Melissa Gerber Knecht

The present study investigated the relationship between expertise in one's principal instrument and memory performance achievement of various aural melodic patterns, constructed in such a manner as to reflect three degrees of contextual constraint. Music patterns ranged from random music approximations (zero-order) to music patterns generated from systematically increased degrees of contextual constraint, simulating classical Western tonal music (second- and third-order music approximations). Participants were selected from those who play viola in the Chicago Symphony and the Toledo Symphony (experts) and in two high school orchestras (novices). Two tests were designed by the investigator to assess the respondents' ability to replicate music patterns in a listen-imitate format. Results indicated that for the approximations to classical Western tonal music (second- and third-order) there was a great difference between the expert and novice violists. The experts showed a superior performance. However, for the zero-order or random music approximations, there was little difference between the two research groups.

The various techniques that musicians use to enhance their perception, comprehension, and memory are discussed. Expert Western musicians are constantly engaged in building mental representations of music that is heard, sorting the information into chunks, and associating the music with associated pitches in Western tonal music. Musical examples, an illustration, and a graph are included.