CMS Seminars

Abstract Playing by ear is an essential skill in many musical styles, supporting tasks like improvisation – and even sight-reading. Whilst jazz education often emphasises ear training, more contemporarily – and perhaps paradoxically – it also features visually-notated practice books to enable a more systematic approach to...

Abstract Applause gestures – such as clapping, standing ovations, and loud vocalizations – are ubiquitous in Western concert culture. Perhaps so much so that we sometimes forget to question these strange, ritualistic displays of enthusiasm occurring in response to demonstrations of impressive skills during large social...

Abstract In the 1950s and 60s, the critic and broadcaster Hans Keller created a method of wordless music analysis. He would compose analytical interludes that wove between the movements of a particular piece or separate numbers on a concert program, which were designed to show how those diverse stretches of music hang...

Abstract Members of virtually all known societies intuitively change the quality of their interaction when addressing infants, a phenomenon known as Infant-Directed Speech (a.k.a. “motherese”, “babytalk”). Infant-Directed Speech is used beyond infancy, directed at friends, romantic partners, older adults, and people with...