Connecting Mathematics and Music in Preschool Education

In this paper, we wanted to explore the essential components of mathematics and music and determine the possibility of integrating them into preschool education. Basic mathematical concepts, on which the development of each child\u27s intellectual ability depends, are formed in the preschool age. By combining components of elements from mathematics and music, we can see their connection in terms of symmetry, values and measurements, and pattern recognition. Through various musical activities, children can acquire certain skills that precede the learning of mathematical operations. Thus, we can practice our comparison making mathematical skill with children by comparing the long and short tones, the treble and the deep tones, the loud and quiet sounds, and the mathematical skill of counting by performing suitable music games, rhymes, and songs in which numbers are mentioned. Counting in rhymes and songs helps a child in learning both the notion of numbers and mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction. Games that combine music and mathematics usually use music as a driving force for a productive and dynamic educational environment. Rhythm and melody help in the process of mathematical thinking as children receive information directly and as a whole. That is why it is important to connect music and mathematics in preschool education as often as possible

INTERACTIVE SONIFICATION STRATEGIES FOR THE MOTION AND EMOTION OF DANCE PERFORMANCES

The Immersive Interactive SOnification Platform, or iISoP for short, is a research platform for the creation of novel multimedia art, as well as exploratory research in the fields of sonification, affective computing, and gesture-based user interfaces. The goal of the iISoP’s dancer sonification system is to “sonify the motion and emotion” of a dance performance via musical auditory display. An additional goal of this dissertation is to develop and evaluate musical strategies for adding layer of emotional mappings to data sonification. The result of the series of dancer sonification design exercises led to the development of a novel musical sonification framework. The overall design process is divided into three main iterative phases: requirement gathering, prototype generation, and system evaluation. For the first phase help was provided from dancers and musicians in a participatory design fashion as domain experts in the field of non-verbal affective communication. Knowledge extraction procedures took the form of semi-structured interviews, stimuli feature evaluation, workshops, and think aloud protocols. For phase two, the expert dancers and musicians helped create test-able stimuli for prototype evaluation. In phase three, system evaluation, experts (dancers, musicians, etc.) and novice participants were recruited to provide subjective feedback from the perspectives of both performer and audience. Based on the results of the iterative design process, a novel sonification framework that translates motion and emotion data into descriptive music is proposed and described

Connecting Mathematics and Music in Preschool Education

In this paper, we wanted to explore the essential components of mathematics and music and determine the possibility of integrating them into preschool education. Basic mathematical concepts, on which the development of each child\u27s intellectual ability depends, are formed in the preschool age. By combining components of elements from mathematics and music, we can see their connection in terms of symmetry, values and measurements, and pattern recognition. Through various musical activities, children can acquire certain skills that precede the learning of mathematical operations. Thus, we can practice our comparison making mathematical skill with children by comparing the long and short tones, the treble and the deep tones, the loud and quiet sounds, and the mathematical skill of counting by performing suitable music games, rhymes, and songs in which numbers are mentioned. Counting in rhymes and songs helps a child in learning both the notion of numbers and mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction. Games that combine music and mathematics usually use music as a driving force for a productive and dynamic educational environment. Rhythm and melody help in the process of mathematical thinking as children receive information directly and as a whole. That is why it is important to connect music and mathematics in preschool education as often as possible

The development of criteria for identifying music preferred by children with behavioral problems

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences which may exist between responses to aural stimuli by children classified as possessing behavioral problems (aggressive behavior, passive conduct, hyperactivity and lack of peer communication) and those in a non-behavioral problem category. It was hypothesized that significant differences existed in the musical preferences of the two groups. Two hundred seventy subjects were drawn from a population representing all fifth grade sections in the Lee County, North Carolina, Public Schools. Subjects were assigned by classes to an experimental group which consisted of 51 children who were identified by the classroom teachers as students exhibiting behavioral difficulties. The remaining members of the classrooms (219 students) made up the comparison group

Feeling the groove: shared time and its meanings for three jazz trios

The notion of groove is fundamental to jazz culture and the term yields a rich set of understandings for jazz musicians. Within the literature, no single perspective on groove exists and many questions remain about the relationship between timing processes, phenomenal experience and musical structures in making sense of groove. In this account, the experience and meaning of groove is theorised as emerging from two forms of sharedness. Firstly, a primary intersubjectivity that arises through the timing behaviours of the players; this could be likened to the 'mutual tuning-in' described in social phenomenology. It is proposed that this tuning-in is accomplished through the mechanism of entrainment. The second form of sharedness is understood as the shared temporal models, the cultural knowledge, that musicians make use of in their playing together. Methodologically, this study makes use of detailed investigation of timing data from live performances by three jazz trios, framed by in-depth, semi-structured interview material and steers a new course between existing ethnographic work on jazz and more psychologically informed studies of timing. The findings of the study point towards significant social and structural effects on the groove between players. The impact of musical role on groove and timing is demonstrated and significant temporal models, whose syntactic relations suggest musical proximity or distance, are shown to have a corresponding effect on timing within the trios. The musician's experience of groove is discussed as it relates to the objective timing data and reveals a complex set of understandings involving temporality, consciousness and communication. In the light of these findings, groove is summarised as the feeling of entrainment, inflected through cultural models and expressed through the cultural norms of jazz

Understanding Collaborative Sensemaking for System Design — An Investigation of Musicians\u27 Practice

