
realisation
structure
fingering
Reading
ERROR
Structural
ERROR
Technical
ERROR
Memory ERROR
Exponential decay (like nuclear waste…)
“Half life” is longer if:
– Learned earlier in life (early education!)
– Learned repeatedly (temporally distributed practice!)
(cf. Ebbinghaus, 1885)
stored
info.
Time in days, months, years, decades?
Reading ERROR and familiarity
If a style is familiar, we err in its direction
Proofreader’s error
= oversight of error in a highly familiar pattern
e.g. playing E instead of Eb in example 
 reveals stylistic knowledge! measure of expertise!
(Sloboda, 1976)
Cf. story distortion
Tell an unusual story, ask listener to repeat it.
omissions, simplification and transformations
familiar forms and content
(Bartlett, 1932) (Repeat this experiment with music?)
Music reading ERRORS and expertise
Beginners
• try to obey notational conventions
• focus on individual notes
Experts
• rely on knowledge of style
• consider larger patterns (fewer fixations, more distance between)
That may seem trivial, but it is the main result of many sophisticated
experiments on eye-movement tracking during music reading.
The best way to improve sight-reading is simply to sight-read a lot.
Structural ERRORS
Typical memory lapse:
• 2 identical passages with different continuations
• Anxious performer forgets one of them
Problem: Only lower levels of structure learned!
Solution: learn higher levels too!
Hierarchical levels of musical structure
At a given moment
in a performance,
performers and
listeners are aware
of only part of the
structure.
 Performers can
practice maintaining
awareness of all
levels.
Palmer & van de Sande (1995)
Conceiving higher structural levels
Exercise for students: Write some kind of reduction for all pieces in repertoire.
Aim: Improve memory and interpretation
Conceiving higher structural levels
Schenker‘s analyis of Chopin Op. 25 No. 12 (excerpt)
- too complex for performance (teaching) purposes
Technical ERRORS
in piano performance
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Run out of fingers
Not enough finger span
Wrong change of position
Coordination difficulties
Leap: missed target
Basic principles of piano fingering
Simple case: fast melody in one hand
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Avoid unnecessary stretches/squashes
stretches/squashes with 1 are easier
Minimize position changes
Prefer changes from non-1 on black to 1 on white
Avoid 3 and 4 in succession
especially if 4 on black and 3 on white
Avoid 1/5 on black
especially if preceded/followed by non-1/5 on white
Algorithm for fingering of piano melody (Parncutt et al., 1997)
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Generate all possible fingerings
Estimate difficulty of each
Rank order
Advanced principles of piano fingering
• Consider musical structure
e.g. thumb on black at the start of a phrase
(avoid ERROR: inappropriate accent)
• Prefer flexible fingerings
allow for spontaneous changes of interpretation
(avoid ERROR due to technical difficulty)
Piano leaps
Avoid ERRORS by increasing margin of error
= width of key as seen from approaching finger
= greatest if approach is vertical, zero if approach is horizontal
 asymmetrical trajectory:
Take-off tone
Target tone
Margin of error is greater when approaching…
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C#/F# from below
Bb/Eb from above
 flatter trajectory!
Interpretation “ERRORS”
• Performer dislikes with own interpretation
– How can planning process be improved?
• Too little expression, or inappropriate
– Solution: Learn principles of expression
• Nice interpretation - but not original
– Solution: Find personal voice
Principles of expression
Bring out immanent accents
(Bisesi & Parncutt, 2011)
Music performance anxiety and ERROR
MPA causes…
• Memory ERROR
• Reading ERROR
• Structural ERROR
• Technical ERROR
• Interpretation ERROR
MPA suppresses ability to manage ERRORS in real time
e.g. catastrophizing  exaggeration of ERRORS (Hardy & Parfitt, 1991)
Solution: All music students should
• learn about the theory of MPA
• apply findings to their own musical practice
Expertise and ERRORS
Experts can…
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identify ERRORS
estimate their salience
develop counterstrategies
respond appropriately
manage real-time resources
These skills can be trained by
balancing theory and practice
“Music Academy ERROR”
Unbalanced music performance curriculum
• Not enough theory (sciences and humanities)?
• Inappropriate or outdated theory?
• Unclear connection between theory and practice?
Practical (political) solution
Balance theory (Wissenschaft) and practice in curriculum development:
 Music psychologists (and others) as committee members!
Parncutt, R. (2007). Can researchers help artists? Music performance research
for music students. Music Performance Research, 1, 13-50.
Language ERROR
The problem: Monolingualism
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Conference on original topic
high-quality contributions
music educators in all countries are interested
published in a language that most people cannot understand
(French, German, Italian…)
The solution: Bilingualism
• conference in German  local networking
• proceedings in English  global networking
Don’t be “monoglots” like those British and Americans!
Take advantage of linguistic abilities of German speakers!
Exaggeration ERROR
The problem
• Talking about “excellence” instead of “quality”
• Everybody is doing it, everybody is exaggerating!
The solution:
First fulfill basic prerequisites for quality
in teaching, research and administration
• Peer review
• Bilingualism
• Interdisciplinarity
Additional requirements for “excellence”:
• Bright ideas, hard work, luck…