Father McKenzie Music

Methodlogical Research

Deconstructing the nPVI

I'm very excited that my first purely methodological paper has passed peer-review and been accepted for publication with the journal Music Perception! In this paper, I study, and critique the use of the normalized Pairwise Variability Index (nPVI) in symbolic music research. The nPVI is a mathematical measure designed to quantify the rhythmic quality of languages, especially regarding the stress-timing vs syllable-timing distinction. However, in 2003, Joe Danielle and Aniruddh Patel introduced the nPVI to music research, where it has seen much use since then. I argue that the nPVI is not particularly useful, meaningful, or transparent, as a descriptor of rhythm in symbolic music data, especially when compared to alternative measures that are more transparent. These issues with the nPVI are, of course, just examples of a broader problem in science, when we become reliant on fancy-sounding but opaque, "black-box" algorithms/calculations.

Rap Science

Harmonic Analysis

Highlife

Research

As a researcher, I combine humanistic and scientific methodologies in the study of music. Specifically, I engage in computational modeling of symbolic music data and behavioral experimentation with human participants. The questions and ideas I explore are all grounded in, informed by, and evaluated in light of, fundamentally humanistic music theory.

Music

I am an active musician and composer. As a guitarist, bassist, and drummer/percussionist, I play a variety of musics, mostly American vernacular music (rock, pop, hip-hop) and world music—I am also a trained classical guitarist. As a composer, I synthesize common-practice, popular, and world musics, especially focusing on sophisticated rhythm and tempo relationships, inspired by Indonesian Gamelan music.

Pedagogy

I've had the pleasure of music at four different universities, and with K-12 kids in afterschool classes and private lessons. I've taught entire music theory curricula, classes in music technology and music cognition,, and rock/pop music performance. I also love to teach scientific research methodologies, especially statistics, and programming.