Danielle Hickey Photo Editor
Music Professor Steven Pologe gives sophomore Holly Larsen her cello lesson in Beall Concert Hall on Thursday morning.
Professors get grant to study
impact of senses on music
The $45,000 grant will let
professors Steven Pologe
and Marjorie Woollacott
continue their research
By Allyson Goldstein
Freelance Reporter
Two University faculty members
have been awarded a $45,000 grant
from the National Academy of Record
ing Arts and Sciences, the group that
organizes the Grammy Awards.
Music Professor Steven Pologe and
exercise and movement science Profes
sor Marjorie Woollacott will use the
grant money to continue their research
on how musicians use senses to play
specific notes on stringed instruments.
"Playing a stringed instrument is one
of the most complex things we do as hu
mans," Pologe said. "It requires minute
accuracy, large simultaneous variables
and a highly demanding physiology."
The researchers will use highly so
phisticated technology and computer
analysis to determine how accurately
cellists play notes and scales. Certain
senses musicians use to play their in
struments, such as vision, will be
blocked to evaluate how the absence
of sensory inputs affects a musicians'
ability to correctly find notes.
"We are trying to investigate what
cognitive elements are most involved
in accurate performance," Pologe
said. "We want to determine how vi
sion, auditory information and tactile
sensation are involved in playing a
stringed instrument."
Woollacott, who controls the more
technical scientific aspects of the
'This will be a pioneering
study of musicians at all
levels and ability... We
hope to document and
study the most precise and
rapid movements of which
humans are capable."
Majorie Woldacott
University of Oregon Science Professor
research, is enthusiastic about the po
tential that the new study has to help
researchers understand how musi
cians create their art.
"This will be a pioneering study of
musicians at all levels and ability,"
Woollacott said in a press release. "We
hope to document and study the
most precise and rapid movements of
which humans are capable."
The research began when Woollacott
started taking cello lessons from Pologe
about two years ago. Pologe said Wool
lacott was interested in the complicat
ed motions, the synergy of various sens
es and the muscle groups required in
playing a stringed instrument.
Sophomore general science major
Ava Asher said the new study will pro
vide musicians insight into their art.
"The study is relevant for musi
cians to see where their skill comes
from," she said. "You can take it on
faith that you're talented, or you can
boil it down to a science."
While the researchers are still gath
ering data, Pologe said he hopes the
study will ultimately provide a more
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objective method for teaching aspir
ing musicians how to play stringed in
struments and helping experienced
musicians hone their techniques.
"Those of us who are responsible
for training young musicians have al
ways had to rely entirely on our sub
jective visual and acoustic perceptions
of their performance," Pologe said.
"This will allow us to more exactly de
tect, diagnose and correct problems."
Allyson Goldstein is a freelance
reporter for the Emerald.
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