Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
and
musicology. It aims to explain and understand
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
al
behaviour
Behavior (American English) or behaviour ( British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as w ...
and
experience
Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience invol ...
, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, responded to, and incorporated into everyday life.
Modern music psychology is primarily
empirical
Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences and ...
; its knowledge tends to advance on the basis of interpretations of data collected by systematic
observation
Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instruments. Th ...
of and interaction with
human participants. Music psychology is a field of research with practical relevance for many areas, including music
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
,
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
* Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
*Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
,
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...
,
criticism
Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''"the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad q ...
, and
therapy
A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis.
As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many differe ...
, as well as investigations of human
attitude
Attitude may refer to:
Philosophy and psychology
* Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value
* Metaphysics of presence
* Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a prop ...
,
skill
A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of w ...
,
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
,
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the a ...
,
creativity
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...
, and
social behavior
Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to a ...
.
Music psychology can shed light on non-psychological aspects of
musicology and musical practice. For example, it contributes to
music theory through investigations of the
perception
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, ...
and
computational modelling
Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...
of musical structures such as
melody
A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combina ...
,
harmony
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. Howev ...
,
tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is cal ...
,
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed ...
,
meter
The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pr ...
, and
form
Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens.
Form also refers to:
* Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter dat ...
. Research in
music history
Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view.
In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history ...
can benefit from systematic study of the history of
musical syntax
When analysing the regularities and structure of music as well as the processing of music in the brain, certain findings lead to the question of whether music is based on a syntax that could be compared with linguistic syntax. To get closer to thi ...
, or from psychological analyses of composers and compositions in relation to perceptual, affective, and social responses to their music.
History
Early history (pre-1850)
The study of sound and musical phenomena prior to the 19th century was focused primarily on the mathematical modelling of
pitch and
tone.
The earliest recorded experiments date from the 6th century BCE, most notably in the work of
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politic ...
and his establishment of the simple string length ratios that formed the
consonance
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unpl ...
s of the
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
. This view that sound and music could be understood from a purely physical standpoint was echoed by such theorists as
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras (; grc-gre, Ἀναξαγόρας, ''Anaxagóras'', "lord of the assembly"; 500 – 428 BC) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, ...
and
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, '' magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the t ...
. An important early dissenter was
Aristoxenus
Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( el, Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have bee ...
, who foreshadowed modern music psychology in his view that music could only be understood through human perception and its relation to human memory. Despite his views, the majority of musical education through the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
and
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
remained rooted in the Pythagorean tradition, particularly through the
quadrivium
From the time of Plato through the Middle Ages, the ''quadrivium'' (plural: quadrivia) was a grouping of four subjects or arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—that formed a second curricular stage following preparatory work in the ...
of
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
,
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
,
arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th c ...
, and
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
.
Research by
Vincenzo Galilei
Vincenzo Galilei (born 3 April 1520, Santa Maria a Monte, Italy died 2 July 1591, Florence, Italy) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso ...
(father of
Galileo) demonstrated that, when string length was held constant, varying its tension, thickness, or composition could alter perceived pitch. From this, he argued that simple ratios were not enough to account for musical phenomenon and that a perceptual approach was necessary. He also claimed that the differences between various tuning systems were not perceivable, thus the disputes were unnecessary.
Study of topics including
vibration
Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum—or random, suc ...
,
consonance
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unpl ...
, the
harmonic series, and
resonance
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillat ...
were furthered through the
scientific revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed ...
, including work by
Galileo,
Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of ...
,
Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...
, and
Descartes. This included further speculation concerning the nature of the sense organs and higher-order processes, particularly by
Savart
The savart is a unit of measurement for musical pitch intervals (). One savart is equal to one thousandth of a decade ( 10/1: 3,986.313714 cents): 3.9863 cents. Musically, in just intonation, the interval of a decade is precisely a just major ...
,
Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Association, ...
, and
Koenig.
Rise of empirical study (1860–1960)
The latter 19th century saw the development of modern music psychology alongside the emergence of a
general empirical psychology, one which passed through similar stages of development. The first was
structuralist psychology, led by
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and ...
, which sought to break down experience into its smallest definable parts. This expanded upon previous centuries of acoustic study, and included Helmholtz developing the
resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reson ...
to isolate and understand pure and complex tones and their perception, the philosopher
Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf (; 21 April 1848 – 25 December 1936) was a German philosopher, psychologist and musicologist. He is noted for founding the Berlin School of Experimental Psychology.
He studied with Franz Brentano at the University of Würzburg b ...
using church organs and his own musical experience to explore
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and music ...
and
absolute pitch
Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is a rare ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. AP may be demonstrated using linguistic labeling ("naming" a note), associating ...
, and Wundt himself associating the experience of rhythm with kinesthetic tension and relaxation.
As structuralism gave way to
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward ...
and
behaviorism at the turn of the century, music psychology moved beyond the study of isolated tones and elements to the perception of their inter-relationships and human reactions to them, though work languished behind that of
visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum refl ...
