WEBVTT

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So far, we have
been looking at some

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of the cognitive foundations
and the more theoretical parts

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of how we perceive sounds and
actions and music and motion.

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But as music researchers, we
actually study these things

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also in a laboratory context.

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So Christian, I know that you
have been working in the lab

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and running experiments
on sounds and actions.

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Could you tell a
little bit about this?

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Sure.

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I've been studying how
people move to short sounds,

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presenting them
with simple sounds--

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with, for instance,
changing pitch and spectral

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centroid and dynamic
envelope, and then asking

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them to move to the sound.

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So people have moved
in various ways,

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and we've found quite a few
things that are consistent,

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even between people.

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And what type of things?

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The most obvious, I would
say, is pitch and verticality.

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Almost everybody would trace an
ascending pitch with going up,

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and the same vice
versa, going down.

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Spectral centroid
also-- if you have

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a sound that goes
like whoossst, people

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would trace that also upwards.

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So it's in the frequency
domain and the verticality

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is a strong connection.

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And things like the dynamic
envelope, which would typically

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identify sounds
that are impulsive--

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say something like [CLAP], which
has a strong ascending curve

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first and then falling
slowly, as opposed

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to something that's a continuous
sound with continuous energy

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put into the sound,
where people would

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trace the sound with a
different type of movement.

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For instance, these
impulsive sounds

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are typically traced
with an impulsive action,

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and the continuous sounds
with some continuous action

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like pushing the sound
through space, for instance.

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And one of the very
interesting things

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here is if you have two opposing
ideas in the same sound--

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for instance, ascending
pitch and then

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descending spectral envelope,
people will get confused,

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trying-- often starting
following one of these curves,

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and then in the middle
not being able to decide

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whether to continue upwards
or to start going downwards,

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for instance.

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And is this the same
for all your subjects?

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I mean also independent of the
musical background or training

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they have?

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Mostly, this is quite consistent
among both musical experts

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and novices, yes.

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Interesting.

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This is for simple sounds that
are maybe not really music

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itself.

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Do you have any ideas on
the musical aspect here?

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If you present music to people,
how does this make people move?

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Yeah, I've been doing
some research where

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we've been looking at the
same type of connection

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from music to more
large-scale motion.

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And playing, for example,
musical excerpts to people

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and asking them to move freely
or to play an air instrument,

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like air guitar or
air drums or a piano

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or even conduct, just to kind
of follow contours in the music.

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And it's very interesting to see
how, through the body motion,

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we can understand more about the
cognitive processes of people.

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For example, when people
are asked to play air piano,

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we would assume that they know
kind of the size of a piano

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and also how it's laid
out and both the attacks

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and onsets of tones, but also,
for example, the frequency

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range of this.

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And the interesting
thing is that even people

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without any musical
training at all

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managed to do this
very well really.

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So in a way, people are more
musical than they believe,

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I think.

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But based on this, then, there
are some obvious connections

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then, both between
sounds and actions

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and also music and motion.

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And this may actually be
a very interesting thing

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to try out at home, to
take a few musical excerpts

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and try to imagine how you
would move to these excerpts.

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And then try to
actually move to them.

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And also ask a friend
to move and look

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at how is the
movement in relation

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to various types of sonic
and musical features.

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Try yourself and see.

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