This thesis is an examination about different keyboard instruments and how the pianist can use them in a groove context. All keyboard instruments have different attack, decay, release, overtones, and dynamics, as well as different opportunities to affect these parameters. Every instrument also involves various opportunities and challenges in an ensemble, in the way they affect and are affected by the playing of the fellow musicians. The examination involved that I played, recorded, and transcribed different keyboard patterns from different recordings. I played every pattern with four different instruments and explored how the groove changed based on the instruments I played and how I could use the parameters of every instrument to get variation. First, I did this playing to drum loops and later with real musicians.   My conclusions are that getting an overview of the overtones and how distinct the instruments can be is the key to improve your ability to play different keyboard instruments. To get to know instruments and their ways to express intensity is the essence of finding your way into the groove.

This thesis addresses the question of mathematical involvement in music, a topic long discussed going all the way back to Plato. It details the mathematical construction of the three main tuning systems (Pythagorean, just intonation, and equal temperament), the methods by which they were built and the mathematics that drives them through the lens of a historical perspective. It also briefly touches on the philosophical aspects of the tuning systems and whether their differences affect listeners. It further details the invention of the Fourier Series and their relation to the sound wave to explain the concept of overtones within the tuning systems.

Under mitt tredje år på Musikhögskolan Ingesund bestämmer jag mig för att åka på utbyte till Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Det tredje läsåret ska vi skriva ett självständigt arbete om ett valfritt ämne inom musik. Jag valde att studera min inlärning av flageolettspel på barytonsaxofon, då jag hade hittat ett stycke för solo-barytonsaxofon och blåsorkester som gick upp på flageolett-tonerna. Att kunna spela flageoletter på saxofon är en kännedom som många anser som proffsigt. När jag sedan som saxofonlärare har dessa kunskaper om hur det är att lära sig spela flageoletter tror jag att det kommer ge mig en vidare synvinkel på problem som uppkomma. Syftet är att se hur jag designar mitt lärande och uppmärksammar de problem jag stöter på samt hur jag hanterar dessa. Jag har valt att studera detta ur ett designteoretiskt perspektiv med videoobservation samt komplimenterande anteckningar som metod där jag har fem filmer över en sex veckors period. I resultatdelen diskuterar jag hur jag designat mitt lärande samt vilka hinder jag stött på och hur jag hanterat dem. / During my third year at Ingesund School of Music I decided to engage in an exchange student program at the Canary Conservatory Superior of Music in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. The third school year you´re assigned to write an independent self-study on an optional topic within music. I had chosen to study my learning of the altissimo register on the baritone saxophone, because I found a piece for baritone saxophone solo with wind band that has music that goes to the altissimo register. The knowledge of playing in the altissimo register is considered as a professional knowledge. Pursuing my career as a saxophone teacher and including this knowledge about learning of the altissimo register I think I will have a greater view of which problems you can find throughout the process. The purpose of the assignment is to see how I design my learning and pay attention to problems and see how I handle them. I have chosen to study this through a design theory perspective with video observation and complimentary notes as the method of this study which I got five films over a six weeks long period. In the result part I discus how I have designed my learning and which problems I did found and how I handled them.

In dieser Arbeit wird die Physik der Stimm- und Lautbildung von Vögeln untersucht, wobei zwei verschiedene Zwei-Massen-Modelle des menschlichen Kehlkopfes, sowie die Theorie der Nichtlinearen Dynamik verwendet werden. Die Zwei-Massen-Modelle des menschlichen Kehlkopfes (ein angepasstes Zwei-Massen-Modell und ein Trapez-Modell) wurden dazu an die Größe des Stimmorgans der Vögel (Syrinx) angepasst, um die Druckentstehung, die Steuerung der harmonischen Obertöne und "Register" studieren zu können, die vom Syrinx ohne Kopplung an Quelle und Vokaltrakt erzeugt werden. Unsere Simulationen sind ein erster Schritt in Richtung eines realistischeren Modells der Syrinx. Eine detaillierte Bifurkationsanalyse des Trapezmodells bestätigt, dass die Geometrie und die Ruhelage der Syrinx das harmonische Spektrum drastisch beeinflussen können, und sie gibt Hinweise über mögliche Erzeugungsmechanismen der reichhaltigen harmonischen Spektren während der Einatmung. Des weiteren wird die Bifurkationsanalyse benutzt, um den Beitrag der Muskeln der Syrinx quantitativ zu beschreiben. Dies geschieht in dem Modell mit Hilfe von zeitabhängigen Parametern, welche die Ruhelage der Labia und die Frequenzmodulation steuern. / In this thesis, the physics of birds phonation is discussed using a two-mass models approach and the theory of nonlinear dynamics. Two-mass models of the human larynx (rescaled two-mass model and trapezoidal model) have been adapted to the dimension of the avian syrinx to study pressure onset, control of harmonic overtones and "registers" of the sound radiated by the birds vocal organ (syrinx) in the absence of source-tract coupling. Our simulations are a first step towards more realistic modelling of the syrinx. A detailed bifurcation analysis of the trapezoidal model confirms that the geometry and the rest position of the syrinx can influence the harmonic spectra drastically, suggests possible mechanisms involved in the production of rich-harmonic spectra during inspiration and is used to describe quantitatively the contribution of syringeal muscles. The latter is implemented in the model by means of driving time-dependent parameters controlling the labia rest position and frequency modulation.