Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Research Publications
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ItemFinding a discourse voice in academic research, and all that jazz(ASME, 2017-07-15)
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ItemSelf-regulation and the high school jazz and improvisation learner.(ASME, 2017)Common to all musicians, and not just improvising ones is the development and adaptation of sensory-motor, audiative, imaginative and self-regulatory strategies. They develop self-regulatory behaviors of learning that involve the evolution of specific goals, strategies, self-evaluation, adjustment, reflection and monitoring of progress. Yet, whilst learning takes place in our minds, and as fascinating as neuroscience can shed light on music education, learning and teaching is negotiated within social and communicative environments. Recent cognition theories suggest that learning involves the attainment of automation, and the meshing of embodied skills and knowledge acquired through situated and experiential learning, acknowledging that from a social-cognitive perspective self-regulatory processes - learning to learn, and learning to be creative can be viewed as a set of relations that are actualized, mediated and activated through transactions among individuals, environments, and socio-cultural relations. Research on self-regulation that enhances creative processes has extended beyond the synthesizing of convergent and divergent thinking, and of teaching creatively and for creativity. Recent discourse on creativity now aligns with that of self-regulation in arguing that these principles are layered within a more complex distributed nature of learning and expression of knowledge, that identifies self-regulation, co-regulation and socially shared regulation of learning. Creativity scholars such as Burnard, Glaveneau and Sarath similarly articulate a ‘WE’ paradigm of emergent processes that evoke multiple creativities that mark a conspicuous and striking aspect of thinking, learning and self-regulation that enhances creativity in music-making.
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ItemEfficacy of Parkinsong Groups for improving Communication and Wellbeing in Parkinson's Disease(World Federation of Music Therapy, 2017)Communication impairment is one of the most common symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, significantly impacting quality of life (Miller, 2012). Speech characteristics may include a soft, monotone, breathy or hoarse voice quality, imprecise articulation, dysprosody and dysfluency (Skodda et al., 2013). These characteristics, combined with reduced nonverbal communication, cognitive-linguistic impairment and poor self-perception of speech, make communication difficult and lead to self-consciousness, reduced likelihood to participate in conversation, and the avoidance of social interaction that requires speaking. Communication difficulties can compound issues of depression and related social isolation (Miller et al., 2006).
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ItemMusic interventions for acquired brain injury: Findings from an updated Cochrane review(The Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment, 2017-06-01)Background and aims: This Cochrane review update examined the effects of music interventions and standard care versus standard care alone or standard care combined with other therapies for adults with non- degenerative acquired brain injury (ABI). Primary outcomes were gait and upper extremity function. Secondary outcomes were communication, cognition, mood and emotions, social skills, pain, behavioral outcomes, activities of daily living, and adverse events. Method: We searched electronic databases, dissertation and specialist music databases, and hand-searched grey literature. All randomised controlled and controlled clinical trials with quasi-randomised or systematic methods of treatment allocation were included, in any language, published and unpublished. Results: We included 29 trials with 775 participants. Meta- analyses indicated that music interventions may improve gait velocity, stride length (affected side), gait cadence, stride symmetry, general gait, and timing of upper extremity function. Using a rhythmic auditory stimulus embedded in music may lead to greater improvements in gait velocity than using rhythmic auditory stimulus without music e.g. metronome. Interventions delivered by a credentialed music therapist generated greater improvements than interventions delivered by other professionals. Music interventions may also improve quality of life and overall communication with beneficial effects in naming and repetition. Conclusions: Rhythm-based interventions remain important for movement rehabilitation in ABI. Future research should examine music intervention effects on cognition. Measures used for mood outcomes require greater uniformity and improved reporting. Across all domains, improved agreement on the core outcomes examined will enable more comprehensive meta-analyses and more accurate evaluation of the effectiveness of music interventions.
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ItemMusical memories: Connecting people with dementia and their caregivers through song.(World Federation of Music Therapy, 2017)Active music participation may offer benefits for people with dementia (PWD) and their family care givers (FCG) living in the community (Baird & Samson, 2015). For the PWD, this capacity to respond to music-making activities, such as singing, may facilitate reminiscence and successful social engagement (Vanstone & Cuddy, 2010). As a consequence, FCG may experience meaningful and satisfying connection with their loved one (Baker, Grocke & Pachana, 2012). Receptive music listening interventions may also assist with the management of challenging symptoms of dementia, such as agitation and anxiety, offering FCG strategies to use in the home.
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ItemSupporting Healthy Ageing and Management of Age Related Disease in Australia(World Federation of Music Therapy, 2017)As the global population ages, more people are experiencing the privilege of growing old. By 2050, estimates suggest that over 2 billion people will be aged 60 years or over (WHO, 2016). Current buzz terms, including healthy ageing and active ageing, are used to describe the notion of optimal health, independent life participation and security required for high quality of life through the full course of life. In Australia, 2 major policies support principles of healthy ageing (AIHW, 2017): 1) Preventative health, promotes healthy lifestyle choices, such as physical activity participation; 2) Living longer better, has a strong focus on supporting people with dementia (PWD) and their family caregivers (FCG). This presentation will discuss recent music therapy research in Australia targeted to address these policies.