.
In Europe Géza Révész and Albert Wellek developed a more complex understanding of musical pitch, and in the US the focus shifted to that of music education and the training and development of musical skill.
Carl Seashore
Carl Emil Seashore, born Sjöstrand (January 28, 1866 – October 16, 1949) was a prominent American psychologist and educator. He was the author of numerous books and articles principally regarding the fields of speech–language pathology, music ...
led this work, producing his ''The Measurement of Musical Talents'' and ''The Psychology of Musical Talent''. Seashore used bespoke equipment and standardized tests to measure how performance deviated from indicated markings and how musical aptitude differed between students.
In 1963 F. Chrysler was the first one to use the term "science of music" when he was working on his "year book for musical" knowledge. European musicology was found in Greek. They were focused on the philosophy, and the concepts of any relations with music. Greek's several theories rose later to Arab and the Christians theories. Although their theories survived, they were also corrupted along the way, in the Middle Ages of Europe.
Modern (1960–present)
Music psychology in the second half of the 20th century has expanded to cover a wide array of theoretical and applied areas. From the 1960s the field grew along with
cognitive science, including such research areas as music perception (particularly of pitch, rhythm, harmony, and melody), musical development and aptitude, music performance, and
affective responses to music.
This period has also seen the founding of music psychology-specific journals, societies, conferences, research groups, centers, and degrees, a trend that has brought research toward specific applications for
music education
Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origin ...
, performance, and
therapy
A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis.
As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many differe ...
. While the techniques of
cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning.
Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...
allowed for more objective examinations of musical behavior and experience, the theoretical and technological advancements of
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...
have greatly shaped the direction of music psychology into the 21st century.
While the majority of music psychology research has focused on music in a Western context, the field has expanded along with
ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
to examine how the perception and practice of music differs between cultures. It has also emerged into the public sphere. In recent years several bestselling
popular science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
books have helped bring the field into public discussion, notably
Daniel Levitin
Daniel Joseph Levitin, FRSC (born December 27, 1957) is an American-Canadian cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, writer, musician, and record producer. He is the author of four ''New York Times'' best-selling books, including '' This Is You ...
's ''
This Is Your Brain On Music
''This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'' is a popular science book written by the McGill University neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, and first published by Dutton Penguin in the U.S. and Canada in 2006, and updated and ...
'' (2006) and ''
The World in Six Songs
''The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature'' is a popular science book written by the McGill University neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, and first published by Dutton Penguin in the U.S. and Canada in 2008, and updated ...
'' (2008),
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...
' ''
Musicophilia
In 2007, neurologist Oliver Sacks released his book ''Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain'' in which he explores a range of psychological and physiological ailments and their intriguing connections to music. It is broken down into four par ...
'' (2007), and
Gary Marcus
Gary F. Marcus (born February 8, 1970) is a professor emeritus of psychology and neural science at New York University. In 2014 he founded Geometric Intelligence, a machine-learning company later acquired by Uber. Marcus's books include ''Guitar ...
' ''
Guitar Zero
''Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning'' is a 2012 popular science book by research psychologist Gary Marcus. It documents the author's process of learning the guitar while discussing aspects of music cognition and the role of ...
'' (2012). In addition, the controversial "
Mozart effect
The Mozart effect is the theory that listening to the music of Mozart may temporarily boost scores on one portion of an IQ test. Popular science versions of the theory make the claim that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter" or that early childh ...
" sparked lengthy debate among researchers, educators, politicians, and the public regarding the relationship between
classical music listening, education, and
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the a ...
.
Research areas
Perception and cognition
Much work within music psychology seeks to understand the cognitive processes that support musical behaviors, including
perception
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, ...
, comprehension,
memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...
,
attention
Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Att ...
, and
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
. Originally arising in fields of
psychoacoustics
Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychophysics involving the scientific study of sound perception and audiology—how humans perceive various sounds. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological responses associated ...
and
sensation
Sensation (psychology) refers to the processing of the senses by the sensory system.
Sensation or sensations may also refer to:
In arts and entertainment In literature
*Sensation (fiction), a fiction writing mode
* Sensation novel, a Britis ...
, cognitive theories of how people understand music more recently encompass
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...
,
cognitive science,
music theory,
music therapy
Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music th ...
,
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...
,
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
,
philosophy, and
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
.
Affective response
Music has been shown to consistently elicit emotional responses in its listeners, and this relationship between human
affect and
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
has been studied in depth.
This includes isolating which specific features of a musical work or performance convey or elicit certain reactions, the nature of the reactions themselves, and how characteristics of the listener may determine which
emotion
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
s are felt. The field draws upon and has significant implications for such areas as
philosophy,
musicology, and
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of ...
