John Sloboda

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

This study aimed to uncover potential effects on and meanings experienced by audience members who participated in performances (‘participants’) of intentional efforts to integrate participatory elements in art music practice. We document a recent project in which two contemporary composers were commissioned to write new pieces including parts for a...

Bars 8–12 prepared (strict) version.

Bars 8–12 improvised state of mind.

Bars 7–8 (flute solo opening 3 notes) improvised state of mind version.

Bars 165–177 prepared (strict) version.

Bars 7–8 (flute solo opening 3 notes) prepared (strict) version.

The recent re-introduction of improvisation as a professional practice within classical music, however cautious and still rare, allows direct and detailed contemporary comparison between improvised and “standard” approaches to performances of the same composition, comparisons which hitherto could only be inferred from impressionistic historical acc...

This reflection on the first 25 years of ESCOM’s activities is in two parts. In the first part we analyse the country and discipline spread of contributors to its journal Musicae Scientiae and its formal membership. In the second we address the choice of “cognitive sciences of music” as the initial focus of both Society and journal by comparing the...

Repetition of a piece on a concert programme is a well-established, but uncommon performance practice. Musicians have presumed that repetition benefits audience enjoyment and understanding but no research has examined this. In two naturalistic and one lab study, we examined audience reaction to repeated live performances of contemporary pieces play...

GOING TO THINGS TOGETHER MAKES EVENTS BETTER, MAKES LIVES BETTER – NEW RESEARCH ON MEETUP.COM Meetup.com is an international social application that puts people with common interests in touch with one another so that they can attend events together and socialise around the event. A recent detailed survey conducted by psychologist John Sloboda, co...

Educational sociologists and philosophers have long recognised that educational institutions play a significant role in shaping as well as supporting societal norms. In the face of growing global social, political, and environmental challenges, should conservatoires be more overt in expressing a mission to sustain and improve the societies in which...

This paper reports the outcomes of an investigation into the nature and motivations of the audience at a London concert of Britten Sinfonia, a touring chamber orchestra with a London residency. In particular it looks at the salience of the orchestra’s artistic ethos to audience members, and the role that awareness of this ethos plays in decisions t...

This paper examines the cultural value of opera through a study of its most devoted and long-standing audience members. Its key research objective is to develop our understanding of what opera-lovers love about opera. In doing so, we provide a case study of one way to research audience experience of the arts. We use a theoretically-grounded, interv...

This chapter provides an overview of research on self-chosen music listening experiences, both recorded and live. The material is organized into the functional niches that music is chosen to be part of travel, brain work, body work, emotional work, and attendance at live events as an audience member. Four different recurring functions of self-chose...

London-based music psychologist John Sloboda explores the subconscious connections and disjunctions between musicians and their audiences. He discusses his experiments on the 'emotional hotspots' experienced by listeners and the surprising power of improvisation.

The question of the precise link between music and emotions has exercised scholars since the time of ancient Greece. The goal of this chapter is to review contemporary empirical research on music and emotion primarily within music psychology. We begin by commenting on the recent history of the field. Then, we provide a working definition of emotion...

A wide range of psychological approaches have been used to explore musical preferences, yet few studies have focused on people’s own preferred music. This article reports the results of a qualitative study into the breadth, content, and rationale of musical preferences. In-depth interviews were conducted with adults (age range 18–73 years) at home...

Music is often said to be expressive of emotions. emotions while performing. Do musicians feel the musical emotions when expressing them? Or has expressive playing nothing to do with the emotional exp tives on the role of emotions in performance, we conducted qualitative in‐depth interviews with nineteen musicians teaching or studying at a European...

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the characteristics and impacts of adopting an improvisatory approach to the performance of classical chamber music. Improvisatory approaches to the classical repertoire, once widespread, are nowrare in contemporary professional performance practice and so there are few opportunities to study it. This study attempts to...

Despite the centrality of live musical performance to jazz, there has been little scholarly attention placed on the performer-audience relationship. This pilot study explored the factors that assisted and hindered this relationship among players and audience members attending live performances at a London jazz club. Semi-structured interviews were...

Since the publication in 1986 of the book The Musical Mind, music psychology has developed as a vibrant area of research, exerting influence on areas as diverse as music education and cognitive neuroscience. This new book brings together twenty-three chapters and reviews on music and the mind, focusing on ideas, interpretation, argument and applica...

This book was first published in German in 1911. The text sets out a path-breaking hypothesis on the earliest musical sounds in human culture. Alongside research in such diverse fields as classical philosophy, acoustics, and mathematics, Stumpf became one of the most influential psychologists of the late 19th century. He was the founding father of...

argues that reflection is a key requirement for HE music training institutions and the individuals that work in them, particularly at times of rapid change in the sector.

Suicide bombs in Iraq are a major public health problem. We aimed to describe documented casualties from suicide bombs in Iraq during 2003-10 in Iraqi civilians and coalition soldiers. In this descriptive study, we analysed and compared suicide bomb casualties in Iraq that were documented in two datasets covering March 20, 2003, to Dec 31, 2010--on...

The MRC Developmental Psychology Unit existed for 15 years from 1967 to 1982 under the direction of Neil O'Connor. I recently visited him and was able to record an extended conversation with him. This brief history is based on that conversation and on a series of internal progress reports which the Unit published from time to time.

Musical experiences are often reported to influence emotions (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008; Sloboda, O’Neill, & Ivaldi, 2001): people consciously and unconsciously use music to change, create, maintain or enhance their emotions and moods (affect) on a daily basis for their personal benefit (DeNora, 1999; Schramm, 2005). This is known as affect regulati...

