In this article, the impact of three experimental parameters in a harmonic expectancy study are evaluated: stimulus duration (specifically the lead-in time prior to an unexpected event), ecological validity of the stimulus (original recording vs. piano only), and familiarity. This article also presents a novel experimental paradigm for detecting expectancy violations in a real-time listening context

Context is one of the key parameters influencing music emotion perception in listeners. The current study systematically investigates the influence of immediate intrinsic musical context on the perception of music-evoked emotions. Four dominantly happy and four dominantly sad Hindustani classical music excerpts were chosen and rated for perceived emotions in two types of listening experiments. In the

Practice may be the single most important activity that musicians can use to improve their performance. Yet practice requires significant effort and can sometimes feel difficult or unenjoyable. For this reason, substantial motivational resources are required to sustain consistent, high-quality practice over long periods. In this study, we used self-determination theory to study the kinds of motivation

Folk psychology posits that music artists’ first albums are considered their best, whereas later albums draw fewer accolades, and that artists’ second albums are considered worse than their first—a phenomenon called the “sophomore slump.” This work is the first large-scale multi-study attempt to test changes in album quality over time and whether a sophomore slump bias exists. Study 1 examined music

This study investigates how a first-time Cypriot mother used music in caring for her infant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited research has been done about musical parenting during this time, highlighting the importance of this single case study. For 5 months, the mother-participant engaged in an online musical parenting program, which aimed to increase knowledge regarding the use of music and movement

This study investigates the impact of positive or negative performance evaluations on general self-efficacy and subsequent choice of a solo or group performance among professional musicians ( N = 53; women 58.2%, men 36.4%, non-binary 5.5%). Participants completed personality questionnaires, sight-read an unfamiliar musical piece, received computer-generated feedback, and reported post-manipulation

Many musicians live with music performance anxiety (MPA), which may affect their psychological and physiological functioning. Mindfulness, being aware in the present moment without judgment, has been found to help ease anxiety. Mindfulness may also help alleviate the negative effects of MPA, but what is the neurophysiological basis for this effect? Core components of mindfulness, including emotional

We present a novel framework for music and emotion research that addresses emotional experiences with music as functional episodes. This framework, called the Episode Model, places the situation and the function of the music for the individual at the centre of the experience and integrates acts of affective self-regulation to our understanding of music as emotional experiences. The model consists of

The purpose of this exploratory instrumental qualitative case study with nested mixed methods was to examine undergraduate music majors’ perceptions of their sense of belonging within one public university music program. We surveyed undergraduate music majors within a single music program and completed purposeful and targeted follow-up interviews of selected respondents who represented a diverse cross-section

The Music Self-Perception Inventory-Short (MUSPI-S) is a theoretically based instrument consisting of 28 items with subscales that assess music self-concept globally and in six specific areas. The present study sought to validate a German translation of the MUSPI-S using a sample of 444 secondary school students. In addition to participants’ scores from the German translation of the MUSPI-S, associated

Sixteen piano students learned four piano pieces under two different conditions that involved the deprivation of auditory and motor feedback. One condition required study away from the piano, thus implying the removal of auditory and kinaesthetic feedback (mental practice, MP). The other condition involved study on a digital piano that was turned off (motor practice, MoP), hence depriving the participant

Music has been actively studied from the perspectives of emotional expression and body movement, but not during adolescence. The current study addressed music as a forum for adolescent embodied emotion expression. Based on prior research, we hypothesised that adolescents would be able to differentiate between emotions in their music-related expressive body movements based on valence and arousal characteristics

The study investigates the multifaceted role of music during homesickness among first-year college students in India. As compared to other mental health outcomes, homesickness is a relatively understudied phenomenon, yet noteworthy due to its direct association with depression and anxiety. Although empirical evidence about music highlights its therapeutic potential for managing stress and anxiety,

Separate voice part perception has been shown in polyphonic music. However, it remains unclear whether this segregation of voice parts is specific to polyphony or also occurs in homophonic music. This study compared voice part perceptions in polyphony and homophony using a redundant signals effect (RSE) paradigm. The RSE means that reaction times are shorter for two simultaneously presented signals

