Music performance requires high levels of motor control. Professional musicians use body movements not only to accomplish and help technical efficiency, but to shape expressive interpretation. Here, we recorded motion and audio data of twenty participants performing four musical fragments varying in the degree of technical difficulty to analyze…

This study tested the effect of the motor learning paradigm of internal and external focus of attention (FOA) with middle school band students. A total of 56 second-year band students (woodwinds n = 28; valved brass n = 18; trombones n = 10) practiced isochronous, alternating pitch patterns (e.g., eighth notes C-A-C-A-C-A-C) in three conditions:…

This report deals with research presently being done dealing with the acquisition of musical skills. In an attempt to create a self-paced, independent music study approach, investigators have formulated two main hypotheses: (1) that perception and cognition are inextricably intertwined - not discrete quantities; and (2) that learning behavior in…