In this study, we asked four professional jazz musicians to rehearse, record, and analyze their performances. The musicians used five short pieces, composed for the study using techniques informed by pitch-class theory and inspired by discrete mathematics, as a departing point for group improvisations. The improvisations were transcribed, and the transcriptions and recordings were used during interviews to stimulate the participants’ recollections of their intentions and experiences while improvising. Analyses of the transcriptions and interviews provided insights into how experienced improvisers interact, make decisions, and share responsibility during an improvisation. We show how the participants altered and reused compositional elements, such as intervals and motifs, and how they interacted when phrasing in similar and different ways. The contributions made by this study include the development of a framework for analyzing improvisation, the description of a simplified transcription process, and the production of a recording to accompany this article.

Synchronization of movement to music is a behavioural capacity that separates humans from most other species. Whereas such movements have been studied using a wide range of methods, only few studies have investigated synchronisation to real music stimuli in a cross-culturally comparative setting. The present study employs beat tracking evaluation metrics and accent histograms to analyze the differences in the ways participants from two cultural groups synchronize their tapping with either familiar or unfamiliar music stimuli. Instead of choosing two apparently remote cultural groups, we selected two groups of musicians that share cultural backgrounds, but that differ regarding the music style they specialize in. The employed method to record tapping responses in audio format facilitates a fine-grained analysis of metrical accents that emerge from the responses. The identified differences between groups are related to the metrical structures inherent to the two musical styles, such as non-isochronicity of the beat, and differences between the groups document the influence of the deep enculturation of participants to their style of expertise. Besides these findings, our study sheds light on a conceptual weakness of a common beat tracking evaluation metric, when applied to human tapping instead of machine generated beat estimations.

Synchronization of movement to music is a behavioural capacity that separates humans from most other species. Whereas such movements have been studied using a wide range of methods, only few studies have investigated synchronisation to real music stimuli in a cross-culturally comparative setting. The present study employs beat tracking evaluation metrics and accent histograms to analyze the differences in the ways participants from two cultural groups synchronize their tapping with either familiar or unfamiliar music stimuli. Instead of choosing two apparently remote cultural groups, we selected two groups of musicians that share cultural backgrounds, but that differ regarding the music style they specialize in. The employed method to record tapping responses in audio format facilitates a fine-grained analysis of metrical accents that emerge from the responses. The identified differences between groups are related to the metrical structures inherent to the two musical styles, such as non-isochronicity of the beat, and differences between the groups document the influence of the deep enculturation of participants to their style of expertise. Besides these findings, our study sheds light on a conceptual weakness of a common beat tracking evaluation metric, when applied to human tapping instead of machine generated beat estimations.

The primary purpose of this paper is to describe a method to investigate the communication process between musicians performing improvisation in jazz. This method was applied in a first case study. The paper contributes to jazz improvisation theory towards embracing more artistic expressions and choices made in real life musical situations. In jazz, applied improvisation theory usually consists of scale and harmony studies within quantized rhythmic patterns. The ensembles in the study were duos performed by the author at the piano and horn players (trumpet, alto saxophone, clarinet and trombone). Recording sessions involving the ensembles were conducted. The recording was transcribed using software and the produced score together with the audio recording was used when conducting in-depth interviews, to identify the horn player’s underlying musical strategies. The strategies were coded according to previous research.

To engage students in and beyond course activities has been a working practice both at KTH Sound and Music Computing group and at KMH Royal College of Music since many years. This paper collects experiences of involving students in research conducted within the two institutions. 

We describe how students attending our courses are given the possibility to be involved in our research activities, and we argue that their involvement both contributes to develop new research and benefits the students in the short and long term.  Among the assignments, activities, and tasks we offer in our education programs are pilot experiments, prototype development, public exhibitions, performing, composing, data collection, analysis challenges, and bachelor and master thesis projects that lead to academic publications.