Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Music (Honours)

School

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)

Faculty

Faculty of Education and Arts

First Supervisor

Associate Profeeor Graham Wood

Second Supervisor

Chris Tarr

Abstract

This dissertation aims to provide exercises that will efficiently develop the skills necessary for accurate time keeping in music. Many contemporary industry-standard texts fail to provide specific methods to develop accurate time keeping in music. Most include instructions to use a metronome, but only as a dictator of tempo and not as a tool to improve one's own time keeping ability. This dissertation proposes to address that gap in contemporary music instructional literature. To enhance the understanding of the skills required for accurate time keeping in music, contemporary neurological literature pertaining to time keeping is investigated. A review of this literature reveals that temporal cognition and motor learning are two main factors influencing time keeping. Based on these findings, forty-eight exercises are developed that are designed to optimally input the cognitive and motor skills required to achieve the physical manifestation of accurate metronomic temporal intervals. The exercises focus primarily on heightening the awareness of the temporal partials (known in music as subdivisions) that are not being physically output by the individual, so that they may accurately quantify, perceive and physically manifest metronomically accurate notes or strokes. Through analysis of selected industry-standard music instructional literature, a format of presentation for the exercises is developed and employed. The devised format comprises of an introduction to the text, explanation of exercises, presentation of exercises in both written text and musical notation, and aural demonstrations of the exercises on an included compact disc. The exercises are then summarised and suggestions of extrapolations for exercises are discussed.

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