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ItemThe Use of Hip Hop by Indigenous Australian Artists to Celebrate Traditional Cultural Identity and Increase Social Awareness(DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Centre), 2017)This paper explores how Indigenous Hip-Hop in Australia has become a powerful force for both advocating for Indigenous issues, and expressing contemporary Indigenous identity. We argue that Australian Indigenous Hip-Hop cannot merely be understood as either an adoption or reinterpretation of a Hip-Hop culture from the USA, nor as an attempt to hark back to traditional, pre-colonial Indigenous cultures. Rather, we argue it builds on a history of contemporary Indigenous protest music, by integrating both forms of expression and narratives of resistance and political consciousness inherent in Hip-Hop culture from the USA. Using Australian Indigenous Hip-Hop group, A.B. Original, as an example, we suggest recent manifestations of this integration have provided a way to both resist colonial narratives and celebrate contemporary Indigenous identity even in the current socio-political climate of far-right nationalism in Australia and other first-world nations.
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ItemA Java-based Remote Live Coding System for Controlling Multiple Raspberry PI Units(International Computer Music Association, 2013)Cheap embedded devices create new opportunities for networked, distributed, generative or remote-controlled music. In this paper we present a simple audio programming environment designed to run realtime, remote live-coded audio on a low-cost completely wireless hardware setup consisting of a Raspberry PI, a WiFi dongle, a speaker and a battery pack. Audio is processed in realtime using the Beads library for realtime audio in Java, running on Oracle’s distribution of Java for embedded devices. Code is remotely injected in realtime by sending Java class files over a socket connection to a dynamic class loader, which instantiates and runs the classes. We describe the system and its capabilities, and give an example of a performance that utilises this system. This paper is accompanied by a musical performance at ICMC 2013.
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ItemUsing Embodied Audio-Visual Interaction to Promote Social Encounters Around Large Media Façades(Association for Computing Machinery, 2014-06-21)In this paper we describe the design of a large-scale interactive light and music intervention on a corporate high rise building and its surrounding urban area. Designing for interaction with media façades has traditionally posed challenges regarding proxemics, scale of the augmented architecture and placement of interactive spaces. With the increasing availability and affordability of interactive technologies, factors such as playability and tangibility are assumed not only to be present but also to enable richer collective experiences. We propose a new approach for interaction with large media façades employing embodied audio-visual interaction at the floor level. That way, the floor level serves as proxy for interacting with the media façade whilst facilitating social encounters. We discuss aspects considered during different phases of the project development and derive principles for connecting zones of proxemics, promoting encounters by distributing the performance, designing for urban activation and isolating implementation concerns.
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ItemInternational Symposium on Performance Science(Listaháháskóli íslands, 2017)Background An increasing body of research in both music and sports psychology indicates that repetitive, habitual, and mindless practice often leads to sub-optimal preparation and performance. In contrast, deliberate practice, intrinsic motiva-tion, and a growth mindset can optimise preparation for public performance. Still, the majority of musicians devote their time to blocks of physical practice and mistake-avoidance, as opposed to mental preparation, desirable difficul-ties, and strategies that strengthen self-efficacy and autonomy. Music teachers may want to steer their students away from mindless drill towards 21st century self-regulated learning strategies, yet both the scientific and pedagogical literature is lacking in alternatives supported by empirical research. Aims This exploratory study was designed to capture what musicians planned to practice, as well as what they actually did in the practice room. In order to separate behavior from thought and emotion, we designed a brief questionnaire (seven questions) to accompany a video recording made of a portion of a practice session. Participants were asked to report their intentions regarding practice focus and planning, then to appraise what they had experienced during practice, and, finally, to access the difficulty of applying this strategy and their motivation to use it in the future. Method Fourteen participants, faculty and students in music degree programs at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, volunteered for this pilot study to test the effectiveness of the practice questionnaire. Each one completed questions both prior to and following the videotaping of an excerpt of a practice session of their choice. The first three questions (pre-recording) addressed the focus of the practice session, i.e. problem to be solved, the source, and choice of strategy. The last four questions (post-recording) allowed participants to self-rate the effectiveness, new-ness, ease of application, and usefulness of the strategy, as well as what they were doing, feeling, and thinking during the session. Two professional musicians evaluated the videos in terms of strategy applied and improvement over the session. Results Examinations of practice process were conducted, including specificity of goals, problem areas to be addressed (such as accuracy, musical expression), and planned strategies to address problems. Participant self-evaluations of strategy effectiveness were correlated with rater assessments taken from practice video footage. Strong positive relationships were found between: participant-rated strategy effectiveness and rater-assessed mindful deliberate practice (r=0.66, p=0.01) and degree of progress (r=0.59, p<0.05); as well as rater-assessed degree of progress and deliberate practice (r=0.95, p=0.001). Conclusions Breaking any cycle of less than optimal practice requires the adoption of new strategies that augment or replace old habits. To do this one must self-regulate, by identifying patterns in behavior that are based on habits, and then ac-tively working to modify these routines. This study provides preliminary evidence for the efficacy of a short protocol which encourages musicians to improve practice outcomes through self-regulated skills in practice planning and observation for proactive learning and enhanced performance.