This study uses identity process theory to understand the social–psychological processes that motivate individuals to construct an identity in which music, singing, and singing teaching feature prominently. We conducted reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 10 Australian singing teachers (with an average age 60) to understand how they enacted identity principles that motivate

Children’s verbatim memory for song lyrics has been broadly investigated in the psychological literature, but little is known about the developmental course of children’s ability to construct meaning from familiar multimedia songs containing both concrete and metaphorical language. The present study examined age-related change in children’s understanding of the hit song “Let It Go” using a brief comprehension

The act of performing without a musical score is common and expected in many contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of performing with and without a musical score on listeners’ evaluations of solo pianists. We also investigated whether the effects of score use differed according to the perceived expertise of the performer. Participants ( N = 69) were collegiate music students

The study of gestures in music performance provides valuable insights for instrumental learning. However, gestural vocabularies vary depending on the instrument being played, according to its postural and technical specificities. The goals of this study were twofold: first, to create a gesture categorization system for saxophone players, and second, to analyse their gestural behaviour across contrasting

Adverse experiences toward making music can be found in both musicians (music performance anxiety) and non-musicians (avoidance of participating in musical experiences). Both anxiety and avoidance are driven by perceptions and attributions about particular stimuli, based on schemas developed via direct and indirect experiences. Most research within music psychology focuses on the views of professional

This study aimed to investigate the effects of amateur choir experience on “forced-attention” dichotic listening performance in older adults. Twenty older adults with choir experience and 20 without such experience were recruited, along with a group of 20 younger adults as the baseline. Participants were instructed to complete the dichotic listening task based on consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in four

Pregnancy-related anxiety commonly occurs among first-time pregnant women, carrying an increased risk of harmful effects to both mother and the growing fetus or newborns. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a Comprehensive Health-literacy And Relaxing Music (CHARM) intervention compared with two other stand-alone interventions (relaxing music–only intervention, comprehensive health literacy–only

People use music to regulate their emotions in a variety of ways. Whereas some of these strategies are conceptually and empirically distinct from one another, other strategies are not wholly distinguishable. We examined the distinctiveness among strategies used to regulate emotions via music listening. College students ( N = 274) completed an online questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended items

This study investigates the effect of chord duration on the relative salience of chord-type and voicing changes. Participants ( N = 111) with varying levels of musical training were presented with sequences of five block chords on the piano and asked to indicate which chord sounded most different. Each sequence consisted of three identical chords and two oddballs, one with a voicing change and one

Research examining affective response to media modalities including film, television, gaming, video streaming, and virtual reality is expanding. This study examined aesthetic responses to choral performances presented in two contrasting video formats (stationary and produced). Volunteer undergraduate students ( N = 94) enrolled in ensembles (choral, n = 45; instrumental, n = 49) indicated their aesthetic

Recent studies have reported positive effects of music training on older adults’ executive functions. However, it is not completely known whether these outcomes were due to improvement in music performance skills or due to other components of training, such as social interaction and music listening. Here, we investigated the effect of a 10-week melodica training program on a group of healthy older

This article presents a qualitative analysis of the opening section of an online improvisation session. The session, which was organized by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, included an international group of musicians. It took place during the global COVID-19 pandemic where the participants were experiencing lockdown conditions. Phenomenological reflexive analysis and video elicitation techniques

This article presents the findings of an intervention aimed at promoting positive emotions in music performance, as positive emotions are intrinsically valuable and can have associated benefits. The intervention sought to help participants conceive performance in more meaningful, self-transcendent terms. This study investigated whether the intervention helped performers to change their approach to

The integration of music sounds with concurrent visual scenes or objects is a occurrence in our daily lives, attracting the attention of researchers investigating how music influences our perceptions of simultaneous visuals. This study specifically investigates the role of musical pitch height in shaping our judgments of visual brightness during concurrent music–visual events. Participants were presented

