About

Bryan E. Nichols is a teacher and conductor at The Pennsylvania State University, where he leads the University Choir, teaches courses in music and education, and directs the Pitch Exploration Lab. He is a life member of the American Choral Directors Association and has served in leadership positions in NAfME and ACDA. Dr. Nichols has served on the Future Directions Committee for the Kentucky Music Educators Association and was the Region 4 Choral Chair. He also served as the Ohio middle-level R&R chair and was the high school R&S Chair for the state of Kentucky, with his choirs performing for the Kentucky Music Educators Association and touring across the country. His ensembles have commissioned five works and performed jointly with ensembles from the Indianapolis Children’s Chorus and the Minnesota Boychoir. His research has been published in various academic journals, and he serves on multiple editorial boards, with scholarly interests in singing accuracy and music teacher pedagogy. Dr. Nichols earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Kentucky, a Master of Music Education from Florida State University, and a PhD from the University of Washington.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Audiology
• Speech recognition
• Computer science
• Mathematics education

Selected publications

• Piano history, aural skills, and working memory predict melodic dictation performance

  Frontiers in Psychology · 2025-07-29

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  that received spoken instructions intended to focus their attention on specific elements. Williams (2022) reported that listeners were more successful detecting errors in three-part polyphonic music when the error was in the line on which they were instructed to focus, as compared to peripheral lines. Therefore, focus of attention seems to influence-positively or negativelylisteners' accuracy during melodic dictation and related tasks.Musical training and other background variables have been explored in relation to melodic dictation accuracy, with some mixed findings. Surprisingly, dictation accuracy was not affected by the number of years of prior music theory study and piano skill in one study (Beckett, 1997). In contrast, years of private piano lessons served as a significant positive predictor of melodic dictation scores among collegiate music majors (Nichols & Springer, 2022). Similarly, years of experience on a secondary instrument was a significant predictor of error detection skill (Nichols & Barrett, 2024). Finally, Stambaugh (2016) reported that grades received in aural skills class-but not music theory class-were associated with higher performance on a measure of error detection. Given that various types of musical training and experience are likely to covary with melodic dictation skills, it is important for researchers to explore those relationships in studies of melodic dictation.Cognitive factors associated with melodic dictation skill may include working memory capacity, phrase chunking, transcription ability, and the agency for selective attention (Cornelius & Brown, 2020). Related to this is the construct of mental imagery, which is the ability to imagine or picture ideas-whether visual or otherwise. For auditory imagery, the ability to imagine sounds when prompted may be important for musicians, which may be related to musical training (Gates, 2021;Halpern, 2015). Musical training seems relevant for working memory capacity, in which some types of musicians may show greater capacity than others. For example, jazz musicians outperformed classical musicians on a measure of working memory (Nichols et al., 2018), yet the role of auditory imagery in melodic dictation tasks remains unclear. Regarding the role of working memory, both verbal working memory and tonal working memory have been shown to be related to error detection performance in college musicians (Nichols & Barrett, 2024). This finding supports the potential implication of working memory in melodic dictation (Cornelius & Brown, 2020) if in fact the performance of error detection and melodic dictation performance are correlated (Larson, 1977).Attentional flexibility is the cognitive ability to switch between tasks or levels of focus, and there is evidence that musical training enhances this ability, both in children (Bain, 1976) and adults (Biasutti, 2017). A direct comparison showed college musicians to be superior to nonmusicians (Bugos & Mostafa, 2011), but there is also evidence that degree of training is not associated with a broader measure called cognitive flexibility (Gade & Schlemmer, 2021). There is evidence of a positive correlation between cognitive flexibility and sight reading ability (Herrero & Carriedo, 2022), and sight reading has also been shown to have an association with melodic dictation (Pembrook, 1986). Further, conductors have been shown to have superior skills than pianists on some, but not all, attentional flexibility tasks (Wöllner & Halpern, 2016).Therefore, musicians may rely on attentional flexibility to perform complex tasks such as transcribing both pitch and rhythms in a melodic dictation task. Ding et al. (2018) suggested that increased numbers of notes, but not the duration of notes, taxes working memory for musicians and non-musicians. Musicians outperformed nonmusicians in a test of verbal working memory but not in a test of tonal working memory in Ding et al.'s study, suggesting different mechanisms for tonal working memory than other types of working memory. Thus, measures of memory and attention in any study of musicians might incorporate multiple modalities. