The influence of discrete versus continuous movements on children’s musical sense-making

Abstract

An increasing amount of research emphasises the influence of body movement on the perception of music. This study contributes to the research by investigating whether varied qualities of body movement, when aligned to music may affect the way children attribute meaning to that music. To address this question, 34 children (aged 9–10) were divided into two groups, each of which engaged in distinct listening activities by aligning with discrete versus continuous movements on diverse pieces of music. As a pre- and post-test, children were first invited to move freely to a piece of music and subsequently to draw a visual representation of the piece. Finally, they were asked to verbally explain how the drawings were linked with the music. Findings, based on the children’s drawings and verbal explanations, offer interesting insights on the way different qualities of body movement can influence the categories of visual representations, arousal and voices of the music described. Moreover, the role of visual representation emerges as a way to gain insight into a child’s musical sense-making, principally when the product is analysed together with the process and the gestures employed to accomplish it. The findings of this study may offer relevant insights for music education. Firstly, in the way movement may influence music sense-making and secondly, how multimodal interaction (bodily, visual and verbal) may inform the process of musical understanding in children.

Embodying Dynamical Systems in Music Performance

“…It is assumed that these particularities have an impact on the predictive processes and therefore influence anticipation of expected outcomes. Entrainment, very generally described as the process of in which two or more biological or mechanical systems interact with each other (Clayton, 2012) or a form of interaction that 'propels human rhythm to synchronize with musical rhythm' (Leman, 2016, p. 99), is known to be also determined by natural motor variability (i.e., it is shaped by prediction and adaptation processes; e.g., Demos et al, 2014), motor resonance and preferred tempo (i.e., it is determined by biomechanics of the body and neuronal clocks; e.g., Leman 2016, p. 105), and body movement (e.g., by guiding attention; e.g., Fortuna & Nijs, 2022). Leman, finally, relates alignment -the ability to feel the music and to align one's movements to it -to the natural music-movement correlation that many people can feel.…”