Extracurricular and out-of-school engagement with music is often associated with positive effects for musical goals while also holding potential for developmental and empowerment processes. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance and the potential of digital technologies for facilitating musical engagement. The emergence of digitally transformed musicking has added complexity to the already

The study examined the impact of music’s emotional content on the aesthetic experience of visual artworks during combined stimulation. The hypothesis posited that incongruity of emotional states induced by music would impede accurate comprehension of emotional aspect of artworks. A total of 18 university students were presented with 192 paintings and 20 emotionally congruent or incongruent musical

Research in the area of Positive Psychology typically investigates positive psychological interventions and their impact on the lives of participants, positive psychology as an approach to enhance the lives of participants, or investigations of particular populations in search of evidence of flourishing. This paper presents a research process of embodied, creative engagement to facilitate the exploration

Beneficial effects of music on wellbeing and group cohesion are well established. Furthermore, participation in music groups has been shown to be associated with increased orientation to the host culture, while orientation to culture of origin appears to remain unaffected. In order to gain insight into the effects of music activities on acculturative stress in adult migrants, a group of musically active

This study examines how cultural workers in the music sector coped with the COVID-19-induced lockdown, and how coping is associated with growth in personal strength during the pandemic. We conducted an online survey 1 year into the pandemic among members of Creo, Norway’s largest trade union in the music sector. Respondents ( N = 658) were to a large degree engaged in fight coping. Furthermore, seeking

It has been demonstrated that exposure to music with prosocial lyrics can increase the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, leading to greater empathy and fostering helping behaviors. However, existing studies have largely neglected the intertemporal nature of altruism, limiting their scope of interpretation. The present research investigates the effects of attentively listening to music with prosocial

Strongly disliked music has the capacity to evoke strong negative emotions and physical sensations—at least in some listeners. Although previous (qualitative) studies on disliked music have provided valuable descriptions of listeners’ experiences, more generalizable approaches are needed for understanding individual differences in the intensity of music-evoked aversive experiences. This study set out

Mindfulness meditation practices have garnered a lot of popularity in recent years. Various psychological benefits of mindfulness meditation have been documented in a myriad of literature. In this pilot study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a short-term mindfulness training program on time-based musical perceptions of pre-service music teachers. Here, time-based perception entails the accurate perception

Tom Petty’s songs are among the most recognized and influential in rock music. One aspect of Petty’s songs that contributes to his popularity is his use of language in his lyrics. The current study performed two sets of analyses: (a) to examine linguistic features of Petty’s song lyrics over the course of his songwriting career; and (b) to investigate similarities and differences between Petty’s lyrics

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is most often defined as a negative experience that is harmful to successful performance, but potential facilitating effects of MPA often are acknowledged. The distinction between facilitating and debilitating effects often is attributed to various cognitive frameworks based on the quantity of anxiety, where smaller amounts may be helpful and larger amounts harmful.

This study aimed to explore whether music perception is correlated with the load of exposure to musical activities in daily life, such as attending musical events, playing an instrument, attending music classes (at school or for a social project), and the time children spend listening to music using a non-experimental design. We are reusing data from the studies by Barros et al. and Cogo-Moreira &

Benefits of group singing participation have been well established and group singing through social prescription has attracted recent research attention. This study offers a unique participant perspective on the benefits of regular singing group engagement by exploring what happened when access was lost through COVID-19 lockdowns. Sixty adult singers, including five facilitators, who ceased singing

This research investigates the relationship between music consumption and cultural dimensions within a Japanese context. Since Japan is the second largest music market globally, it is surprising that there is little focus on those factors often examined in cross-cultural research that might mean Western findings do not extrapolate well. A questionnaire using established measures of tightness–looseness

Online participatory music creation provided an opportunity to build the public’s psychological resilience during the COVID-19 lockdown measures that led to widespread negative emotions on a societal level. This study explored how online participation in music creation as a crisis response contributes to the public’s mental health. The study employed a qualitative method that combines network ethnography

