Search results for "musical pause"

The optimal musical pause : the effects of expectancies, musical training, and personality

2016

The musical pause is an acoustic space between musical phrases, and is an important auditory quality because it can enhance tension by delaying the expected. It has been proposed that expectancies develop from long-term schematic knowledge learned through exposure; however, the dynamic attending theory indicates that expectancies arise from localized short-term knowledge found in the stimulus. This study aims to measure the optimal duration of the pause by assessing the influence of low-level musical features, long-term familiarity, musical ability, and personality. Musical excerpts were chosen from a variety of genres to include two phrases (separable by a silence), from which participants…