The Interplay Between Chamber Musicians During Two Public Performances of the Same Piece: A Novel Methodology Using the Concept of "Flow"

Physiological synchrony and shared flow state in Javanese gamelan: positively associated while improvising, but not for traditional performance

The experience of shared flow refers to the optimal balance between challenge and ability for a given task, resulting from interpersonal action in a group situation. The performance of Javanese gamelan is an ideal setting to investigate shared flow, due to the requirement that all performers on varying instrumental parts work harmoniously, allowing for shared flow and its native equivalent, ngeli. To minimise the disruption of flow, while still measuring it continuously, one way to assess a person's state is by measuring physiological responses of the sympathetic (i.e., fight-or-flight) system, namely heart rate and skin conductance. Flow has been related to physiological signatures, and shared actions in music-making have been related to synchronised physiology. However, to our knowledge, no study yet has directly investigated the links between shared physiology and shared flow. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the associations between flow states, physiological synchrony, and Javanese gamelan playing. Subsequently, we tested for differences between advanced and beginner groups playing traditional gamelan pieces and improvising. Firstly, a factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution of Awareness and Absorption for self-reported shared flow. Next, using inter-subject correlation to assess synchrony and circular shuffling to infer significance, we found a greater proportion of significance in traditional playing compared to improvised playing for the experienced group, and the opposite for the beginner group. Lastly, linear mixed models revealed largely positive associations between synchronised physiology and shared flow during improvised playing, and negative associations during traditional playing, regardless of experience levels. This study demonstrates methodological possibilities for the quantitative study of shared flow in music-making contexts, and potential differences in shared flow experience in improvised and traditional, or prescribed, playing.

The application of virtual reality exposure versus relaxation training in music performance anxiety: a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND

Performance anxiety is the most frequently reported anxiety disorder among professional musicians. Typical symptoms are - on a physical level - the consequences of an increase in sympathetic tone with cardiac stress, such as acceleration of heartbeat, increase in blood pressure, increased respiratory rate and tremor up to nausea or flush reactions. These symptoms can cause emotional distress, a reduced musical and artistical performance up to an impaired functioning. While anxiety disorders are preferably treated using cognitive-behavioral therapy with exposure, this approach is rather difficult for treating music performance anxiety since the presence of a public or professional jury is required and not easily available. The use of virtual reality (VR) could therefore display an alternative. So far, no therapy studies on music performance anxiety applying virtual reality exposure therapy have investigated the therapy outcome including cardiovascular changes as outcome parameters.

METHODS

This mono-center, prospective, randomized and controlled clinical trial has a pre-post design with a follow-up period of 6 months. 46 professional and semi-professional musicians will be recruited and allocated randomly to an VR exposure group or a control group receiving progressive muscle relaxation training. Both groups will be treated over 4 single sessions. Music performance anxiety will be diagnosed based on a clinical interview using ICD-10 and DSM-5 criteria for specific phobia or social anxiety. A behavioral assessment test is conducted three times (pre, post, follow-up) in VR through an audition in a concert hall. Primary outcomes are the changes in music performance anxiety measured by the German Bühnenangstfragebogen and the cardiovascular reactivity reflected by heart rate variability (HRV). Secondary outcomes are changes in blood pressure, stress parameters such as cortisol in the blood and saliva, neuropeptides, and DNA-methylation.

DISCUSSION

The trial investigates the effect of VR exposure in musicians with performance anxiety compared to a relaxation technique on anxiety symptoms and corresponding cardiovascular parameters. We expect a reduction of anxiety but also a consecutive improvement of HRV with cardiovascular protective effects.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov. (ClinicalTrials.gov Number: NCT05735860).

Not just in sync: Relations between partners' actions influence the sense of joint agency during joint action

When people perform joint actions together, they often experience a sense of joint agency ("we did that together"). The current study investigated whether relations between partners' actions within joint actions that require precise interpersonal synchrony influence joint agency, above and beyond the degree of synchrony partners achieve. We employed a mixed-methods approach that combined a quantitative experiment with a qualitative analysis of post-experiment interviews. Partners produced synchronized tone sequences that comprised either constant pitch sequences (simple temporal alignment between partners' actions) or musical duets (complex metrical and harmonic relations between partners' actions). Participants reported stronger joint agency for duets than constant pitches, when comparing trials with equally good synchronization. Post-experiment interviews revealed that joint agency was also influenced by participants' knowledge of the music and their perceptions of task performance, difficulty, and enjoyability. These findings further our understanding of joint agency for joint actions that require precise interpersonal synchrony.

Choir Singers Without Rehearsals and Concerts? A Questionnaire Study on Perceived Losses From Restricting Choral Singing During the Covid-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND

Choir singing is an activity that engages individuals all over the world with a broad demographic representation. Both qualitative and quantitative studies have examined the benefits of the activity but very few have examined the effects when someone loses access to it and stops singing.

OBJECTIVES

Examining the governmental and organisational responses precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked what happens when a choir singer loses all of their routines associated with regular participation in choir singing.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

One national choir organization in Sweden (n = 3163) and one in Norway (n = 1881) were approached with a short survey. This comprised questions relating to the issue "what do you as a choir singer misses the most?" Each participant was asked to rate the importance of a number of elements that pertain to the experience of choir singing.

RESULTS

The social aspect of singing emerged as having the strongest weight in terms of perceived loss that is, it was the element that the participants missed the most. Professional singers report that they miss the aesthetic experiences, flow, and all the physical aspects (physical training, voice training, and breathing training) to a greater degree as compared to reports from the amateurs. The importance of aesthetic experiences and physical components appeared to rise with increasing number of years that an individual had engaged with choir singing.

CONCLUSION

In the Scandinavian setting, the social aspect has a stronger weight than the other components and this seemed to be more significant in Norway compared to Sweden.

Musical and Bodily Predictors of Mental Effort in String Quartet Music: An Ecological Pupillometry Study of Performers and Listeners

Music performance can be cognitively and physically demanding. These demands vary across the course of a performance as the content of the music changes. More demanding passages require performers to focus their attention more intensity, or expend greater “mental effort.” To date, it remains unclear what effect different cognitive-motor demands have on performers' mental effort. It is likewise unclear how fluctuations in mental effort compare between performers and perceivers of the same music. We used pupillometry to examine the effects of different cognitive-motor demands on the mental effort used by performers and perceivers of classical string quartet music. We collected pupillometry, motion capture, and audio-video recordings of a string quartet as they performed a rehearsal and concert (for live audience) in our lab. We then collected pupillometry data from a remote sample of musically-trained listeners, who heard the audio recordings (without video) that we captured during the concert. We used a modelling approach to assess the effects of performers' bodily effort (head and arm motion; sound level; performers' ratings of technical difficulty), musical complexity (performers' ratings of harmonic complexity; a score-based measure of harmonic tension), and expressive difficulty (performers' ratings of expressive difficulty) on performers' and listeners' pupil diameters. Our results show stimulating effects of bodily effort and expressive difficulty on performers' pupil diameters, and stimulating effects of expressive difficulty on listeners' pupil diameters. We also observed negative effects of musical complexity on both performers and listeners, and negative effects of performers' bodily effort on listeners, which we suggest may reflect the complex relationships that these features share with other aspects of musical structure. Looking across the concert, we found that both of the quartet violinists (who exchanged places halfway through the concert) showed more dilated pupils during their turns as 1st violinist than when playing as 2nd violinist, suggesting that they experienced greater arousal when “leading” the quartet in the 1st violin role. This study shows how eye tracking and motion capture technologies can be used in combination in an ecological setting to investigate cognitive processing in music performance.