, as well the acts of
musical composition and
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
. The implications for casual listeners are also great; research has shown that the pleasurable feelings associated with emotional music are the result of
dopamine
Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuromodulatory molecule that plays several important roles in cells. It is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. Dopamine constitutes about 8 ...
release in the
striatum
The striatum, or corpus striatum (also called the striate nucleus), is a nucleus (a cluster of neurons) in the subcortical basal ganglia of the forebrain. The striatum is a critical component of the motor and reward systems; receives glutamate ...
—the same anatomical areas that underpin the anticipatory and rewarding aspects of drug
addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...
.
According to research, listening to music has been found to affect the mood of an individual. The main factors in whether it will affect that individual positively or negatively are based on the musics tempo and style. In addition, listening to music also increases cognitive functions, creativity, and decreases feelings of fatigue. All of these factors lead to better workflow and a more optimal result in the activity done while listening to music. This leads to the conclusion that listening to music while performing an activity is an excellent way of increasing productivity and the overall experience. It has been proposed that the ability to understand the emotional meaning of music might rely on the existence of a common neural system for processing the affective meaning of voices/vocalizations and musical sounds. In addition to emotional responses, music has influenced the lifestyles of individuals and changed people's perceptions of what "sexy" is. Although music cannot resolve all human beings needs but is heavily relied on to alter the feelings and emotions.
Neuropsychology
A significant amount of research concerns brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music perception and performance. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It also is increasingly concerned with the brain basis for musical aesthetics and musical emotion. Scientists working in this field may have training in cognitive neuroscience, neurology, neuroanatomy, psychology, music theory, computer science, and other allied fields, and use such techniques as
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
transcranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...
(TMS),
magnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (s ...
(MEG),
electroencephalography
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocor ...
(EEG), and
positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, ...
(PET).
The
cognitive process
Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
of performing music requires the interaction of neural mechanisms in both motor and auditory systems. Since every action expressed in a performance produces a sound that influences subsequent expression, this leads to impressive
sensorimotor interplay.
Processing pitch

Perceived pitch typically depends on the
fundamental frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the ''fundamental'', is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present. I ...
, though the dependence could be mediated solely by the presence of
harmonic
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...
s corresponding to that fundamental frequency. The perception of a pitch without the corresponding fundamental frequency in the physical stimulus is called the pitch of the
missing fundamental
A harmonic sound is said to have a missing fundamental, suppressed fundamental, or phantom fundamental when its overtones suggest a fundamental frequency but the sound lacks a component at the fundamental frequency itself.
The brain perceives the ...
.
Neurons lateral to A1 in marmoset monkeys were found to be sensitive specifically to the fundamental frequency of a complex tone,
suggesting that ''pitch constancy'' may be enabled by such a neural mechanism.
Pitch constancy refers to the ability to perceive pitch identity across changes in acoustical properties, such as loudness, temporal envelope, or
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and music ...
.
The importance of cortical regions lateral to A1 for pitch coding is also supported by studies of human cortical lesions and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain.
These data suggest a hierarchical system for pitch processing, with more abstract properties of sound stimulus processed further along the processing pathways.
=Absolute pitch
=
Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify the pitch of a musical tone or to produce a musical tone at a given pitch without the use of an external reference pitch. Researchers estimate the occurrence of AP to be 1 in 10,000 people.
The extent to which this ability is innate or learned is debated, with evidence for both a
genetic
Genetic may refer to:
*Genetics, in biology, the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms
**Genetic, used as an adjective, refers to genes
***Genetic disorder, any disorder caused by a genetic mutation, whether inherited or de nov ...
basis and for a "critical period" in which the ability can be learned, especially in conjunction with early musical training.
Processing rhythm
Behavioural studies demonstrate that rhythm and pitch can be perceived separately,
but that they also interact
in creating a musical perception. Studies of auditory rhythm discrimination and reproduction in patients with brain injury have linked these functions to the
auditory regions of the
temporal lobe
The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain.
The temporal lobe is involved in proc ...
, but have shown no consistent localization or lateralization.
Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have shown that the motor regions of the brain contribute to both perception and production of rhythms.
Even in studies where subjects only listen to rhythms, the
basal ganglia
The basal ganglia (BG), or basal nuclei, are a group of subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates. In humans, and some primates, there are some differences, mainly in the division of the globus pallidus into an extern ...
,
cerebellum
The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cere ...
,
dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC) and
supplementary motor area
The supplementary motor area (SMA) is a part of the motor cortex of primates that contributes to the control of movement. It is located on the midline surface of the hemisphere just in front of (anterior to) the primary motor cortex leg representa ...
(SMA) are often implicated.
The analysis of rhythm may depend on interactions between the auditory and motor systems.
Neural correlates of musical training
Although auditory–motor interactions can be observed in people without formal musical training, musicians are an excellent population to study because of their long-established and rich associations between auditory and motor systems. Musicians have been shown to have anatomical adaptations that correlate with their training.
