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| Author |
Message |
rcurl
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Online Perceptions of Music Test
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Oct 26 00:47 UTC 2005 |
Some students at MIT are doing a cross-cultural study of whether our
perceptions of music depend on culture and experience. You can participate
by completing a website's 15-minute test, which asks you to rate the
pleasantness of sounds, indicate whether they evoke happiness or sadness,
and determine whether the tension in particular passages rises or falls.
To participate, go to http://music.media.mit.edu
After completing the test enter here any comments you have about it, if
you wish to. (Though you might hold off a bit so as not to prejudice the
responses of others taking the test - and then comment on whether you
think such prejudicing is possible.)
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| 10 responses total. |
cyklone
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response 1 of 10:
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Oct 26 02:56 UTC 2005 |
This must be a follow up on some earlier research, because previous
studies have already answered yes. Music in England and America has been
accurately described as rhythmically simplistic compared to the folk music
of Eastern Europe and Asia. Those cultures also have many more odd-metered
times signatures. Harmonically, Middle Eastern and some Asian music rely
on micro-tones that are not present in the "well-tempered" scale used by
Western music. The result is that what is perceived as normal to those
culturally attuned to hear micro-tones sounds out of tune to those who did
not grow up with such music.
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rcurl
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response 2 of 10:
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Oct 26 05:53 UTC 2005 |
This test does not seem nearly as sophisticated as what you describe for
previous studies.
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nharmon
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response 3 of 10:
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Oct 26 12:35 UTC 2005 |
Perhaps its to increase public awareness of music science. I, for one,
didn't know that people actually studied stuff like this.
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cyklone
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response 4 of 10:
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Oct 26 13:23 UTC 2005 |
That sounds like a reasonable explanation. As a musician I find it
fascinating, so I'm glad to see anything that increases awareness of the broad
range of what is considered "music" throughout the world.
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albaugh
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response 5 of 10:
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Nov 8 19:39 UTC 2005 |
I took the "test". At the end I commented that I expected there to be music
/ sounds from around the world, but testing was almost entirely based on
western music / sounds.
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mcnally
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response 6 of 10:
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Nov 8 19:56 UTC 2005 |
I started the test but abandoned it after about 15 or so questions --
I found it tiresome and the sounds were unpleasant to listen to.
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albaugh
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response 7 of 10:
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Nov 8 20:10 UTC 2005 |
Boy, your definition of unpleasant radically differs from mine. I was
expecting some really "nasty", clashy whatever sounds. All I got was run of
the mill dissonance, a necessary part of music re: tension and release.
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mcnally
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response 8 of 10:
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Nov 8 20:22 UTC 2005 |
Perhaps I was just in a bad mood at the time, but I seem to recall
considerably disliking the synthesized tones. They weren't awful,
but the irksome nature of the web interface, combined with the fact
that I wasn't enjoying the test, led me to give up on the whole
thing after waiting for the tenth or fifteenth page to load.
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rcurl
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response 9 of 10:
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Nov 8 20:29 UTC 2005 |
I had no trouble getting through it all, but found the selections not long
enough to decide upon patterns of "tension".. So my perceptions came out
mostly "flat". I have no problem with dissonances themselves.
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tsty
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response 10 of 10:
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Dec 4 06:30 UTC 2005 |
will try it .. gotta wait till the blues recording are done .. <g>.
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