General Rotorcraft Aeromechanical Stability Program (GRASP): Theory manual

The general rotorcraft aeromechanical stability program (GRASP) was developed to calculate aeroelastic stability for rotorcraft in hovering flight, vertical flight, and ground contact conditions. GRASP is described in terms of its capabilities and its philosophy of modeling. The equations of motion that govern the physical system are described, as well as the analytical approximations used to derive them. The equations include the kinematical equation, the element equations, and the constraint equations. In addition, the solution procedures used by GRASP are described. GRASP is capable of treating the nonlinear static and linearized dynamic behavior of structures represented by arbitrary collections of rigid-body and beam elements. These elements may be connected in an arbitrary fashion, and are permitted to have large relative motions. The main limitation of this analysis is that periodic coefficient effects are not treated, restricting rotorcraft flight conditions to hover, axial flight, and ground contact. Instead of following the methods employed in other rotorcraft programs. GRASP is designed to be a hybrid of the finite-element method and the multibody methods used in spacecraft analysis. GRASP differs from traditional finite-element programs by allowing multiple levels of substructure in which the substructures can move and/or rotate relative to others with no small-angle approximations. This capability facilitates the modeling of rotorcraft structures, including the rotating/nonrotating interface and the details of the blade/root kinematics for various types. GRASP differs from traditional multibody programs by considering aeroelastic effects, including inflow dynamics (simple unsteady aerodynamics) and nonlinear aerodynamic coefficients

Music Teaching Via the Microcomputer

Until very recently, the use of computers in teaching music has been almost exclusively in the province of colleges and universities. An industrial paradox—increased technology combined with decreased costs—has made it possible for music teachers in nearly any school situation (and many private teachers as well) to take advantage of the potential benefits of computer-assisted instruction

Setting an agenda for neuromusical research.

Why do we human beings have such powerful emotional responses to music? How do composers, conductors, and other musicians think in sound? What happens when a pianist suddenly loses control over his hands and can no longer perform? These and a myriad of similar questions have led to a more general question: How does music "work" in the brain

The Impact of a Funded Research Program on Music Education Policy

Sounds of Learning: The Impact of Music Education is a research program designed to allow researchers to examine the roles of music education in the lives of school-aged children to expand the understanding of music's role in a quality education. The NAMM Foundation, the sponsoring organization, has provided more than $1,000,000 to fund research on the impact of music education on student achievement and success in school; all aspects of a child's growth and development; the uses and functions of music in daily life; and home, school, and community environments. Quality research about the role and impact of music education conducted by experienced researchers who publish in rigorous, peer-reviewed, scientific research journals plays a vital role in moving a public policy agenda forward to achieve expanded access to music education for all children. The goal is that this research will inform policy debates and development to achieve policies that support opportunities for every child to experience the power and benefits of learning music

Why study music?

Cognitive neuroscience is identifying neural networks in the brain that support multiple ways of knowing. This notion is also supported by evidence from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other related disciplines. These human knowledge systems provide a means for sharing, expressing, understanding, knowing, and gaining insights into one’s inner and outer worlds. Considered alongside other knowledge systems such as language and mathematics, what unique contributions can music make? Music provides unique and invaluable insights into the human condition. Music allows us to know, discover, understand, experience, share, or express such aspects of the human condition as feelings, aesthetic experiences, the ineffable, thoughts, structure, time and space, self-knowledge, self-identity, group identity, and healing and wholeness. If the purpose of an education is to systematically develop the mind and capabilities of every child, it is clear that music has a unique and necessary role to play

The significance of music in the contemporary world

One of the goals of the Suncoast Music Education Research Symposium was to understand music from multiple perspectives. The purpose of this presentation was to explore this notion and to consider many different and perhaps infrequently recognized ways that music has significance for the contemporary world

Can Neuroscience Help Us Do a Better Job of Teaching Music?

We are just at the beginning stages of applying neuroscientific findings to music teaching. A simple model of the learning cycle based on neuroscience is Sense ? Integrate ? Act (sometimes modified as Act ? Sense ? Integrate). Additional components can be added to the model, including such concepts as active rather than passive learning, learning activates reward centers, all learning is emotionally colored, plasticity, neural pruning, nature and nurture, critical and optimal periods, the pattern-detecting brain, imitation and the social learning brain, group learning, empathy and social emotions, learning is multisensory, and learning requires memory. When this model and the components are applied to music teaching, they confirm best practices. Innovation pedagogical strategies will be forthcoming when there is a better understanding of the brain and music learning

The Effects of Recorded Aural Models on the Performance Achievement of Students in Beginning Band Classes

Identification of the Problem. Beginning wind instrument students often learn to play their instruments in large, mixed-instrument classes in which the teacher does not demonstrate on each student's instrument, or perhaps on any instrument. Thus, many students learn to play without hearing how their instrument should sound. In the absence of live demonstrations, aural models recorded on tape provide one way of supplying students with models. Research has indicated that aural models are effective when used by individuals. However, there is little evidence available to indicate whether aural models presented in group listening sessions are effective

Aspects of multisensory perception: The integration of visual and auditory information processing in musical experiences.

One of the requirements for being a successful musical conductor is to be able to locate sounds instantaneously in time and space. Because this requires the integration of auditory and visual information, the purpose of this study was to examine multisensory processing in conductors and a matched set of control subjects. Subjects participated in a series of behavioral tasks, including pitch discrimination, temporal-order judgment (TOJ), and target localization. Additionally, fMRI scans were done on a subset of subjects who performed a multisensory TOJ task. Analyses of behavioral data indicate that, in the auditory realm, conductors were more accurate in both pitch discrimination and TOJs as well as in locating targets In space. Furthermore, these same subjects also demonstrated a benefit from the combination of auditory and visual information that was not observed in control subjects when locating visual targets. Finally, neural substrates in BA 37, 39/40 were identified as potential areas underlying the conductors' superior multisensory TOJs. Data collection and analyses are ongoing and will lead to an improved understanding of multisensory integration in a complex, musical behavior