Some neuroimaging studies have observed that musicians show lower levels of activity in motor regions than non-musicians during the performance of simple motor tasks, which may suggest a more efficient pattern of neural recruitment.
Other studies have shown that early musical training may positively affect word reading, by promoting the specialization of an extra right-sided "note visual area" to process spatially relevant visual information (i.e., pentagram, bars, etc.) This neuroplastic effect might help prevent surface dyslexia. Music learning also involves the formation of novel audio visuomotor associations, which results in the ability to detect an incorrect association between sounds and the corresponding musical gestures, also allowing to learn how to play a musical instrument.
Motor imagery
Previous neuroimaging studies have consistently reported activity in the SMA and premotor areas, as well as in auditory cortices, when non-musicians imagine hearing musical excerpts.
Recruitment of the SMA and premotor areas is also reported when musicians are asked to imagine performing.
Psychoacoustics
Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
perception. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betw ...
and
physiological
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemica ...
responses associated with sound (including
speech
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...
and music). Topics of study include perception of the
pitch,
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and music ...
,
loudness
In acoustics, loudness is the subjective perception of sound pressure. More formally, it is defined as, "That attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud". The relation of phys ...
and
duration
Duration may refer to:
* The amount of time elapsed between two events
* Duration (music) – an amount of time or a particular time interval, often cited as one of the fundamental aspects of music
* Duration (philosophy) – a theory of time and ...
of musical sounds and the relevance of such studies for
music cognition
Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, re ...
or the
perceived structure of music
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, ...
; and
auditory illusion
Auditory illusions are false perceptions of a real sound or outside stimulus. These false perceptions are the equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus, or sounds that should not be p ...
s and how humans
localize sound, which can have relevance for musical composition and the
design of venues for music performance. Psychoacoustics is a branch of
psychophysics.
Cognitive musicology
Cognitive musicology is a branch of
cognitive science concerned with
computationally modeling musical knowledge with the goal of understanding both music and cognition.
Cognitive musicology can be differentiated from the fields of music cognition and
cognitive neuroscience of music The neuroscience of music is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It also i ...
by a difference in methodological emphasis. Cognitive musicology uses computer modeling to study music-related
knowledge representation
Knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR, KR&R, KR²) is the field of artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to representing information about the world in a form that a computer system can use to solve complex tasks such as diagnosing a medic ...
and has roots in
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
and
cognitive science. The use of computer models provides an exacting, interactive medium in which to formulate and test theories.
This interdisciplinary field investigates topics such as the parallels between language and music in the brain. Biologically inspired models of computation are often included in research, such as neural networks and evolutionary programs. This field seeks to model how musical knowledge is represented, stored, perceived, performed, and generated. By using a well-structured computer environment, the systematic structures of these cognitive phenomena can be investigated.
Evolutionary musicology
Evolutionary musicology concerns the "
origin of music
Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of l ...
, the question of animal song, selection pressures underlying music evolution", and "music evolution and human evolution".
It seeks to understand music perception and activity in the context of
evolutionary theory
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation te ...
.
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
speculated that music may have held an adaptive advantage and functioned as a
protolanguage
In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...
, a view which has spawned several competing theories of music evolution. An alternate view sees music as a by-product of
linguistic evolution
Evolutionary linguistics or Darwinian linguistics is a sociobiological approach to the study of language. Evolutionary linguists consider linguistics as a subfield of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. The approach is also closely linked ...
; a type of "auditory cheesecake" that pleases the senses without providing any adaptive function. This view has been directly countered by numerous music researchers.
Cultural differences
An individual's
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...
or
ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
plays a role in their
music cognition
Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, re ...
, including their
preferences
In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between wikt:alternative, alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are centra ...
,
emotional reaction
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...
, and
musical memory Musical memory refers to the ability to remember music-related information, such as melodic content and other progressions of tones or pitches. The differences found between linguistic memory and musical memory have led researchers to theorize that ...
. Musical preferences are biased toward culturally familiar musical traditions beginning in infancy, and adults' classification of the emotion of a musical piece depends on both culturally specific and universal structural features.
Additionally, individuals' musical memory abilities are greater for culturally familiar music than for culturally unfamiliar music.
Applied research areas
Many areas of music psychology research focus on the application of music in everyday life as well as the practices and experiences of the amateur and professional musician. Each topic may utilize knowledge and techniques derived from one or more of the areas described above. Such areas include:
Music in society
Including:
*everyday music listening
*musical
rituals
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...
and gatherings (e.g.
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
,
festive
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...
,
sport
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
ing,
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
, etc.)
*the role of music in forming
personal
Personal may refer to:
Aspects of persons' respective individualities
* Privacy
* Personality
* Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship
Companies
* Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...
and
group identities
*the relation between music and
dancing
Dance is a performing art art form, form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolism (arts), symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its chor ...