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of memory, attention, and musical background in melodic dictation. Two research questions guided the inquiry:1. To what extent are measures of memory and attention related to melodic dictation performance? Our hypothesis was that these would be significantly related based on prior studies in focus of attention and in error detection.2. How are prior musical experience and musical training related to melodic dictation performance? Our hypothesis was that background variables would be related to melodic dictation performance, and also that age or coursework completed would be related.We sampled from undergraduate music majors at a college of music in the southeastern United States that required four semesters of written music theory and four semesters of aural skills coursework for all music degrees. Although we initially collected data from 36 participants, two participants who were enrolled for longer than the typical degree program by two standard deviations were excluded from analysis for a resulting sample size of N = 34. We collected data from each participant individually in a research laboratory. A researcher or research assistant first administered a background questionnaire, which documented and confirmed status as a music major and continued with demographic questions related to participants' year in school and history of lessons and ensemble performance. After completing the demographic questionnaire, we screened the participants for absolute pitch.Measures of absolute pitch are common in research related to pitch perception or production abilities. Given that absolute pitch ability has been shown to be related to melodic dictation (Dooley & Deutsch, 2010), we administered a brief test of absolute pitch ability, which included ten tones using a pre-recorded sine tones ranging from F#3 to E5 (cf. Schlemmer et al., 2005).Between each of the ten items was a brief pause followed by dissonant clusters of notes performed with a piano timbre followed again by a brief pause before the next item. Participants continued in the subsequent data collection regardless of their performance on this test. Four participants' scores suggested absolute pitch ability. However, none of those participants' melodic dictation scores were outliers (all within 2 SD of the mean within the 95% rejection region), and none were the top scoring participants on melodic dictation. Therefore, we chose to retain these participants in our analyses, consistent with Nichols & Barrett (2024).Following the absolute pitch screening, participants completed a battery of tests related to attention and working memory, as well as a melodic dictation task. Each of these measures are described in the paragraphs that follow in the order they were completed by participants. Data collection took approximately 45 mins per participant, and participants took one rest break between tasks near the midpoint of the procedures.Verbal Working Memory. Next, participants completed two measures of working memory capacity, including a common measure of verbal working memory referred to as the forward digit span test (per Talamini et al., 2016). In this test, participants hear numbers at a rate of one digit per second and are asked to repeat the numbers verbally in the order they were presented. Participants advance in duration-increasing from sets of two numbers to sets of three numbers, and if they are successful, increasing to sets of four numbers, and so on. The participant's score is the number corresponding to the highest set of numbers they recite accurately, and the participant stops the test when they do not accurately recite a series of numbers within the set. Our participants' digit span scores ranged from 4 to 9 (M = 5.44, SD = 1.19, 95% CI 1 [5.09, 5.82]).Tonal Working Memory. The second working memory task was a test of tonal working memory in which participants hear pairs of pitch sequences of increasing length (Nichols & Barrett, 2024), modeled after the forward digit span task in which participants' working memory 1 All 95% confidence intervals reported in the paper are bootstrapped using 1,000 bootstrap samples.is tested with increasing series of digits to be remembered (Talamini et al., 2016). Pitch sequences were presented as eighth notes at 75 bpm, and in the second sequence of each pair, half the items were presented identically, and half were presented with one different pitch, minimizing large pitch leaps or non-chord tones. After hearing each pair, participants indicated whether the pitch sequences were same or different. As in the forward digit span test for verbal working memory, the tonal working memory test progressed in terms of stimuli length. We