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The use of digital technology can be seen in many aspects of daily lives. Once a symbol of business and the corporate world, digital devices such as computers and cell phones are now common artifacts to adults and children alike. While these devices become more practical and common, questions of their impact on behavior and interactions begin to arise. Digital Drumming is a series of three experiments that examined the impact of known computer participation as a partner in a dyadic creative, experience-driven task. The subjective processes associated with the task of rhythmic music production by inexperienced and experienced participants working collaboratively either with a human or computer partner to produce complex poly-rhythm sounds were investigated. Specifically, the research question asked is: How do inexperienced versus experienced drummers solve problems of what to produce when they have a human partner, versus a computer partner? This is a problem of cooperation, synchronization, and microcoordination (Lee, Tatar, & Harrison, 2010). Data was collected through self-reported questionnaires and audio transcriptions of the actual sessions. Behavioral data and subjective experience responses suggested that participants viewed a computer's role differently depending on their experience level. Participants demonstrated a propensity to simultaneous interaction, often sharing a common tempo with variable rhythmic patterns. The importance of partner, as well as the perception of leader were influenced by the partner type, and the experience level of the participant. This work identifies differ- ent perceptions and expectations that humans of varying prior experience levels have when interacting with and responding to technology, and suggests deeper investigation into how people view technology in creative activities. / Master of Science

The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement or CAPS (which is the modified extension of the National Curriculum Statement policy), Music learning area, gives an option for Music learners to follow the Indigenous African Music (IAM) stream. This caters for them to be examined in African instruments. Currently, there are no available prescribed instrumental curricula in any IAM instrumental practices that learners can follow should they choose the IAM stream. Therefore, this research was prompted by the need for graded curriculum in IAM instruments for Music learners at the Further Education and Training (FET) level. This quantitative research focuses on the incorporation of contemporary African instrumental music practices in the modern Music curriculum as demanded by current trends, multiculturalism and multi‐ethnic societies with their emerging modern culture which to an extent nevertheless still embrace old traditions. The research is underpinned by the theoretical framework of multicultural music education. This study comprises two sections. Section one analyzes the dilemma that the South African Music curriculum faces when incorporating indigenous African instruments for examination at FET level and poses questions on how and which instrumental practices can be part of the possible solution. It revisits the epistemology of traditional African drumming and investigates how some of the traditional drumming practices have changed and are practised in the contemporary context. Section two introduces a contemporary African instrumental practice whose development is rooted in the generic traditional idioms of African drumming. This contemporary drumming style is not tied to a specific ethnic group but rather a creative continuum of African traditional drumming. This practice is explored as a potential instrumental option for the South African Music curriculum (IAM stream); through conducting of training workshops, progress survey and the evaluation of the implementation process of the pilot graded model curriculum. Lastly, pedagogical instructions on teaching, learning and evaluation of this contemporary drumming practice are provided. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lk2014 / Music / DMus / Unrestricted

Por meio da intertextualidade e da narrativa, esta dissertação aborda a relação dos pequenos engraxates ambulantes com a música produzida nas ruas da cidade de São Paulo, durante a primeira metade do século XX. As rodas de batucada organizadas informalmente por estes pequenos trabalhadores nas esquinas, praças e largos, nos momentos de intervalo entre um cliente e outro, eram muitos comuns na paisagem urbana do período. A prática contribuiu na formação de uma geração de sambistas paulistas e na consolidação do samba em São Paulo. Sujeitos ecléticos que se relacionavam com os mais diferentes estratos sociais, os lustradores de sapatos ocupavam as ruas paulistanas desde meados do século XIX e criaram, ao longo do tempo, uma forte imbricação com a cultura musical da cidade. Durante a década de 1940, alguns eram compositores e criticavam, em sambas, a repressão a qual estavam submetidos pelas autoridades, já que era proibido exercer o ofício nas ruas. Outros, se sobressaíram como batuqueiros e, quando adultos, destacaram-se como lideranças das principais escolas de samba de São Paulo. As fontes documentais empregadas na pesquisa são de origem policial, processual, crônicas, reportagens e depoimentos. / By means of a narrative, this current thesis approaches the relations between shoeshine boys and the music produced on the streets of São Paulo during the 1930s and 1940s. The batucada jams, informally organized by those young workers in any corner, square or plaza of the city, during quick breaks in the midst of their labor, were very common in the urban landscape at that time. This custom contributed to the formation of a whole generation of samba musicians that had established the samba music scene in the city of São Paulo. All those young boot polishers were very eclectic fellows, always willing to keep in touch with people from all social classes, by occupying the streets of São Paulo since the middle of the 19th century and then creating a strong relation with the music culture of the city throughout the times. During the 1940s a few of them became music writers well-known for criticizing, through their samba songs, the steady repression they suffered from the police due to their status of illegal workers. Other shoeshine boys became batuqueiros (street drummers) that later would be responsible for leading the most traditional samba schools in São Paulo. The main documentary sources used in the present study were records from police departments, criminal prosecutions, written chronicles, news reporting and oral history.