*
social influences
Social influence comprises the ways in which individuals adjust their behavior to meet the demands of a social environment. It takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, a ...
on musical preference (peers, family, experts, social background, etc.)
Musical preference
Consumers' choices in music have been studied as they relate to the
Big Five personality traits
The Big Five personality traits is a suggested taxonomy, or grouping, for personality traits, developed from the 1980s onward in psychological trait theory.
Starting in the 1990s, the theory identified five factors by labels, for the US Englis ...
:
openness to experience
Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions: active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, ...
,
agreeableness
Agreeableness is a personality trait manifesting itself in individual behavioral characteristics that are perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm, and considerate. In contemporary personality psychology, agreeableness is one of the five ...
,
extraversion
The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...
,
neuroticism
In the study of psychology, neuroticism has been considered a fundamental personality trait. For example, in the Big Five approach to personality trait theory, individuals with high scores for neuroticism are more likely than average to be moody ...
, and
conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to e ...
. In general, the plasticity traits (openness to experience and extraversion) affect music preference more than the stability traits (agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness). Gender has been shown to influence preference, with men choosing music for primarily cognitive reasons and women for emotional reasons.
Relationships with music preference have also been found with mood
and nostalgic association.
Background music
The study of
background music
Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...
focuses on the impact of music with non-musical tasks, including changes in behavior in the presence of different types, settings, or styles of music.
In laboratory settings, music can affect performance on cognitive tasks (memory,
attention
Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Att ...
, and
comprehension
Comprehension may refer to:
* Comprehension (logic), the totality of intensions, that is, properties or qualities, that an object possesses
* Comprehension approach, several methodologies of language learning that emphasize understanding languag ...
), both positively and negatively. Used extensively as an
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
aid, music may also affect
marketing strategies
Marketing strategy allows organizations to focus limited resources on best opportunities to increase sales and achieve a competitive advantage in the market.
Strategic marketing emerged in the 1970s/80s as a distinct field of study, further build ...
, ad comprehension, and consumer choices. Background music can influence learning,
working memory
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, ...
and
recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwat ...
,
performance while working on tests,
and attention in cognitive monitoring tasks.
Background music can also be used as a way to relieve boredom, create positive moods, and maintain a private space.
Background music has been shown to put a restless mind at ease by presenting the listener with various melodies and tones.
It has been shown that listening to different types of music may modulate differently psychological mood and physiological responses associated with the induced emotions. For example, listening to atonal music might result in reduced heart rate (fear bradycardia) and increased blood pressure (both diastolic and systolic), possibly reflecting an increase in alertness and attention, psychological tension, and anxiety.
Music in marketing
In both radio and television advertisements, music plays an integral role in content recall,
intentions to buy the product, and attitudes toward the advertisement and brand itself.
Music's effect on marketing has been studied in radio ads,
TV ads,
and physical retail settings.
One of the most important aspects of an advertisement's music is the "musical fit", or the degree of congruity between cues in the ad and song content.
Advertisements and music can be congruous or incongruous for both lyrical and instrumental music. The timbre, tempo, lyrics, genre, mood, as well as any positive or negative associations elicited by certain music should ''fit'' the nature of the advertisement and product.
Music and productivity
Several studies have recognized that listening to music while working affects the
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...
of people performing complex cognitive tasks. One study suggested that listening to one's preferred genre of music can enhance productivity in the workplace, though other research has found that listening to music while working can be a source of
distraction
Distraction is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention ...
, with loudness and lyrical content possibly playing a role. Other factors proposed to affect the relationship between music listening and productivity include musical structure, task complexity, and degree of control over the choice and use of music.
Music education

Including:
*optimizing
music education
Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origin ...
*
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
*Photographi ...
of musical behaviors and abilities throughout the lifespan
*the specific skills and processes involved in
learning a
musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
or
singing
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung accompaniment, wi ...
*activities and practices within a
music school
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...
*individual versus group learning of a musical instrument
*the effects of musical education on intelligence
*optimizing
practice
Practice or practise may refer to:
Education and learning
* Practice (learning method), a method of learning by repetition
* Phantom practice, phenomenon in which a person's abilities continue to improve, even without practicing
* Practice-based ...
Musical aptitude
Musical aptitude refers to a person's innate ability to acquire skills and knowledge required for musical activity, and may influence the speed at which learning can take place and the level that may be achieved. Study in this area focuses on whether aptitude can be broken into subsets or represented as a single construct, whether aptitude can be measured prior to significant achievement, whether high aptitude can predict achievement, to what extent aptitude is inherited, and what implications questions of aptitude have on educational principles.
It is an issue closely related to that of
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the a ...
and
IQ, and was pioneered by the work of
Carl Seashore
Carl Emil Seashore, born Sjöstrand (January 28, 1866 – October 16, 1949) was a prominent American psychologist and educator. He was the author of numerous books and articles principally regarding the fields of speech–language pathology, music ...
