The Effect of Speed Alterations on Tempo Note Selection

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate musicians' tempo note preferences within a musical context. Using relatively familiar orchestral music as stimuli, the study tested the ability of subjects to discriminate how an altered excerpt differed in tempo from its unaltered presentation by asking subjects to select a beat note for each trial. One hundred randomly selected subjects participated in the study. A representative list of eight relatively familiar orchestral works was specifically selected because of the ambiguity of the perceived rhythmic organization, that is, either in oneness (dotted note as beat note) or in threeness (undotted note as beat note), regardless of the actual notation. Subjects heard each of the eight excerpts three times, at increased, decreased, and unaltered tempi. The amount of tempo change in either direction was 12%. Thus, an original tempo of (•) = 164 beats per minute (bpm), for example, was heard at altered tempi of (•) = 184 bpm (increased) or (•) = 144 bpm (decreased). Subjects selected a beat note for each example and estimated the speed (in beats per minute) of each beat note selection. Results of the study indicate that: (a) subjects preferred dotted notes for those examples that were faster compared to those that were slower, (b) subjects preferred undotted beat notes for the slower presentations, and (c) musicians were not accurate in estimating tempi. Subjects' estimations of beat speed were inaccurate and consistently faster than the actual tempi presented.