Skill acquisition in music performance: relations between planning and temporal control

We investigated the acquisition of music performance skills in novice and e xpert pianists. Temporal disruptions in novice performances coincided with constraints in planning capacities, Child and adult pianists ranging in age (9-26 years), training (3-15 years) and sight-reading ability learned to p erform a novel musical piece in eleven practice trials. Computer-detected p itch and timing errors revealed: (1) gradual improvements in performance te mpo and pitch accuracy with skill level and practice, generally fitting a p ower function; (2) a relative-timing/pitch accuracy trade-off and high inci dence of simultaneous pitch/time errors; (3) improvements in relative timin g (temporal continuity, underlying beat, metrical structure) with skill and practice; and (4) increased anticipatory behavior and a greater range of p lanning with skill and practice. A strong positive relationship between the mastery of temporal constraints and planning abilities within performance suggests that these two cognitive indicators are closely related and may ar ise from segmentation processes during performance. Examination of sequence timing may explicate planning abilities that underlie many complex skills. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.