. While early tests of aptitude, such as Seashore's ''The Measurement of Musical Talent'', sought to measure innate musical talent through discrimination tests of pitch, interval, rhythm, consonance, memory, etc., later research found these approaches to have little predictive power and to be influenced greatly by the test-taker's mood, motivation, confidence, fatigue, and boredom when taking the test.
Music performance
Including:
*the
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...
of performance
*music reading and
sight-reading
In music, sight-reading, also called ''a prima vista'' (Italian meaning "at first sight"), is the practice of reading and performing of a piece in a music notation that the performer has not seen or learned before. Sight-singing is used to descri ...
, including
eye movement
Eye movement includes the voluntary or involuntary movement of the eyes. Eye movements are used by a number of organisms (e.g. primates, rodents, flies, birds, fish, cats, crabs, octopus) to fixate, inspect and track visual objects of intere ...
*performing from memory and music-related memory
*acts of improvisation and Musical composition, composition
*Flow (psychology), flow experiences
*the interpersonal/social aspects of Musical ensemble, group performance
*music performance quality evaluation by an audience or evaluator(s) (e.g. audition or Music competition, competition), including the influence of musical and non-musical factors
*Audio mixing (recorded music), audio engineering
Music and health
Health benefits
Scientific studies suggest that singing can have positive effects on people's health. A preliminary study based on self-reported data from a survey of students participating in choral singing found perceived benefits including increased lung capacity, improved mood, stress reduction, as well as perceived social and spiritual benefits.
However, one much older study of lung capacity compared those with professional vocal training to those without, and failed to back up the claims of increased lung capacity.
Singing may positively influence the immune system through the reduction of stress (medicine), stress. One study found that both singing and listening to choral music reduces the level of stress hormones and increases immune function.
A multinational collaboration to study the connection between singing and health was established in 2009, called ''Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing'' (AIRS).
Singing provides physical, cognitive, and emotional benefits to participants. When they step on stage, many singers forget their worries and focus solely on the song. Singing is becoming a more widely known method of increasing an individual's overall health and wellness, in turn helping them to battle diseases such as cancer more effectively due to decreased stress, releasing of endorphins, and increased lung capacity.
= Effect on the brain
=
John Daniel Scott, among others, have cited that "people who sing are more likely to be happy". This is because "singing elevates the levels of neurotransmitters which are associated with pleasure and well being". Humans have a long prehistory of music, especially singing; before written language, stories were passed down through song, because song is often more memorable. There is also evidence that music or singing may have evolved in humans before language. Levitin, in his ''This is Your Brain on Music'', argues that "music may be the activity that prepared our pre-human ancestors for speech communication" and that "singing ... might have helped our species to refine motor skills, paving the way for the development of the exquisitely fine muscle control required for vocal ... speech" (260).
On the other hand, he cites Pinker, who "argued that language is an adaptation and music is its Spandrel (biology), Spandrel ... an evolutionary accident piggybacking on language" (248).
Studies have found evidence suggesting the mental, as well as physical, benefits of singing. When conducting a study with 21 members of a choir at three different points over one year, three themes suggested three areas of benefits; the social impact (connectedness with others), personal impact (positive emotions, self-perception, etc.), and functional outcomes (health benefits of being in the choir). Findings showed that a sense of well-being is associated with singing, by uplifting the mood of the participants and releasing endorphins in the brain. Many singers also reported that singing helped them regulate stress and relax, allowing them to deal better with their daily lives. From a social perspective, approval from the audience, and interaction with other choir members in a positive manner is also beneficial.
Singing is beneficial for pregnant mothers. By giving them another medium of communication with their newborns, mothers in one study reported feelings of love and affection when singing to their unborn children. They also reported feeling more relaxed than ever before during their stressful pregnancy. A song can have nostalgic significance by reminding a singer of the past, and momentarily transport them, allowing them to focus on singing and embrace the activity as an escape from their daily lives and problems.
= Effect on body
=
A recent study by Tenovus Cancer Care found that singing in a choir for just one hour boosts levels of immune proteins in cancer patients and has a positive overall effect on the health of patients. The study explores the possibility that singing could help put patients in the best mental and physical shape to receive the treatment they need, by reducing stress hormones, and increasing quantities of cytokines—proteins of the immune system that can increase the body's ability to fight disease. "Singing gives you physical benefits like breath control and muscle movement and enunciation, as well as the learning benefits of processing information" says a musical director and accompanist in the study. The enunciation and speech benefits tie into the language benefits detailed below.
Some have advocated, as in a 2011 article in the ''Toronto Star'', that everyone sing, even if they are not musically talented, because of its health benefits. Singing lowers blood pressure by releasing pent up emotions, boosting relaxation, and reminding them of happy times. It also allows singers to breathe more easily. Patients with lung disease and chronic pulmonary disease experience relief from their symptoms from singing just two times a week. In addition to breathing related illness, singing also has numerous benefits for stroke victims when it comes to relearning the ability to speak and communicate by singing their thoughts. Singing activates the right side of the brain when the left side cannot function (the left side is the area of the brain responsible for speech), so it is easy to see how singing can be an excellent alternative to speech while the victim heals.
