Name:Yumo Zhang

School/Affiliation:University of Toronto Scarborough - Music Cognition Lab

Co-Authors:Olivia Podolak Lewandowska, Spender Jones & Mark A. Schmuckler

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Short Bio:

Yumo is in his fifth year, currently pursuing his HBSc in the Specialist Co-op program in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto Scarborough. His current research explores the correlation between musical structures and sight-reading performance in trained musicians. He has been playing the clarinet for over 15 years, including more than 10 years as a member of a concert band. Beyond the classroom, Yumo enjoys playing music and badminton.

Abstract:

Musical sight-reading requires decoding of visual notation into motor actions, making it an invaluable paradigm for studying perception–action coupling and the operation of perceptual-motor schemas. Two experiments examined the effect of structural discontinuities during piano performance, testing the impact of tonal modulations on pianists’ sight-reading accuracy. Specifically, pianists performed melodies varying in the tonal distance of their modulation (no modulation, close modulation, mid modulation, and far modulation). Experiment 1 presented melodies in a random order, and Experiment 2 presenting melodies blocked by condition (no modulation melodies first versus modulating melodies first).

In both studies, performance errors during the initial key area, the transition area, and the subsequent key area of these melodies revealed increased errors in the subsequent key relative to initial key, with error rates peaking in and after the key transition. Moreover, far modulations produced more errors than close and mid modulations, which produced more errors than no modulation melodies.

Interestingly, Experiment 1 observed increased errors in the transition section of melodies that did not modulate, suggesting that pianists developed expectations for the occurrence of a modulation irrespective of its occurrence. Experiment 2 confirmed this idea, finding no change in error rates for no modulation melodies when pianists performed these melodies prior to experiencing the modulating melodies.

These results demonstrate that sight-reading integrates perceptual and motor constraints, with performers flexibly adapting to changing perceptual and motor schemas. Such work supports a perception-action account of piano performance, and suggests intriguing new directions for research on real-time music performance.