Temporal Coordination between Performing Musicians

Abstract

Many common behaviours require people to coordinate the timing of their actions with the timing of others' actions. We examined whether representations of musicians' actions are activated in coperformers with whom they must coordinate their actions in time and whether coperformers simulate each other's actions using their own motor systems during temporal coordination. Pianists performed right-hand melodies along with simple or complex left-hand accompaniments produced by themselves or by another pianist. Individual performers' preferred performance rates were measured in solo performance of the right-hand melody. The complexity of the left-hand accompaniment influenced the temporal grouping structure of the right-hand melody in the same way when it was performed by the self or by the duet partner, providing some support for the action corepresentation hypothesis. In contrast, accompaniment complexity had little influence on temporal coordination measures (asynchronies and cross-correlations between parts). Temporal coordination measures were influenced by a priori similarities between partners' preferred rates; partners who had similar preferred rates in solo performance were better synchronized and showed mutual adaptation to each other's timing during duet performances. These findings extend previous findings of action corepresentation and action simulation to a task that requires precise temporal coordination of independent yet simultaneous actions.

Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

“…Producing and learning music likely involves even greater EF demands. For example, music is most often played in coordination with others (Palmer, 2013), which requires switching between multiple auditory streams (Loehr, Kourtis, Vesper, Sebanz, & Knoblich, 2013) and adjusting to other performers (e.g., Loehr & Palmer, 2011;Moore & Chen, 2010). Thus music performance may be associated with relatively general switching advantages, and musicians have indeed been found to outperform non-musicians on switching tasks (Hanna-Pladdy & MacKay, 2011;Moradzadeh, Blumenthal, & Wiseheart, 2014; see also Bugos, Perlstein, McCrae, Brophy, & Bedenbaugh, 2007;Zuk, Benjamin, Kenyon, & Gaab, 2014).…”

Body sway reflects leadership in joint music performance

“…Previous studies on music and coordination have focused primarily on note-to-note temporal synchrony (23), including how it is modulated by the partner (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) and the role of perceptual information (30)(31)(32)(33). A few studies have attempted to describe temporal synchronization among musicians using mathematical models (34)(35)(36).…”

Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination

“…On this account, internal models in the cerebellum [49] commune with cortical areas, including those subserving motor simulation [100,101]. It is owing to this recruitment of the observer's motor system that internal models are calibrated to the observer's own action style [28,42,54].…”

“…In musical contexts, mutual temporal adaptation may, additionally, contribute to ensemble cohesion by enhancing the similarity of co-performers' playing styles. Research with experimental tasks requiring piano duet performance [17,28] and dyadic finger tapping [29,30] has demonstrated that compensatory adjustments associated with error correction lead to co-dependencies, whereby successive time intervals produced by two interacting individuals tend to be similar in duration. Furthermore, a recent study employing an experimental task in which paired musicians tapped in alternation with an isochronous auditory pacing signal (analogous to two jazz soloists coordinating complementary parts with a rhythm section) found similarities between successive asynchronies produced by alternating individuals' taps relative to the pacing tones [31].…”

“…Ensemble musicians usually prepare for performance through collaborative group rehearsal geared towards establishing shared performance goals, that is, unified conceptions of the ideal ensemble sound [11,57]. Co-performers thus form memories of each other's parts and the relationship between these parts [12,28]. While this process may be grounded in the automatic tendency for individuals engaged in joint action to represent each other's tasks [4,8], the amount of time that ensemble musicians invest in rehearsal suggests that developing shared performance goals is effortful.…”