Music has been an integral part of my life. I began playing piano when I was two years old and percussion in fourth grade. As I progressed through elementary and middle school, I also developed a deep passion for math. When it came time to choose a research topic for the Al Kalfus Long Island Math Fair in eighth grade, I combined these two passions and investigated the connections between math and music theory. I became fascinated by this connection and continued to research different subtopics of math and music for each subsequent year of the Math Fair, receiving multiple gold medals … In high school, I began to read academic journal articles, both in my research class and on my own time, about music’s benefits on society, and I also grew interested in the intersection of psychology and music. I found it intriguing how music’s effects can be so widespread – from improving cognition to treating anxiety and depression. I wanted to perform my own independent research project that would enhance the developments in this field. However, after reading many articles as well as more popular literature on the subject, I noticed a certain rampant inaccuracy regarding musical intervals and emotion that has been compounded over time. (Specifically, many authors have asserted that music’s major-minor dichotomy applies to keys, chords, and intervals. However, the dichotomy is not applicable on the intervallic level.) So, I decided to design a survey that would test this widespread inaccuracy among the literature. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, 180 adults from the general population responded to my survey, which was presented online and included embedded audio samples. I completed research both at home and at school.

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• Music
• Psychology