used a presentation of ten items of six monophonic pitches in sequence, and the order of items was randomized for each participant for this and subsequent levels of the test. Then we gave participants ten items of eight pitches, then ten items of ten pitches, concluding after ten items of twelve pitches. Unlike the forward digit span test, all participants progressed through all four levels of the test until the end. As used in Nichols and Barrett's (2024) study, the participants were scored by how many items (out of 40) they answered correctly. Among our sample, tonal working memory scores ranged from 21 to 33 (M = 28.24, SD = 3.28, 95% CI [27.15,29.21]).Auditory Imagery. We chose to include auditory imagery among our measures of memory and attention based on prior studies (Gates, 2021;Halpern, 2015). Auditory imagery is conceived of here as "hearing" a sound in one's head that is not physically present, and for this construct, we used the Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale (BAIS; Halpern, 2015). The BAIS is composed of two self-reporting subscales for Vividness (BAIS-V) and for Control (BAIS-C).Vividness is meant to describe one's ability to create an auditory image of the music (or other aural stimuli), and control is meant to describe one's ability to change the auditory image that has been created. For example, on the BAIS-V, a sample item would be "For the first item, consider the beginning of the song 'Happy Birthday.' The sound of a trumpet beginning the piece. _____," and participants would rate the vividness of their auditory image using a 7-point scale anchored by 1 (no image present at all), 4 (fairly vivid), and 7 (as vivid as the actual sound). On the BAIS-C, participants are presented an initial auditory image and are asked to change that auditory image in some way (e.g., "For the first pair, consider attending a choir rehearsal. a. The sound of an all-children's choir singing the first verse of a song. b. An alladults' choir now sings the second verse of the song. ______"). Participants rate how easy it is to change from the initial auditory image to the second auditory image using a 7-point scale with anchors of 1 (no image present at all), 4 (could change the image, but with effort), and 7 (extremely easy to change the image). Both subscales (BAIS-V and BAIS-C) are composed of 14 items, and descriptive statistics for participants' BAIS-V and BAIS-C scores are provided in Table 1. Similar to Halpern (2015), we found acceptable levels of internal consistency reliability both for the BAIS-V (a = .79) and BAIS-C (a = .80), and all item-total correlations were also positive, providing further evidence of internal consistency.Attentional Flexibility. In addition to these two measures of working memory and the two subscales of auditory imagery, we incorporated a standard test of attentional flexibility.Defined as a form of mental flexibility, attentional flexibility involves the processes of attending to and switching between streams of information and can be measures with a simple pencil-andpaper trail making test (Reitan & Wolfson, 1985). In this test, participants are asked to connect alternating letters and numbers in ascending order, thus monitoring both "streams" at the same time in music studies has suggested musical training is associated with (Bugos & Mostafa, Our was not in per but whether the degree to which attentional memory capacity or auditory the processes of melodic dictation. on the trail making test ranged from to (M = SD = 95% CI included a melodic dictation task as the measure for this study that was used in prior research 2016). For this participants to an from the second measures 1 through of 9 in performed by We chose this task participant scores in study were well with and it was in a tonal which would be to participants and would be of the types of they would experience with dictation tasks in aural skills with participants the four with of between each and participants the at any including the was the as by the on a that was with a time and (2016) a pitch score score for the dictation and we followed the same with scores were to of pitches that the The subsequent are based on the melodic dictation scores for each participant score and the correlation of the pitch scores (M = SD = 95% CI and scores (M = SD = 95% CI were positive and significant = as in statistics for all measures are provided in Table 1. The are in To what extent are measures of memory and attention related to melodic dictation performance? flexibility, as by the trail making test, was not significantly related to performance on melodic = correlation is for the trail making test, scores are Next, auditory imagery was not significantly related to performance on melodic dictation as by the BAIS-V = or BAIS-C = Finally, measures of working memory were related to performance on melodic performance on verbal working memory forward digit span was not significantly related = performance on the tonal working memory test was significantly related to performance on melodic dictation = Our hypothesis was that measures of both attention and memory would be significantly related to melodic dictation based on