Differential Patterns of Music Listening: Focus of Attention of Musicians versus Nonmusicians.

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate patterns of music listening among music and nonmusic majors regarding four primary constituent elements of music. Specifically, the research was designed to determine whether listeners demonstrate consistent focused listening patterns to the elements of rhythm, dynamics, timbre, and melody across excerpts intentionally chosen for salience of the above elements and whether musicians differ from nonmusicians in listening patterns. Subjects (A/=120) consisted of 60 musicians and 60 nonmusicians. All subjects listened to 10 orchestral excerpts and manipulated a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) indicating their ongoing focus of attention to the above elements including an additional category of Everything. Data consisted of cumulative seconds spent in each of the elements that subjects identified as their focus of attention. Results indicated that musicians do, indeed, attend to listening significantly differently than nonmusicians. Musicians spend most of their time attending to melody, then rhythm and dynamics and lastly timbre. Nonmusicians spend most of their time focusing on dynamics, then melody, then timbre, then the classification of Everything with a very low percentage of seconds focused on rhythm. Additional applications of the CRDI as a useful and reliable nonverbal measuring device are discussed.