Testing the influence of the group for the memorisation of repertoire in Trinidad and Tobago steelbands

Aurélie Helmlinger (1)

1 LESC - Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative

Does the collective aspect of a performance influence the memory of music in steelbands? Is the fact to see the simultaneous synchronised movements of other players performing the same part helping the musician to recall correctly a melody? Forty four panists1 were tested in a free recall task, in solitary and collective contexts. Three group of three melodies of growing difficulty were composed and taught to the participants through a video. The aim of the experiment was to test the hypothesis of a positive influence of the group on individual melodic recalls, with a comparison of the mistakes rate.

Mots clés: Ethnomusicology; memory; performance; mimicry; free recall task

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Psychologie

Aurélie Helmlinger. Testing the influence of the group for the memorisation of repertoire in Trinidad and Tobago steelbands. 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, 2006, Bologna, Italy. pp.1172- 1175. ⟨hal-00445783⟩