There is surprisingly little written in information science and technology literature about the design of tools used to support the collaboration of creators. Understanding collaborative sensemaking through the use of language has been traditionally applied to non-work domains, but this method is also well-suited for informing hypotheses about the design collaborative systems. The presence of ubiquitous, mobile technology, and development of multi-user virtual spaces invites investigation of design which is based on naturalistic, real world, creative group behaviors, including the collaborative work of musicians. This thesis is considering the co-construction of new (musical) knowledge by small groups. Co-construction of new knowledge is critical to the definition of an information system because it emphasizes coordination and resource sharing among group members (versus individual members independently doing their own tasks and only coming together to collate their contributions as a final product). This work situates the locus of creativity on the process itself, rather than on the output (the musical result) or the individuals (members of the band). This thesis describes a way to apply quantitative observations to inform qualitative assessment of the characteristics of collaborative sensemaking in groups. Conversational data were obtained from nine face-to-face collaborative composing sessions, involving three separate bands producing 18 hours of recorded interactions. Topical characteristics of the discussion, namely objects, plans, properties and performance; as well as emergent patterns of generative, evaluative, revision, and management conversational acts within the group were seen as indicative of knowledge construction. The findings report the use of collaborative pathways: iterative cycles of generation, evaluation and revision of temporary solutions used to move the collaboration forward. In addition, bracketing of temporary solutions served to help collaborators reuse content and offload attentional resources. Ambiguity in language, evaluation criteria, goal formation, and group awareness meant that existing knowledge representations were insufficient in making sense of incoming data and necessitated reformulating those representations. Further, strategic use of affective language was found to be instrumental in bridging knowledge gaps. Based on these findings, features of a collaborative system are proposed to help in facilitating sensemaking routines at various stages of a creative task. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of collaborative sensemaking during non-work, creative activities in order to inform the design of systems for supporting these activities. By studying an environment which forms a potential microcosm of virtual interaction between groups, it provides a framework for understanding and automating collaborative discussion content in terms of the features of dialogue

Ontology of music performance variation

Performance variation in rhythm determines the extent that humans perceive and feel the effect of rhythmic pulsation and music in general. In many cases, these rhythmic variations can be linked to percussive performance. Such percussive performance variations are often absent in current percussive rhythmic models. The purpose of this thesis is to present an interactive computer model, called the PD-103, that simulates the micro-variations in human percussive performance. This thesis makes three main contributions to existing knowledge: firstly, by formalising a new method for modelling percussive performance; secondly, by developing a new compositional software tool called the PD-103 that models human percussive performance, and finally, by creating a portfolio of different musical styles to demonstrate the capabilities of the software. A large database of recorded samples are classified into zones based upon the vibrational characteristics of the instruments, to model timbral variation in human percussive performance. The degree of timbral variation is governed by principles of biomechanics and human percussive performance. A fuzzy logic algorithm is applied to analyse current and first-order sample selection in order to formulate an ontological description of music performance variation. Asynchrony values were extracted from recorded performances of three different performance skill levels to create \timing fingerprints" which characterise unique features to each percussionist. The PD-103 uses real performance timing data to determine asynchrony values for each synthesised note. The spectral content of the sample database forms a three-dimensional loudness/timbre space, intersecting instrumental behaviour with music composition. The reparameterisation of the sample database, following the analysis of loudness, spectral flatness, and spectral centroid, provides an opportunity to explore the timbral variations inherent in percussion instruments, to creatively explore dimensions of timbre. The PD-103 was used to create a music portfolio exploring different rhythmic possibilities with a focus on meso-periodic rhythms common to parts of West Africa, jazz drumming, and electroacoustic music. The portfolio also includes new timbral percussive works based on spectral features and demonstrates the central aim of this thesis, which is the creation of a new compositional software tool that integrates human percussive performance and subsequently extends this model to different genres of music

The effects of auditory-motor mapping training on speech output of nonverbal elementary age students with autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of auditory-motor mapping training (AMMT) on the speech output of nonverbal elementary age students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Auditory-motor mapping training facilitates the development of association between sounds and articulatory actions using intonation and bimanual drumming activities. This intervention purportedly stimulates neural networks that may be dysfunctional in persons with ASD. Seven nonverbal children with a primary diagnosis of ASD participated in twelve 20-minute weekly sessions consisting of engagement with 15 predetermined target words through imitation, singing, and motor activity (all components of AMMT). Assessments were made at baseline, mid-point, and post AMMT intervention sessions. These probes were used to determine the effects of AMMT on expressive language abilities of speech output. A null hypothesis was tested to determine the significance of the independent variables of singing, showing visual cues, and drumming on the speech output of nonverbal children with ASD, age five through eight years (p = .05). Additionally, effects of AMMT on children's development of social communication skills also were examined at the end of each intervention session. Results of the study revealed no significant effect of the AMMT intervention on the speech output of elementary age children with ASD from the best baseline to probe one and probe two (p = .424), therefore the null hypothesis that there was no significant effect of auditory-motor mapping training (AMMT) on speech output of nonverbal elementary children with ASD was retained. Additionally, a comparison of the growth of the independent ‘High Five’ gesture from session one to session twelve yielded no statistical significant results (p > .05). The McNemar chi-square was used to compare this secondary AMMT effect from sessions two to eleven, and revealed a positive growth trend that approached a significant outcome associated with the children's social communication responses (p =.063). Although significant changes in the nonverbal children's speech output were not substantiated in this study, there were areas of growth for all children in this study that were highlighted through qualitative analysis and descriptive narratives. Confounding variables that possibly affected children's speech output and social communication development were addressed. Additionally, recommendations were made for future research involving music as a vehicle for speech development for nonverbal elementary age children with ASD