= Physical benefits
=
1. Works the lungs, tones up the intercostals and diaphragm.
2. Improves sleep
3. Benefits cardio function by improving aerobic capacity
4. Relaxes overall muscle tension
5. Improves posture.
6. Opens up sinuses and respiratory tubes
7. With training, it could help decrease snoring
8. Releases endorphins
9. Boosts immune system
10. Helps improve physical balance in people affected by illnesses such as Parkinson's disease
Other concepts
Including:
*the effectiveness of music in healthcare and therapeutic settings
*music-specific disorders
*musicians' physical and mental health and well-being
*music performance anxiety (MPA, or stage fright)
*motivation, Burnout (psychology), burnout, and Depression (mood), depression among musicians
*noise-induced hearing loss among musicians
*Sleep onset and maintenance insomnia
Journals
Music psychology journals include:
*Music Perception
*Musicae Scientiae (journal), Musicae Scientiae
*Psychology of Music (journal), Psychology of Music
*Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain
*Music & Science (journal), Music & Science
* Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie
Music psychologists also publish in a wide range of mainstream musicology, computational musicology, music theory/analysis, psychology, music education, music therapy, music medicine, and systematic musicology journals. The latter include for example:
*Acta Acustica United With Acustica
*Cognitive Systems Research
*Computer Music Journal
*Empirical Musicology Review
*Frontiers in Neuroscience
*Frontiers in Psychology
*Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
*Journal of New Music Research
*Journal of Mathematics and Music
*Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
*Research Studies in Music Education
Societies
Asia-Pacific Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (APSCOM)Australian Music & Psychology Society (AMPS)Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie (DGM)*European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM)
Japanese Society for Music Perception and Cognition (JSMPC)Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE)Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC)
Centers of research and teaching
Australia:
*Music, Sound and Performance Lab, Macquarie University
*Music, Mind and Wellbeing Initiative, Melbourne University
*Empirical Musicology Group, University of New South Wales
*ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotion, University of Western Australia
*The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney
Austria:
*Centre for Systematic Musicology, University of Graz
*Cognitive Psychology Unit, University of Klagenfurt
*Wiener Klangstil, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Belgium:
*Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music, Ghent University
Canada:
*Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music and Media and Technology, McGill University
*Music and Health Research Collaboratory, University of Toronto
*Music Cognition Lab, Queen's University at Kingston, Queen's University
*Auditory Perception and Music Cognition Research and Training Laboratory, University of Prince Edward Island
*SMART Lab, Toronto Metropolitan University
*The Music, Acoustics, Perception, and LEarning (MAPLE) Lab, McMaster University
*The Digital Music Lab (DML), McMaster University
*McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, McMaster University
*BRAMS - International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, University of Montreal and McGill University
*Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, University of Montreal
*Music and Neuroscience Lab, University of Western Ontario
Denmark:
*Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University
Finland:
*Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Jyväskylä
France:
*Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics team, Claude Bernard University Lyon 1
*University of Burgundy
*IRCAM, Centre Pompidou
Germany:
*University of Halle-Wittenberg
*Institute for Systematic Musicology, Universität Hamburg
*Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine, Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
*Hanover Music Lab, Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
*University of Cologne
*University of Oldenburg
*Hochschule für Musik Würzburg
*Technische Universität Chemnitz
Iceland:
*Centre for Music Research, University of Iceland
Ireland:
*University of Limerick
Italy:
*Bicocca ERP Lab, University of Milano-Bicocca
Japan:
*Kyushu University
Korea:
*Seoul National University
Netherlands:
*Music Cognition Group, University of Amsterdam
Norway:
*Centre for Music and Health, Norwegian Academy of Music
Poland:
*Unit of Psychology of Music, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music
*Music Performance and Brain Lab, University of Finance and Management in Warsaw
Singapore:
*Music Cognition Group, Social and Cognitive Computing Department, Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR
Spain:
*Music Technology Group, Pompeu Fabra University
Sweden:
*Speech, Music and Hearing, Royal Institute of Technology
*Music Psychology Group, Uppsala University
United Kingdom:
*Centre for Music and Science, Cambridge University
*Music and the Human Sciences Group, University of Edinburgh
*Centre for Psychological Research, Keele University
*Music and Science Lab, Durham University
*Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music, University of Leeds
*Social and Applied Psychology Group, University of Leicester
*Music, Mind and Brain Group, Goldsmiths, University of London, Goldsmiths, University College London
