Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lo ....Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lower funding for music institutions compared to international counterparts. The research endeavours to inform understandings about the nature of motivation and practice more generally, by extending conceptions that have until now been formed largely through research in non-artistic domains of human accomplishment.Read moreRead less
The cognitive power of music. Why does music have life-changing effects on some people, and commonly produces powerful experiences in most of us? This project will unpack the common notion of the power of music from a cognitive perspective and will explain the mechanisms behind our attraction to music through empirical examination of human behaviours.
The Western Australia New Music Archive: 1970 - today: finding, accessing, remembering, performing. This project sees the creation of the Western Australian New Music Archive, a digital repository of and interface to Western Australian music composed from 1970 to the present day. A partnership between peak state and national bodies, the project will also involve the performance and recording of works from the archive.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101064
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$373,536.00
Summary
How musical rhythms entrain the human brain. This project is designed to investigate the brain mechanisms that allow humans to feel the beat in musical rhythms. Although such activity facilitates pro-social and therapeutic effects, the underlying brain mechanisms remain unknown. The project intends to examine the interface between musical rhythms, behaviour and brain activity to increase knowledge on a fundamental process of brain function: the dynamic coupling between perception and body moveme ....How musical rhythms entrain the human brain. This project is designed to investigate the brain mechanisms that allow humans to feel the beat in musical rhythms. Although such activity facilitates pro-social and therapeutic effects, the underlying brain mechanisms remain unknown. The project intends to examine the interface between musical rhythms, behaviour and brain activity to increase knowledge on a fundamental process of brain function: the dynamic coupling between perception and body movement. The project aims to provide insight into how psychological, environmental and neural mechanisms affect entrainment to rhythmic events and inform practices for education and clinical rehabilitation.Read moreRead less
Psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying human interaction in musical contexts. Human interaction in musical groups is a culturally widespread activity that showcases the remarkable capacity for precision and creativity in interpersonal coordination. Although such activity has beneficial effects, including the facilitation of prosociality and positive therapeutic outcomes, the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin an individual’s ability to coordinate wi ....Psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying human interaction in musical contexts. Human interaction in musical groups is a culturally widespread activity that showcases the remarkable capacity for precision and creativity in interpersonal coordination. Although such activity has beneficial effects, including the facilitation of prosociality and positive therapeutic outcomes, the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin an individual’s ability to coordinate with others remain poorly understood. This project aims to investigate these mechanisms by examining relationships between behaviour, social factors, and brain structure and function in naturalistic and laboratory settings. This will inform the assessment and treatment of clinical conditions that affect movement timing and social interaction.Read moreRead less
Making Music Work: Sustainable Portfolio Careers for Australian Musicians. This project plans to explore the conditions and strategies needed for musicians to sustain successful portfolio careers. Most musicians have ‘portfolio careers’, combining aspects of performance, recording, creation, music direction, teaching, community activities, health, retail and a presence in online environments. This phenomenon — often across music genres — is widespread but not well understood. The project involve ....Making Music Work: Sustainable Portfolio Careers for Australian Musicians. This project plans to explore the conditions and strategies needed for musicians to sustain successful portfolio careers. Most musicians have ‘portfolio careers’, combining aspects of performance, recording, creation, music direction, teaching, community activities, health, retail and a presence in online environments. This phenomenon — often across music genres — is widespread but not well understood. The project involves surveys and 12 in-depth case studies of individual musicians or ensembles that will aim to identify key success factors and obstacles. This information is intended to inform opportunities for training, development and support.Read moreRead less
Agile opera: chamber opera in a new era. Chamber Made Opera and university researchers will explore new production and audience models that engage a digitally enabled society. This project will support the creation of innovative performance works, enable the engagement of new audiences, and provide outcomes that promote the sustainability of arts organisations in the digital age.
Loudness moves! Roles of changing acoustic intensity in the perception of music. Changing loudness of a sound is an urgent cue for object location, and an emotional cue in speech and music. With new empirical techniques, we will identify roles of loudness in perception of structure, arousal and emotion in music. The work has application in inter-personal communication, sonic information display and, and in music selling online.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100353
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,000.00
Summary
Universal mechanisms for the communication of musical emotion. This project aims to understand the universal perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying musical communication. Music is a language of the emotions with a remarkable capacity to communicate across personal and cultural boundaries. This project will develop and refine a computational toolbox of perceptual models in light of behavioural experiments using musical and non-musical sonic stimuli. These models will also be used to devel ....Universal mechanisms for the communication of musical emotion. This project aims to understand the universal perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying musical communication. Music is a language of the emotions with a remarkable capacity to communicate across personal and cultural boundaries. This project will develop and refine a computational toolbox of perceptual models in light of behavioural experiments using musical and non-musical sonic stimuli. These models will also be used to develop software to compose perceptually grounded music. The intended outcomes are increased knowledge of perception, composition and computational modelling of music, which will stimulate investigations into music's societal benefits and therapeutic applications.Read moreRead less