Effect of Tempo on Pitch Perception

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of music majors and nonmusic I majors concerning combined frequency and tempo changes in music across a range of musical tempi. The subjects, 200 music majors and 200 nonmusic majors, heard 10 consecutive presentations of an orchestral excerpt, each of which had been altered by changing the frequency or tempo (or both) of the original version in various combinations. The task was to compare each example to the preceding version and indicate perceived pitch and tempo changes. This comparison procedure was replicated using four different music excerpts, in which the speeds of the fastest moving voices were approximately 50, 100, 150, and 200 per minute. Each of the 400 subjects was randomly assigned to two of the four replications. Results indicated that (a) music majors and nonmusic majors responded similarly across conditions and replications; (b) changes in tempo were discriminated more accurately than frequency changes of the same magnitude; (c) tempo changes seemed to affect pitch perception to a greater extent than frequency changes affected the perception of tempo; and (d) the speed of subdivided beats apparently affected the perception of changes in frequency and tempo across replications.