Science and Music Flashcards
How does reductivity help in deeper levels of explanation?
The reductive nature of science gives us a very different perspective on how music works.
These deeper explanatory levels are interesting because they can provide the ultimate explanations for musical truths that we might take for granted
How does reducitivity contribute to engineering?
If science is about breaking down natural phenomena into their constituent elements, then engineering is about putting these elements together into new technologies. The scientific study of music thereby facilitates a broad range of exciting engineering applications that have deep implications for the way that we engage with and experience music.
Why is objectivity good for questioning assumptions?
Objective methods, if used correctly, can be a good way of addressing such assumptions and biases, because the researcher is forced to support claims with data rather than with intuition.2
Why are objective methods useful?
Objective methods by definition involve a high degree of automation. Automated methods are by nature easier to scale to large datasets. This makes scientific methods good for studying musical phenomena at much larger scales than are tractable using subjective or ‘manual’ approaches.
How does psychology help gain a ew perspective on the study of music?
Traditional musicology relies heavily on the insights of expert music scholars, who write about things that they hear in the music or see in the written score.
The application of psychological methods has allowed researchers to probe the listening experiences of more ‘average’ listeners in a manner that is relatively unmediated by technical vocabulary
How can we use psychology to benefit the composition process?
Scientific studies provide a compelling way to rationalise various aspects of musical style, in terms of basic principles of acoustics and auditory perception. The same logic can furthermore be applied to suggest stylistic directions that exploit acoustics and auditory perception in powerful new ways.
What are psychoacoutsics?
Psychoacoustics corresponds to the interface between physics and psychology. The goal of psychoacoustics is to understand how physical properties of sound, in particular the vibration patterns of air molecules, are translated into psychological percepts such as loudness, pitch, and timbre
What is music neuroscience?
Music neuroscience research tries to understand how the basic biological structures of the brain support the perception and production of music. A common goal in this research is to localise particular functions to particular brain locations
What is cognitive science?
Cognitive science sits at a level of abstraction somewhat above neuroscience. Music cognition researchers are less interested than neuroscientists in understanding the biology of the brain; instead, they are more interested in understanding the fundamental computational processes that the brain enacts.
What is evolutionary pschology?
Evolutionary music psychologists are interested in understanding how humankind evolved its capacity for music.
What is performance Studies?
In performance studies, the researcher aims to characterise the nuances of musical performing in a quantitative way. Often this process begins by taking a collection of musical recordings, encoding them digitally, and then analysing the aspects of the performances that were not dictated by the musical score
What is musical development?
n musical development research, the goal is to understand the process in which musical abilities develop from birth to adulthood. This research is very useful for understanding what kinds of faculties are innate to the individual, and which only develop through learning and experience
What is music education?
Music education research provides a more applied ‘spin’ on musical development research. Instead of passively observing musical skills at different ages, the primary goal is rather to develop new teaching methods or improved policies that better support children’s musical education.
What is wellbeing and music therapy?
Wellbeing and music therapy research are occupied with understanding how music can help people’s quality of life, and designing effective strategies for realising this potential. Music therapy is a long-established and well-regarded occupation, where therapists have face-to-face sessions with patients typically with the goal of using music to overcome verbal communication difficulties.
What is cross-cultural research?
The goal is to see how music manifests across different parts of the world and in different human societies. This kind of work is important for diversifying our understanding of music. It’s also very useful for investigating which aspects of musicality are biologically mandated and which are culturally dependent.