prior but this hypothesis was confirmed for tonal working memory in the study and not for measures of attentional flexibility or auditory How are prior musical experience and musical training related to melodic dictation performance? data analyses, we screened the data to whether they the for multiple For sample size we the et al., and & of participants to predictor with as our sample size Given the size of our sample = we bootstrapped confidence intervals they and error with et al., thus A visual of and suggested The data the of as by a of and factors were than et al., 2017). We outliers that were more than two standard deviations from the and there were significant Finally, an of and indicated a analysis to our second research working memory was the first and two experience variables of private piano lessons and semesters of aural skills were to the second melodic dictation scores served as the This to the of tonal working memory on melodic dictation accuracy also the of the experience variables in the second among the variables are provided in Table indicated that the first with one predictor working was a significant predictor of melodic dictation accuracy, = = 2 = 2 = The second which also included years of private piano lessons and semesters of aural skills coursework was a significant predictor of melodic dictation accuracy as = = 2 = 2 = The second more than the 2 = = and are in Table As shown in that all three variables were significant positive of melodic tonal working memory = = years of piano lessons = = and semesters of aural skills coursework = = Our hypothesis was that prior instrument experience in terms of history or years of ensemble would be related to melodic dictation performance. indicated that piano but not other musical be used to melodic dictation purpose of this study was to explore the role of memory, attention, and musical experience as in college melodic dictation tonal working memory was significantly related to these participants' ability to and a classical music and the hypothesis was confirmed that working memory capacity in terms of the construct of tonal memory was related to melodic dictation. Our from Nichols and Barrett who found that both tonal and verbal working memory were related to error detection a skill that has been correlated to melodic dictation (Larson, our attentional flexibility the trail making test, was not significantly related to melodic dictation performance. We musicians may rely on attentional flexibility to perform melodic based on prior evidence that conductors have been shown to perform higher than pianists on attention tasks (Wöllner & Halpern, and that attention to a musical line error detection in that (e.g., 2022). conductors more streams of information than pianists as in the study (Wöllner & Halpern, but the monitoring of a line may a than two of pitches and melodic dictation is a complex that can on some degree of and we that listeners pitch and information in their of during dictation task. these data do not the role of attentional flexibility in monitoring the two of pitch and in a line melodic dictation auditory imagery was not associated with performance on melodic dictation in the We used two for auditory imagery, one for vividness (BAIS-V) of of an auditory image and one for the ability to control or change the auditory imagery is that musicians would have a mental of what is or what they However, the BAIS has been shown to have a to musical training and auditory imagery may from auditory imagery in the or on these are and to or and there may be a role of for these skills which musicians musicians may not auditory imagery in yet in the analysis was to control for the role of working memory then to explore the experience variables for significant in melodic dictation of lessons on participants' instrument was not among as in research (Cornelius & Brown, suggesting the duration of study on one instrument may not be of experience specific experience such as piano history (a common yet among music regardless of in the present study and in a study (Nichols & Springer, has been found to melodic dictation study may an musical which is by that indicated that experience on a second instrument for experience in a of error detection skill (Nichols & Barrett, 2024). jazz experience has been shown to from classical experience in working memory (Nichols et al., 2018), jazz history has yet to be shown to be in transcribing to written music such as in melodic present piano history and aural skills coursework to be to melodic dictation ability, which a finding for years of piano lessons (Nichols & Springer, yet from evidence melodic dictation is not related to years of piano lessons (Cornelius & Brown, 2020). Each of these variables may to the participants in all college musicians would be to have some private lessons and a history of ensemble during their undergraduate they may in terms of musical history in that some may have an instrument such as piano at a age may have music study experience in aural skills coursework to in what is or This supports a that grades from aural skills was associated with higher error detection performance a skill that has been correlated