Learn about the psychology of music and movement, and how researchers study music-related movements, with this free online course. Learn about why and how music makes you move. Music is movement. A bold statement, but one that we will explore together in this free online course. Together we will study music through different types of body movement. This includes everything from the sound-producing keyboard actions of a pianist to the energetic dance moves in a club.

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You will learn about the theoretical foundations for what we call embodied music cognition and why body movement is crucial for how we experience the emotional moods in music. We will also explore different research methods used at universities and conservatories. These include advanced motion capture systems and sound analysis methods.

You will be guided by a group of music researchers from the University of Oslo, with musical examples from four professional musicians. The course is rich in high-quality text, images, video, audio and interactive elements.

Join us to learn more about terms such as entrainment and musical metaphors, and why it is difficult to sit still when you experience a good groove.

What topics will you cover?

- A historical overview

- Perception and cognition of music

- Functional action-sound categories

- Multimodality

- Pulse and Entrainment

- Groove

- Gestures and Coarticulation

- Bodily Metaphors

- Motion Capture

- Video Analysis

- Bio Sensors

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Reflect on the importance of the human body in the experience of music

- Classify different types of music-related body movements

- Collect information about music-related body movements

- Describe different types of research methods used to study music-related body movements

- Explain how the body entrains to musical rhythms