Perception of melodic accuracy in occasional singers: role of pitch fluctuations?

When listening to operatic singers performances, our perception of vocal pitch accuracy is influenced by several acoustical parameters such as the fluctuation of the fundamental frequency (i.e vibrato). In the case of occasional singers, produced pitch is likewise not constant, but the fluctuations in such cases tend not to involve vibrato but to instead involve “scoops” at the beginning and ends of tone, as well as other forms of instability. However, little is known about the fluctuations that characterize occasional singers (including poor-pitch singers) and to what degree these fluctuations influence perception of pitch accuracy. We report results of ongoing research designed to address these issues. First, we describe a descriptive model used to identify perturbations of F0 in occasional singers that differ between accurate and poor-pitch singers. Next, we report results of recent experiments that explore the influence of the pitch fluctuations described by the model on the perception of pitch accuracy.