to melodic dictation (Larson, However, we the correlation between aural skills and melodic dictation Thus, we the significant for the aural skills in our these can be as the between aural skills coursework and skills such as melodic dictation has not been of this study are to are based on a sample of collegiate musicians, and this sample size our it is We bootstrapped confidence intervals bootstrapped to and the error However, we the of would be with increased sample size et al., flexibility may not have a significant role in melodic dictation in the study based on the monophonic transcription such as in our test (cf. 2016). However, a task that required participants to more than one melodic line or more than one at a time may rely more on attentional flexibility than the for flexibility be in and we that with may be a for this ability. Next, we asked these participants to perform a pitch and dictation task in which some may have more to their pitch score in an way of their pitch dictation ability, and be an important in melodic dictation and musical tasks and reported a between the number of and the number of leaps in the both of these would the working memory capacity in dictation tasks and error detection and other related tasks (Larson, 1997). Thus, these may be on the stimuli we chose for this study to Ding et al. (2018) found the number of notes but not duration of notes to working memory performance for musicians and this also for the and of notes in for in this of the role of attentional flexibility as it to monitoring pitches and rhythms is Further, selective attention as a construct for all tasks including error melodic and music has the potential to the of performance and the of musical skills at all age We the from and Halpern (2016) to the that musicians may rely on attentional flexibility to perform complex tasks such as transcribing both pitch and rhythms in a melodic dictation test in some How participants chose to to pitch and was not documented as of this study, and we there is potential for how musicians these two may for musicians to and accurately greater and that absolute pitch is related to melodic yet the participants in the present study the of absolute pitch not this which be explored in the role of piano study on melodic dictation performance as in this study the of what of piano study would in dictation skills (e.g., classical jazz In researchers might data on the types of piano study in which participants have to further what of piano study are to melodic dictation the age of musical may be associated with piano study at an age than other be to in of musical in our sample of college of been associated with (Bugos & Mostafa, Our was not in per but whether the degree to which mental in terms of attentional memory capacity or auditory the processes of melodic dictation. There is evidence that the focus of attention in the score a be more successful at pitch information 2022). Given that musicians multiple of music and as well as multiple from visual from from one's attentional flexibility is an important for continued in music in melodic transcription is and may individually and as in and different melodic dictation be after pitch skills to an for all are not the aural skills coursework seems to performance, might in with and from year to year and as it to research jazz musicians from classical musicians in working memory capacity, and and in a of can skills more by providing both visual and aural of presentation and with piano experience on classical may have different experience than those using or jazz and these can all be explored in piano lessons and and in that tonal working memory was a positive predictor of melodic dictation accuracy, those who that dictation and related aural skills tasks may consider that further tonal working memory. For example, the from working memory sequences of pitches that in number as they are successful (e.g., with sequences of four pitches, then then dictation seems to be a based on the of the Therefore, these types of multiple to transcribing sets of pitches that in number and pitch and for melodic dictation were correlated suggesting that participants who do well on one do well on the seems important it musicians may not to one of the it the of a for the task. common tests of melodic dictation the two as However, melodic dictation tasks of increasing in terms of number of at a time may such as one (e.g., in order to be We the evidence supports the that more and more types of musical experience may all to including piano secondary experience (Nichols & Barrett, 2024), jazz history (Nichols et 2018), and other coursework or music these as evidence for the role of working memory capacity in musicians rely on the ability to and pitches, and other in their working memory. Working memory capacity not for all the in melodic dictation The data the that musicians rely on a of and coursework to their musical and the working memory capacity that musicians dictation of classical is but one of the ability to and what is Thus, it a of an of and might more in of as well as such as is presented in classical However, dictation one of pitch and which is for at and aural