Music videos are a popular method of consuming music; however, the characteristics of these experiences and their effects on music perception are poorly understood. An online survey ( N = 155) was designed using theoretical insight from Dasovich-Wilson et al.’s (2022) Intention Attention Reaction and Retention (IARR) framework. The survey consisted of two parts: the first explored the key characteristics

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived social support (PSS) and general mental health in collegiate music students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, perception of access to academic resources and stability of living was analyzed as a moderator in the relationship between PSS and general mental health. Participants completed a survey that included the Mental

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused heightened mental distress globally. The purpose of this systematic review is to investigate the impact of music engagement on stress and anxiety in adults during COVID-19. Thirteen articles were included, encompassing 9,893 adults and reporting on seven forms of music engagement: music listening, singing, playing an instrument, watching music

The past few decades have seen formal jazz degrees become more established in university music programs in the United States. As these universities strive to provide an exemplary education experience for jazz degree majors, it is especially important to thoughtfully inquire into the personal and environmental elements that led students to pursue a jazz degree. The purpose of this multiple case study

In the period between birth and approximately 9 months, adults introduce infants to triadic (adult–infant–object) communication. The objective of this study is to explore how early triadic interactions arise and develop in moderate–late preterm infants. We observed and analyzed seven preterm infants at 2, 3, and 4 months of age in triadic interactions with a caregiver and a sonorous object. In the

While self-efficacy is known to play an important role in music performance, the magnitudes of reported effect sizes are inconsistent. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to estimate the population effect size for (a) the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement, (b) the relationship between self-efficacy and music performance anxiety (MPA), and (c) the influence of self-efficacy interventions

In tone languages where pitch is used to distinguish word meanings, questions arise about how tonal pitch is preserved in singing. While most studies focus on tone-melody matching by examining pitch changes between tones/notes, the pitch change of tones realized within individual notes is less investigated. This article explores how singers realized tones when singing in Chaozhou, a Southern Chinese

Music preferences are molded with numerous personality variables, yet, this relation, as assumed in the study, may be mediated by functions of music expressing the psychological needs of the listener. Not many studies are devoted to the music preferences of listeners with personality disorders, whereas, none investigate this topic among people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). A correlational

This study examines the effect on students’ empathy of using group music activities based on composition and improvisation strategies. The research was carried out over a 9-month period using a pre–posttest control group quasi-experimental design. Sixty-three students took part in the study: 32 in the experimental group and 31 in the control group. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale was used

While the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 crisis is impacting many areas of society, some professions are more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than others, especially by the feeling of insecurity about future working conditions. The present research was conducted during the pandemic and assesses the extent to which musicians’ desire to develop professionally, their work engagement and their motivation

This study aimed to shed light on the role of music in maladaptive daydreaming (MD), a psychological condition characterized by excessive, immersive daydreaming that interferes with well-being and functioning. Forty-one individuals with probable MD participated in asynchronous in-depth email interviews. A thematic analysis yielded three themes describing the role of music in MD. Two homogeneous themes

The ability to regulate one's emotions is integral to well-being and recent studies have documented the relationship between music and emotion regulation strategies. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the impact of musicking on emotion regulation. To achieve this objective, a systematic database search for randomized control trial (RCT) studies was conducted. Eight studies that met the

Music that evokes strong emotional responses is often experienced as autobiographically salient. Through emotional experience, the musical features of songs could also contribute to their subjective autobiographical saliency. Songs which have been popular during adolescence or young adulthood (ages 10-30) are more likely to evoke stronger memories, a phenomenon known as a reminiscence bump. In the

Growing evidence shows that choirs improve the well-being of people experiencing chronic mental health conditions; however, the impact of performances by “recovery choirs” (i.e., singers with menta...

This research examines the hypothesis that music experienced during puberty in early adolescence imprints on individuals to promote the pursuit of friendships and mating. We conducted an online sur...

The aim of the present case study was to obtain an in-depth understanding of the long-term motivation in four world-class musicians and two Olympic athletes. One part of the sample (Case 1) include...