Pitch and Tempo Discrimination in Recorded Orchestral Music among Musicians and Nonmusicians

Abstract

Pitch and tempo discriminations within a musical context were investigated. Two hundred musicians and two hundred nonmusicians heard ten excerpts of relatively familiar orchestral music. Excerpts were presented in pairs in order to test the ability of subjects to discriminate how an altered excerpt differed in pitch and/or tempo from its unaltered presentation. Pitch levels and tempi of the excerpts independently or in combination increased, decreased, or remained constant compared to unaltered versions. Consistent with previous research, subjects identified correctly the examples of decreased pitch levels significantly more than pitch increase examples. It is surprising, however, that tempo increase examples, rather than tempo decreases, were identified more accurately. Additional study regarding listener discrimination of the elements of music and related preferences appears advisable, since these conceivably influence music instruction as well as the performance of music.