I am going to present my first results at JAM (Joint Action Meeting) 8 from the 10th to the 13th of July in Genoa, Italy 🌵
Poster: click me 😉
Accepted abstract: “The Sound of Teaching Music: Experts’ sound modulation for novices”
Background
Expertise is often acquired through intensive interactions between experts and novices and involves intentional teaching. The literature on infant-directed speech and action has suggested that specific action modulations (e.g., slower and exaggerated demonstration) might affect cognitive processes of learners, which could potentially enhance speech and action learning. However, little is known on the transmission of skills that require learning not only what to do but also how to perform actions with particular expressions.
Aim and methods
In the current study, we focused on musical techniques to investigate whether experts systematically modulate their performance to teach expressive skills. We asked expert pianists to perform a simple excerpt of music with two different styles of expression, articulation and dynamics. They played either with the goal to perform it to an audience or with the goal to teach the respective techniques to novices.
Results
The results showed that experts played slower while demonstrating articulation for teaching purposes, but not for dynamics. Also, experts exaggerated articulation and dynamics skills when teaching. These findings indicate that even though expert pianists play expressively when performing the piece to an audience, they are able to modulate their performance in systematic and fine-grained ways in order to teach expressive techniques to novices.