*International Music Education Research Centre, UCL Institute of Education, University College London
*Music Cognition Lab, Queen Mary University of London
*Faculty of Music, University of Oxford
*Applied Music Research Centre, University of Roehampton
*Centre for Performance Science, Royal College of Music
*Centre for Music Performance Research, Royal Northern College of Music
*Department of Music, Sheffield University
United States:
*Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School
*Auditory Perception & Action Lab, University at Buffalo
*Janata Lab, University of California, Davis
*Systematic Musicology Lab, University of California, Los Angeles
*Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego
*UCSB Music Cognition Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara
*Music Dynamics Lab, University of Connecticut
*The Music Cognition Laboratory, Cornell University
*Music Cognition at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
*Center for Music Research, Florida State University
*Music Cognition and Computation Lab, Louisiana State University
*Language and Music Cognition Lab, University of Maryland
*Auditory Cognition and Development Lab, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
*Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University
*Music Theory and Cognition Program, Northwestern University
*Music Cognition Lab, Princeton University
*Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory, Ohio State University
*Music Learning, Perception, and Cognition Focus Group, University of Oregon
*Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University
*Dowling Laboratory, University of Texas at Dallas
*Institute for Music Research, University of Texas at San Antonio
*Laboratory for Music Cognition, Culture & Learning, University of Washington
*Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics (MIND) Laboratory, Wesleyan University
*Brain Research and Interdisciplinary Neurosciences Lab, Western Michigan University
See also
* Cognitive musicology
* Cognitive neuroscience of music
* Performance science
* Psychoacoustics
* Psychoanalysis and music
* Music and emotion
* Music-specific disorders
* Music therapy
References
Further reading
Encyclopedia entries
* Palmer, Caroline & Melissa K. Jungers (2003): ''Music Cognition''. In: Lynn Nadel: Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Vol. 3, London: Nature Publishing Group, pp. 155–158.
* Deutsch, Diana (2013): ''Music''. In Oxford Bibliographies in Music. Edited by Dunn, D.S. New York: Oxford University Press. 2013
Web Link* Thompson, William Forde (2014):
Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, An Encyclopedia. Sage Publications Inc., New York.
Introductory reading
* Day, Kingsley (October 21, 2004). "Music and the Mind: Turning the Cognition Key". ''Observer online''.
* Jourdain, Robert (1997). ''Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination.'' New York: William Morrow and Company. .
* Honing, Henkjan (2013). "Musical Cognition. A Science of Listening (2nd edition)." New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. .
*Daniel Levitin, Levitin, D. J. (2006).
"This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession." New York: Dutton.
*Margulis, Elizabeth Hellmuth. (2018)
''The Psychology of Music: A Very Short Introduction.''New York, NY: Oxford University Press. .
*Margulis, Elizabeth Hellmuth. (2013)
''On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind.''New York, NY: Oxford University Press. .
*
*Snyder, Bob (2000). "Music and Memory: an introduction" The MIT Press. .
* J.P.E. Harper-Scott and Jim Samson 'An Introduction to Music Studies', Chapter 4: John Rink,''The Psychology of Music'', (Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 60.
*
Advanced reading
* Diana Deutsch, Deutsch, D. (Ed.) (1982). ''The Psychology of Music, 1st Edition.'' New York: Academic Press. .
* Diana Deutsch, Deutsch, D. (Ed.) (1999). ''The Psychology of Music, 2nd Edition.'' San Diego: Academic Press. .
* Diana Deutsch, Deutsch, D. (Ed.) (2013). ''The Psychology of Music, 3rd Edition.'' San Diego: Academic Press. .
* Dowling, W. Jay and Harwood, Dane L. (1986). ''Music Cognition.'' San Diego: Academic Press. .
* Hallam, Cross, & Thaut, (eds.) (2008). ''The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Krumhansl, Carol L. (2001). ''Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
* Patel, Anirrudh D. (2010)
Music, language, and the brain New York: Oxford University Press.
* Richard Parncutt, Parncutt, R. (1989)
''Harmony: A Psychoacoustical Approach.''Berlin: Springer.
*Proverbio, A.M. (2019). Neuroscienze Cognitive della Musica: Il cervello musicale tra Arte e Scienza, Zanichelli, Bologna.
* Sloboda, John A. (1985). ''The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
* Lerdahl, F. and Jackendoff, R. (
21996) ''A Generative Theory of Tonal Music.'' The MIT Press. .
* Jackendoff, Ray (1987): ''Consciousness and the Computational Mind.'' Cambridge: MIT Press. Chapter 11: ''Levels of Musical Structure'', section 11.1: ''What is Musical Cognition?''
* Temperley, D. (2004). ''The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures.'' The MIT Press. .
* William Forde Thompson, Thompson, W. F. (2009). ''Music, Thought, and Feeling, Music, Thought, and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music'' New York: Oxford University Press. .
* Zbikowski, Lawrence M. (2004). ''Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis.'' Oxford University Press, USA. .
* North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2008). ''The Social and Applied Psychology of Music.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
External links
*
{{Authority control
Music psychology,
Musicology