The effects of a mindfulness meditation program on enhancing musical perception of time: A pilot study

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation practices have garnered a lot of popularity in recent years. Various psychological benefits of mindfulness meditation have been documented in a myriad of literature. In this pilot study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a short-term mindfulness training program on time-based musical perceptions of pre-service music teachers. Here, time-based perception entails the accurate perception of pattern, meter, and tempo. A one-group pretest–posttest design was implemented as a model. Pre-service music teachers (n = 8) completed the rhythm, rhythm-to-melody, and tempo subscales of the modular-PROMS before and after undergoing an 8-week-long mindfulness training program. Whereas significant enhancements of rhythm and rhythm-to-melody perceptions were observed, a similar kind of enhancement was not detected with respect to tempo perception.