Sound of Music, Sound of Breath. A Case Analysis of Music Making - Effect on Respiration through Acoustic Measurements of Breathing

Several studies have proven the relation between music-listening and respiration suggesting implications for music therapy interventions, but less focused on music-making effects. Moreover, few studies took into account explorative acoustic measurements of breathing sounds although respiration, both as an action and a sound, has an important role in management of both individual and joint aspect of co-performance. This study aims to explore the effects of joint music making on breathing behavior through acoustic measurements of breathing sounds. Audio recording of breathing of two professional musicians (violinist and guitarist) was taken during a resting situation (baseline) and a musical co-performance. Musical analysis of the performance was carried out focusing on melodic, rhythmic and dynamic features. Three classes of indexes were extracted through breathing sounds analysis: 1) respiratory indexes (respiratory rate, cycles duration, I/E ratio, apnoeas); 2) acoustic indexes (intensity, accents); 3) coordination indexes (simultaneous breaths attacks). Main results show that: 1) musical performance improves I/E ratio; 2) intensity and accents of breathing sounds are related to both rhythmic and dynamic features of music performance; 3) number of simultaneous breaths is significantly higher in musical performance compared to baseline. These preliminary results show that music making affects respiration, which seems to be used to support both emotional intentions (dynamics) and performance (rhythm); secondly, acoustic measurements could highlight significant features of breathing behaviour that couldn’t be inferred by physiological ones alone; finally, they motivate further analysis on how respiration is used, more or less unintentionally, to support joint actions: findings in this directions could widen our understanding of active music therapy effects.