Earlier studies have shown that musically trained individuals may a benefit in adverse listening situations when compared to non-musicians, especially speech-on-speech perception. However, the literature provides mostly conflicting results. In current study, by employing different measures of spoken language processing, we aimed test whether could capture potential differences between musicians...

Abstract. This paper presents a virtual embodied agent that can conduct musicians in a live performance. The virtual conductor conducts music specified by a MIDI file and uses input from a microphone to react to the tempo of the musicians. The current implementation of the virtual conductor can interact with musicians, leading and following them while they are playing music. Different time sign...

The ergonomic issues particular to playing musical instruments have been widely studied. However, most research studies have focused on orchestral instruments and trained, experienced musicians (for example, [Lonsdale 2014] for Western concert flute, [Furuya 2006] and [BoyleRB 2010] for piano, and [Wade-MA 2008] for trumpet). The bulk of the assistance and advice published for musicians and mus...

BACKGROUND Research comparing the frequency of musculoskeletal complaints between musicians and non-musicians is scarce. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints between musicians and non-musicians. METHODS A cross-sectional study in 3215 students from three music academies (n = 345) and one medical school (n = 2870) in The Netherlands was performed, u...

Despite differences in their function and domain-specific elements, syntactic processing in music and language is believed to share cognitive resources. This study aims to investigate whether the simultaneous processing of language and music share the use of a common syntactic processor or more general attentional resources. To investigate this matter we tested musicians and non-musicians using...

Musicians not only have extraordinary motor and sensory skills, but they also have an increased ability to learn new tasks compared with non-musicians. We examined how these features are expressed in neurophysiological parameters of excitability and plasticity in the motor system by comparing the results of 11 professional musicians and 8 age-matched non-musicians. Parameters of motor excitabil...

Most standard accounts of human anatomy and physiology are designed to meet the requirements of medical education and therefore consider their subject matter from the standpoint of typical rather than outstanding levels of performance. To understand how high levels of skill are developed and maintained, it is necessary to study elite groups such as professional athletes or musicians. This can l...

This paper examines the creation of augmented musical instruments by a number of musicians. Equipped with a system called the Augmentalist, 10 musicians created new augmented instruments based on their traditional acoustic or electric instruments. This paper discusses the ways in which the musicians augmented their instruments, examines the similarities and differences between the resulting ins...

BACKGROUND Musculoskeletal symptoms are common in the neck, back, and upper limbs amongst musicians. Playing-related musculoskeletal disorders have been found to range from 32% to 87% with a tendency for female musicians to have more problems than males. Studies of musculoskeletal problems in instrumentalists have generally involved pre-professional musicians or populations comprising musicians...