Saturday, June 26, 2010 View Source Talk History Diff ?

Saturday, June 26, 2010

No Previous Experience Necessary

From a study by Bigand, E:

Several behavioral experiments that were designed to compare the abilities of musicians and nonmusicians to process subtle changes in musical structures are surveyed. These experiments deal with different aspects of music perception including the processing of melodic and harmonic structures, the processing of large-scale structures, and implicit learning. In all these experiments, the so-called nonmusician listeners behaved in a very similar way as did highly trained students from music conservatories and music departments. This outcome suggests that when the experimental setting requires participants to process musical structures (in contrast to musical tones), the large audience of untrained listeners exhibits sophisticated musical abilities that are similar to those of musical experts [emphasis added]. It has been suggested that musically untrained listeners are "experienced listeners" who use the same principles as musical experts in organizing their hearing of music.

The next time someone complains to me that they "don't understand classical music," I now have something with which to answer them back. We all have the capacity to process classical music if we are listening to the structure. If you're inexperienced in classical music, start with a structure that makes sense to you: a strophic song form written by composers like Brahms, Schubert or Schumann; perhaps the Brahms Variations on a Theme by Paganini, or the second movement of Haydn's Symphony no. 94 ("Surprise"!). Gradually progress to more complex forms (for example, if you start with the Brahms Variations on a Theme by Paganini, then move to the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini). You'll be amazed at how fast you will come to enjoy classical music!

Author: Cynthia Wunsch

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