Emily Placido

Intro to Music Education

SPIT Paper #4
March 2, 2017

Gordon, J. and Gridley, M. (2013). Musical preferences as a function of stimulus

complexity of piano jazz. Creativity Research Journal, 25(1), 143-146. Retrieved

February 28, 2017

Musical Preferences as a Function of Stimulus Complexity of Piano Jazz by Josh

Gordon and Mark Gridley is a study done to see how certain people reacted to certain

complexities (i.e. easy and hard) jazz music. They chose 27 undergraduate students

from Case Western Reserve University to listen to 7 jazz samples, focusing on piano

improvisation. The authors told the students to rate each song on a scale of 1 to 7 on

how much they liked the sample. The results showed that students like medium

complex songs; and when plotted, the graph makes an inverted U shape.

As a former jazz pianist, I can personally see parallels between complexity of

jazz improv and the enjoyment of the song. When I was forced into playing piano solos,

I felt very overwhelmed (at the far right of the inverted u graph). As a classical pianist

and a percussionist, I can also see parallels between personal experiences and thru

results from thru study. There are many times where I sit in the back of the bad room

completely bored because my part is too easy; at the same time, there are times where

I feel overwhelmed and shut down because a certain piece is too hard. It may not be in

terms of jazz, but there can be an overarching theme that can be applied to other fields.

As a future educator, the results from this study can be crucial. It allows me to

figure out what kind of pieces certain ensembles should play. Additionally, I can have the
Emily Placido
Intro to Music Education
SPIT Paper #4
March 2, 2017

ensemble listen to the song they will play and give feedback on what they think about it.

Using that feedback, I can determine whether or not the ensemble is willing to play it. All

in all, I can use the findings from this study to help figure out whether my students are

able to play it, based on the feedback they give me on what they heard.

This article was an interesting article to read, but I felt like a lot of people already

knew the results. It was interesting to read the variables the conductors chose,

especially the fact that they chose modern jazz. It was also interesting to see that they

chose undergrad students and only undergrad students and not a mixture of ages.