Por meio da intertextualidade e da narrativa, esta dissertação aborda a relação dos pequenos engraxates ambulantes com a música produzida nas ruas da cidade de São Paulo, durante a primeira metade do século XX. As rodas de batucada organizadas informalmente por estes pequenos trabalhadores nas esquinas, praças e largos, nos momentos de intervalo entre um cliente e outro, eram muitos comuns na paisagem urbana do período. A prática contribuiu na formação de uma geração de sambistas paulistas e na consolidação do samba em São Paulo. Sujeitos ecléticos que se relacionavam com os mais diferentes estratos sociais, os lustradores de sapatos ocupavam as ruas paulistanas desde meados do século XIX e criaram, ao longo do tempo, uma forte imbricação com a cultura musical da cidade. Durante a década de 1940, alguns eram compositores e criticavam, em sambas, a repressão a qual estavam submetidos pelas autoridades, já que era proibido exercer o ofício nas ruas. Outros, se sobressaíram como batuqueiros e, quando adultos, destacaram-se como lideranças das principais escolas de samba de São Paulo. As fontes documentais empregadas na pesquisa são de origem policial, processual, crônicas, reportagens e depoimentos. / By means of a narrative, this current thesis approaches the relations between shoeshine boys and the music produced on the streets of São Paulo during the 1930s and 1940s. The batucada jams, informally organized by those young workers in any corner, square or plaza of the city, during quick breaks in the midst of their labor, were very common in the urban landscape at that time. This custom contributed to the formation of a whole generation of samba musicians that had established the samba music scene in the city of São Paulo. All those young boot polishers were very eclectic fellows, always willing to keep in touch with people from all social classes, by occupying the streets of São Paulo since the middle of the 19th century and then creating a strong relation with the music culture of the city throughout the times. During the 1940s a few of them became music writers well-known for criticizing, through their samba songs, the steady repression they suffered from the police due to their status of illegal workers. Other shoeshine boys became batuqueiros (street drummers) that later would be responsible for leading the most traditional samba schools in São Paulo. The main documentary sources used in the present study were records from police departments, criminal prosecutions, written chronicles, news reporting and oral history.

