Can you hear the connection? A study on musical-social bonding by Hannah Percival, A.A., B.M., M.A. A Dissertation In Fine Arts: Music Theory Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Peter Martens, Ph.D. Chair of Committee David Sears, Ph.D. David Forrest, Ph.D. Matthew Santa, Ph.D. Rachel Hirshorn-Johnston, M.F.A. Mark Sheridan, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School May 2021 Copyright 2021, Hannah Percival Texas Tech University, Hannah Percival, May 2021 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my dissertation committee for your insightful comments and support. I want to especially thank Peter Martens for supporting my unique research vision and David Sears for generously sharing his statistical and methodological expertise. Thank you to all the members, past and present, of the Performing Arts Research Lab (PeARL) for being a wonderful whiteboard for my methodological questions, assisting in pilot studies, and being a remarkable group of inquisitive people. Thank you to the Graduate Writing Center, especially Kristin Messuri and Elizabeth Bowen, for continually modeling a supportive academic environment. Carol Sharp and Jerry Wallace, I am humbled to continue your legacies of compassionate, passionate music education. I also want to thank Mom and Dad for homeschooling me from kindergarten to 12th grade and nurturing my insatiable curiosity. I treasure the memories with you of Bits, Robinson Crusoe, and Little House on the Prairie. Thank you to all of my friends for supporting me through the long process of earning a PhD. Your conversations and support have kept me sane throughout this journey. I love you, Travis, and I love being a human with you. ii Texas Tech University, Hannah Percival, May 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ vii 1. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................. 1 Entrainment ..................................................................................................................... 1 General entrainment in physics ................................................................................... 2 Pulse entrainment ........................................................................................................ 3 Meter ........................................................................................................................... 4 Groove......................................................................................................................... 5 Musical-social entrainment ............................................................................................. 7 Musical-Social Bonding (MSB) ..................................................................................... 9 Overview of Current Methodologies .............................................................................. 9 Ecological validity .................................................................................................... 10 Strong experimental control ...................................................................................... 10 Neurological studies.................................................................................................. 11 Embodied perspective ............................................................................................... 11 Methodology for this dissertation ............................................................................. 12 Therapeutic applications ............................................................................................... 13 2. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 15 Literature review ........................................................................................................... 15 Drumming ................................................................................................................. 16 Visual stimuli ............................................................................................................ 17 iii Texas Tech University, Hannah Percival, May 2021 COVID-19’s Impact on Research Methodology .......................................................... 17 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 18 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 18 Participants ................................................................................................................ 19 Stimuli ....................................................................................................................... 19 Task ........................................................................................................................... 21 Post-test Likert Surveys ............................................................................................ 22 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................. 24 Results ........................................................................................................................... 24 Missing Data Points .................................................................................................. 24 Grove Ratings ........................................................................................................... 24 Gold-MSI .................................................................................................................. 26 Correlations Between Variables ............................................................................... 27 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 33 Groove and Connection with the Environment ........................................................ 33 Environment and Emotional Experiences with Music.............................................. 34 Singing Abilities and Independent Self-Construal ................................................... 35 Limitations and Future Research .................................................................................. 36 4. MSB APPLICATION AS A PANDEMIC INTERVENTION ............................... 39 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 39 Trauma research ............................................................................................................ 40 Musical-social bonding ................................................................................................. 43 Implementing MSB events in the COVID-19 era......................................................... 45 Case Study .................................................................................................................... 49 iv Texas Tech University, Hannah Percival, May 2021 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 50 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 51 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................... 59 v Texas Tech University, Hannah Percival, May 2021 ABSTRACT Why do humans use music to socially bond with each other? This dissertation attempts to understand one aspect of this question. Based on existing literature on musical and social entrainment, this dissertation proposes a new construct of Musical-Social Bonding (MSB) that examines how groove perception contributes to feeling connected in a musical environment. While MSB is most salient in group environments, this methodology focuses on individual research participants to increase experimental control over the variables. This dissertation found that groove perception, or the need to move to music, had a weak positive correlation both with emotional engagement with music and feeling included in the musical environment; in addition, self-construal was not significantly correlated with groove perception. These findings suggest that social elements tied to the musical environment may be more of a factor in MSB than self- construal. The final chapter in this dissertation applies the concepts of MSB to a fictional case study during the spatial-distancing of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elements of MSB may be effective at mitigating the mental health crisis caused by increased isolation. This chapter outlines how an MSB-based intervention can use virtual platforms to simulate physical proximity and, perhaps, minimize long-term crisis responses. Keywords: beat salience, entrainment, groove, musical-social bonding, self-construal. vi Texas Tech University, Hannah Percival, May 2021 LIST OF FIGURES 2.1: Inclusion of Other in Self (IOS) from Aron et al., 1992. ........................................... 22 3.1: Means of the groove ratings......................................................................................