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Roles of Attentional Flexibility and Pitch Imagery in Error Detection and Melodic Dictation

  Music & Science · 2025-03-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The ability to detect errors in performance is an important skill for musicians of all types. Previous research has indicated that tonal working memory capacity may play a role in musical error detection. Here we further tested the role of memory and attention in the error detection performance of college musicians. Participants ( N = 39 ) from a pool of undergraduate music majors completed a test of error detection, pitch imagery (Pitch Imagery Arrow Task), and attentional flexibility (Trail Making Test) as well as a background questionnaire exploring past musical experience and training. Performance on a multi-part error detection test was not significantly related to year in school, level of aural skills class, or years of private piano. Years of experience on a second instrument and pitch imagery performance were significant predictors of melodic error detection skill, which was not correlated to our measure of attentional flexibility. We related these results to previous research suggesting the additive role of secondary instrument experience and to previous research indicating experience, not age, is a contributing factor to musical performance skills.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Memory and Presentation Mode in Melodic Error Detection

  Journal of Research in Music Education · 2024-01-31 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Previous research has variably indicated the role of working memory in error detection by which working memory played a role in rhythmic error detection but not melodic error detection. Here, we devised a longer melodic error detection task for college musicians in an auditory, rather than visual, condition using classical excerpts, which we compared to briefer visual and auditory control conditions. These tests were compared to performance on a test of verbal working memory (forward digit span test) and an experimenter-created tonal working memory test. The tonal working memory test was positively related to the forward digit span test, the melodic error detection, and the visual control but not to the auditory control. Performance on the error detection test was not significantly related to year in school, level of aural skills class, years of private piano, or level of group piano class. Our participants performed similarly on the aurally presented melodic error detection of classical excerpts and the briefer visual control but not on the briefer aural control. Among other variables, years of experience on a second instrument was a significant predictor of error detection skill. High familiarity ratings with a classical excerpt did not yield a relationship to error detection performance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Review for "How accurate are self‐evaluations of singing ability?"

  2023-06-06

  peer-review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• An entertainment-education policy approach to teach campus literacy, safety, and social norms

  Arts Education Policy Review · 2023-10-03

  articleCorresponding

  AbstractThis study represents an application of the entertainment education approach utilizing aspects of arts education to deliver campus policy and protocols to a population of incoming first year students at new student orientation. Consistent with previous applications in research, these theatrical entertainment messages were combined with a post-show discussion followed by a post-show survey. Data for this study consisted of those three elements (the show, the discussion, and the survey) and we describe these data using AI-based content analyses and network modeling. We report on the recall of campus information including emergency phone numbers and on questions of campus policy regarding student behavior. For this population, we recommend a dual-pronged approach where the meaning related to the information is provided during the heightened period of audience involvement during NSO, and recall is supported through targeted resource communication in the following months and/or through first-year seminar courses. The prevalence and specificity of student responses lends toward the consideration of policies for new students related to the limitation of logistical obstacles, and multifaceted approaches to the dissemination of health-related information, and crisis response formats.Keywords: Arts entertainmentaudience engagementaudience recallcampus policycampus safetyentertainment educationpolicytopic modeling Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Correction StatementThis article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

  PublisherDOI

• Professional Notes: Secondary Ensembles: What Directors Are Noticing about the Popular Music Movement

  Music Educators Journal · 2022-12-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Voice Load in a Music Student Teacher: A Quantitative Case Study in Voice Dosimetry

  Voice and Speech Review · 2022-07-17 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The authors examined the voice use of a student teacher in vocal music in the initial 20 instructional meetings of a choir class over two months in a high school choir class. The purpose was to explore voice load during one daily period in the music classroom at the beginning of the student teaching placement to evaluate how and whether voice use changes in the early stage of teacher preparation. Results indicated that measures of fundamental frequency (F0), phonation time, phonation volume, and background noise level varied across measurement periods and according to student teacher activities. As a percentage of the instructional period, phonation time ranged 1.9% to 42%, and was largest in measurement periods beyond the initial days of student teaching. Teacher volume increased modestly across the data collection. Implications are suggested including increased confidence in the student teacher or increased voice misuse by the student teacher.

