Music-related body movement

In this video, we will look more closely at some of the terminology we use when discussing music and movement. This is important to avoid confusion and to be as precise as possible when we describe different phenomena. We start out by discussing the concept of music-related motion. The first part of the term is that of music-related. And please note that music-related is quite different from musical. In this context, we’re interested in all sorts of movements carrying out in a musical context, whether they are musical or not. For example, if a pianist scratches his head during a performance, this is a music-related motion, even though it is not musical at all. And it’s not related to the music being played either.

But if this scratching happens during a performance, it may have an impact on the performer. For example, the way a particular phrase is being played on the piano. This scratching may also influence the way an audience experiences the performance, for better or for worse. It may not be important at all. But if there is a lot of scratching going on, this may leave a bad impression on the performance itself. No doubt that performers are very concerned about everything they’re doing on stage. Now, let us just move on to the second part of the term, music-related motion. And that is the motion part. Motion can be quite clearly defined as the displacement of an object in space over time.

So we move something from here to there, or we move a part of the body. It is somewhat confusing that we have two words that are quite similar. Motion, on one side, and also movement. And these are used somewhat interchangeably, both in everyday life and in research. So it’s difficult to give an exact definition of the difference. One way to think about the difference, though, is that motion is a more technical term, describing the physics of moment. Such as when you talk about, for example, motion capture. As such, movement is a slightly wider term than motion. But we and others are not entirely consequent here. And you will probably hear that we are using both terms interchangeably in this course.

So, in this course, we are very strict about terminology. And, but we have these words, motion and movement. And I often try to say that I only talk about motion. But what about you? I prefer movements. So we have motion and movement. And I mess it up all the time, because I also use movements. And do you use motion at all, or– No, not too much. I prefer movement because it’s a verb– you move. But you don’t “mosh,” do you? No. But then I talk about motion capture, for example, when we do motion capture of music related movements. And then we have problems, again. I know. But then, you have move-ments. But you cannot have mo-tions, right?

Or, I don’t know? I’m not sure. And also in music, we have movements, for example, if you talk about a orchestra piece, we have multiple movements. Then, it may be funny to talk about motion first. Second, third, fourth. Yes. Yes. It’s a tricky term, yes. Can you help us out? What do you use– motion or movement?