Polyneoptera is an assemblage of eleven insect orders comprising the "orthopteroid" insects. It includes familiar insects such as grasshoppers, roaches, termites, earwigs and preying mantises; as well as the more obscure web-spinners, angel insects and ice-crawlers. We present a phylogenetic analysis of the polyneopteran orders based on 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Histone 3, and a coded morphology matrix for an extensive sampling of taxa. We investigate the use of congruence between separate datasets as an a priori measure of alignment quality. Our results support the paraphyly of Polyneoptera, the monophyly of Dictyoptera, sister taxon relationships between Embiidina + Phasmatodea and Dermaptera + Zoraptera, and a relatively basal placement of Plecoptera. The analyses also support a sister taxon relationship between the newly described Mantophasmatodea and Grylloblattodea, a small order of cryophilic insects confined to the northwestern Americas and northeastern Asia. This placement coupled with the morphological disparity of the two groups validates the creation of a new order for Mantophasmatodea. Our results also suggest the Direct Optimization (formerly Optimization Alignment) produces alignments that are more predictable across the parameter landscape than alignment via CLUSTAL X, as measured by congruence among independent data partitions. Dense taxon sampling and phylogenetic analysis of six molecular markers (12S, 16S, 18S, 28S, COII, and H3) and morphological data for the order Plecoptera demonstrates that the subordinal groups Arctoperlaria and Antarctoperlaria are monophyletic. Euholognatha and Systellognatha are also monophyletic, with the exception of the genus Megaleuctra which is the basal lineage for the order and deserves recognition as a distinct family (Megaleuctridae). Notonemouridae is strongly supported as a monophyletic clade. Within the Systellognatha Styloperlidae is the basal lineage, followed by Peltoperlidae then Pteronarcyidae, and Perloidea is a strongly supported monophyletic group with Chloroperlidae as sister taxon to Perlidae + Perlodidae. The family Gripopterygidae is strongly supported as paraphyletic. Many Plecoptera (stoneflies) exhibit a pre-mating communication known as "drumming." Species of the genus Isogenoides have complex drumming behavior in which (i) the male calls the female by tapping his abdomen against the substrate, (ii) the female answers with her own distinctive tapping, and (iii) the male responds with a confirmatory series of taps. These drumming patterns are specific to individual species and may vary within a species to form distinct dialects. Phylogenetic analysis for the genus based on six molecular markers (12S, 16S, 18S, 28S, COII, and H3) supports Yugus as its nearest extant relative and I. hansoni as the basal lineage within the genus. Drumming behavioral characters appear to be largely incongruent with the phylogeny.

Taiko is a highly physical and theatrical form of ensemble drumming that was popularized in 1950s Japan and has been widely practiced in Japanese American and other Asian American communities since the late 1960s. Taiko’s visual and sonic largesse—outstretched limbs and thundering drums—contrasted with pervasive stereotypes of Asians as silent and passive. This dissertation uses ethnographic participant-observation, archival research, and performance analysis to examine how North American taiko performance produces and is produced by the shifting contours of racial, gender, and sexual identity and community. Taiko groups create, re-shape, and challenge familiar notions of Asia, America, and Asian America through their public performances and in their rehearsal processes. While sometimes implicated in Orientalist performance contexts, taiko players use performance strategically to commemorate Asian American history, to convey feelings of empowerment, and to invite feminist, anti-racist, and queer forms of spectatorship. This dissertation explores taiko’s roots in the Asian American Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, its implications for 1990s multiculturalism, as well as its intersections with contemporary queer communities. My analysis focuses on three case study groups whose origins, philosophies, and geographic locations offer a diverse view of North American taiko and the Asian American/Canadian communities with which they are associated. Chapter One considers how San Jose Taiko’s early articulation of their identity as an Asian American taiko group continues to influence its practices and performances, particularly their taiko-dance piece, “Ei Ja Nai Ka?” and their national tours. Chapter Two examines how Minneapolis-based Mu Daiko negotiates its members’ diverse racial, ethnic, and gender identities within a Midwestern context that values multiculturalism. Chapter Three considers how the all-women’s group Jodaiko conveys Asian American lesbian identity and invites queer spectatorship through theatrical performance choices and its members’ everyday gender performances. My analysis extends from my ethnographic participant-observation, which includes personal interviews, attendance at workshops and performances, and spending time with performers; archival research in formal collections, groups’ internal documents, and my personal archive of taiko programs, posters, photographs, DVDs, and other ephemera; and performance analysis that is informed by my twelve years of experience as a taiko performer. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore treatment options for aggression-related disorders. Two activities were examined to validate their use as frustration-reduction techniques --yoga and therapeutic drumming. Twenty-two college students were randomly assigned to participate in one of three groups--yoga, drumming, or silence (control)--following experimentally-induced frustration using a computerized Stroop color-word technique. Self-reported emotion levels and physiological responses were tracked at baseline, post-frustration, and post-treatment to measure responses to treatment. Results indicate that self-reported frustration levels were significantly reduced in all experimental groups, but physiologic responses showed no significant changes. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) indicated no significant difference in lowered frustration for any of the treatment groups, suggesting that they are equally effective. These results also suggest that the passage of time may be key to successful emotion regulation. Further study should examine control variables and methodology to identify other factors that may be involved in regulating aggressive emotions.

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