Musical experiences are often reported to influence emotions (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008; Sloboda, O'Neill, & Ivaldi, 2001): people consciously and unconsciously use music to change, create, maintain or enhance their emotions and moods (affect) on a daily basis for their personal benefit (DeNora, 1999; Schramm, 2005). This is known as affect regulati...

Armed violence is a major public health and humanitarian problem in Iraq. In this descriptive statistical analysis we aimed to describe for the first time Iraqi civilian deaths caused by perpetrators of armed violence during the first 5 years of the Iraq war: over time; by weapon used; by region (governorate); and by victim demographics. We analyze...

This book, translated from the original Russian, offers the prospect of a rare window into the thought emerging from that part of the contemporary Russian education system that is concerned with the selection and training of the musically gifted. Its author is Professor of Psychology and Musicology of the Gnesin Academy of Music in Moscow, a multil...

Does a performer feel sad when s/he performs a sad piece of music, or does s/he perform sadness? Not much is known about the relationship between felt and performed emotions in performing musicians. Some studies emphasize the importance of feeling the emotions; others underline the idea of planned expressiveness. The purpose of this study was to in...

Does a performer feel sad when s/he performs a sad piece of music, or does s/he perform sadness? Not much is known about the relationship between felt and performed emotions in performing musicians. Some studies emphasize the importance of feeling the emotions; others underline the idea of planned expressiveness. The purpose of this study was to in...

Music's ability to express and arouse emotions is a mystery that has fascinated both experts and laymen at least since ancient Greece. The predecessor to this book, Motion and Emotion (OUP, 2001) was critically and commercially successful and stimulated much further work in this area. In the years since the publication of that book, empirical resea...

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In the last of nine Essays on science and music, John Sloboda argues that researchers must study music as people actually experience it, if they are to understand how it affects thoughts and feelings.

Research has suggested that around 17% of Western adults self-define as “tone deaf” (Cuddy, Balkwill, Peretz & Holden, 2005). But questions remain about the exact nature of tone deafness. One candidate for a formal definition is “congenital amusia” (Peretz et al., 2003), characterised by a dense music-specific perceptual deficit. However, most peop...

The spatio-temporal properties of human movement that induce the percept of a visual beat were investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1, in which participants synchronized key presses with point-light representations of simple conducting gestures, showed that visual beat induction was related to acceleration along the trajectory (a), and, to...

Musical-peak experiences are a significant component of the lives of many people. They are powerful, valued, have lasting effects, and - for some - are a reason for continued engagement with music. This article highlights research on the peak experience, emphasizing literature focusing on music-specific peaks. After outlining four studies fundament...

A substantial amount of music listening in contemporary Western society is deliberately chosen. This article reviews what is known about the psychology of self-chosen exposure to musical performances of others (recorded or live). The research reviewed is organized by the functional niche that the music is chosen to be part of. Six main niches appea...

The nature of the relationship between words and music in memory has been studied in a variety of ways, from investigations of listeners' recall for the words of songs stored in long-term memory to recall for novel information set to unfamiliar melodies. We asked singers to perform an unaccompanied song from memory following deliberate learning and...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

This book provides a concise, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to psychological research for musicians, performers, music educators, and studio teachers. Designed to address the needs and priorities of the performing musician rather than the research community, it reviews the relevant psychological research findings in relation to situations...

PART A: COGNITIVE PROCESSES 1. The psychology of music reading 2. Experimental studies of music reading: a review 3. The uses of space in music notation 4. Immediate recall of melodies 5. Cognition and real music: the psychology of music comes of age 6. Psychological structures in music: core research 1980-1990 7. Book review of Language, Music and...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of harmonic expectancy violations on emotions. Subjective response measures for tension and emotionality, as well as electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), were recorded from 24 subjects (12 musicians and 12 nonmusicians) to observe the effect of expectancy violations on subj...

Many people reach adulthood without acquiring significant music performance skills (singing or instrumental playing). A substantial proportion of these adults consider that this has come about because they are "not musical." Some of these people may be "true" congenital amusics, characterized by specific and substantial anomalies in the processing...

This study is about whether harmonic expectancy violations can trigger emotional processes, as indexed by physiological and subjective measures.

summarize the [author's] argument [on development of musical performance expertise]: / 1. music seems to be biologically constitutive of early human functioning / 2. music education in Western cultures produces a dismal field of achievement / 3. heritability estimates, where available, are low / 4. technical expertise within the conservatoire cultu...

Potential relationships are explored between contemporary music-emotion science and social and economic trends within dominant industrialised cultures. These trends are argued to have the effect of attempting to degrade those elements of the musical experience which are individual, personal, complex, subtle, unreplicable; whilst accentuating those...

The process of entrainment is a well-practiced behaviour that requires little attention. Automatic behaviours are often susceptible to interference in environments that contain competing sources of information (e.g. Stroop tasks). Interference to pulse extraction for visual rhythms was examined using a distracting isochronous auditory pulse. Isochr...

This study demonstrates a comprehensive method for linking expert musicians' interpretive choices and associated performances to listeners' perceptions of emotionality. In Phase 1 of the study, 10 expert pianists recorded their prepared interpretations of a highly emotional piece of music (E Chopin's Prelude op. 28, no. 4). They were also interview...

Music education in schools cannot function effectively without an implicit agreement between stakeholders (e.g. teachers, student, parents, government etc.) about what it is for. The 'meaning of music' is a constantly shifting function of the discourses of these diverse groups, which may coalesce around a 'dominant ideology' which gains enough inte...