  PublisherDOI

• A US Time and Motion Pilot Study of Nebulized COPD Therapy in an Inpatient and a Long-Term Care Setting

  Pulmonary Therapy · 2022-03-04

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  INTRODUCTION: There is a lack of quantitative data on healthcare professionals' (HCPs) time dedicated to nebulized chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) therapy in inpatient and long-term care (LTC) settings. Using time and motion methodology, we quantified HCP time and opportunity costs (time and materials) associated with nebulized COPD therapy in inpatient and LTC settings and estimated efficiencies of changing to once-daily therapy. METHODS: A case report form was built to reflect local nebulization workflow. Primary outcomes were mean active HCP time per predefined task and mean total active HCP time associated with short-acting beta agonist (SABA) and SABA/short-acting muscarinic antagonist (SAMA) combination nebulization processes. RESULTS: Twenty observations occurred within each setting. Inpatient observations included three SABA and 17 SABA/SAMA (from 18 different patients), and LTC observations included five SABA and 15 SABA/SAMA (from eight different patients). Mean total process time was 16.12 min in the inpatient setting (95% CI 14.48-17.76) and 21.0 min in the LTC setting (95% CI 18.8-23.2), with the actual nebulization comprising over 50% of process time for both. In LTC, CIs suggest a difference by cognitive impairment status: mean 24.1 min (95% CI 21.3-26.9) if cognitively impaired versus 19.0 min (95% CI 16.1-21.8) if not. In the inpatient setting, the estimated process time/admission was 7.8 h; a once-daily nebulized drug would require only 2.3 h. In LTC, the estimated process time was 32.1 h/month; a once-daily nebulized drug would require only 13.7 h/month. Estimated nebulization cost was $243/admission for current versus $72 for once-daily dosing in inpatient, and $1177/month versus $504 in LTC. CONCLUSIONS: The nebulization process for COPD patients in both inpatient and LTC settings consumes considerable HCP time. A switch from SABA or SABA/SAMA to a drug with a once-daily nebulization frequency could generate substantial time savings depending on the setting and site characteristics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Defining “happy” in happy birthday: Singing accuracy a construct based on range and intervals

  Psychology of Music · 2022-12-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Singing in tune, or singing accuracy, is a construct dependent on genre, key selection, singers’ ranges, and listener expectations. But across genres, singers are expected to sing in tune with themselves and with others. Because singing a familiar song may be the most common communal singing situation in the lives of non-professional singers and students, we chose to examine previously reported data on the Happy Birthday song as representative of one typical example of a popular song globally and used in previous research. The participants were adult non-professional singers. We designed a predictive model of performance on the large ascending octave based on initial interval performance, providing implications for music education in children or adults and by exploring variables such as range, voice register, and key modulation. We conclude that while initial performance may predict subsequent performance, features such as singer’s range and starting pitch may also account for variability in individual performance.

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• Excelling as a musician takes practice and requires opportunities – not just lucky genes

  2022-08-16 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
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Frequent coauthors

• Laura A. Stambaugh

  Georgia Southern University

  4 shared

• Andrea R. Halpern

  Bucknell University

  3 shared

• Clemens Wöllner

  Hochschule für Musik Freiburg

  3 shared

• Jeremiah Selvey

  2 shared

• Fouz Aljameel

  Pennsylvania State University

  2 shared

• Steven M. Demorest

  Northwestern University

  2 shared

• Kay Piña

  Pennsylvania State University

  2 shared

• Scott-Lee Atchison

  Pennsylvania State University

  1 shared

Labs

• Pitch Exploration LabPI

Awards & honors

• Life member of the American Choral Directors Association