The Influence of Tonal and Atonal Contexts on Error Detection Accuracy

Abstract

Music education students ( N = 21) at a university in the southeastern United States took an error detection test that had been designed for this study to determine the effects of tonal contexts versus atonal contexts on the ability to detect performance errors. The investigator composed 16 melodies, 8 of which were tonal and 8 of which were atonal. The test administered included 18 planned errors, 9 in tonal melodies and 9 in atonal melodies, and errors were balanced between the two sets of melodies for error duration and error interval. These melodies were performed live for the participants, who were asked to identify where errors took place in the performance. Participant test scores were calculated, and mean scores were generated for each individual error. Each error was then classified according to its attributes of tonal context, interval deviation, and duration. Interval deviation and duration did not significantly affect error detection scores, while tonal context did. More specifically, errors in tonal contexts that deviated from the tonal framework were significantly more easily detected than atonal errors or errors in tonal contexts that remained within the tonal framework. These results confirmed findings in existing research.