Listeners’ tolerance when listening to melodic performances

A melodic performance can be slightly out of tune (i.e., enlargement or compression of an interval of ~20 cents) and still be rated as “in tune” by layman listeners. In order to elucidate the concept of pitch accuracy in melodies, this study aims (a) to clarify the effect of music expertise when listening to familiar vs. non-familiar melodies and (b) to quantify the perceptual thresholds of music experts when listening to melodic performances. For (a), familiar and non-familiar melodic sequences were manipulated, from “in tune” (deviation of 0 cent) to “out of tune” (10 to 60 cents, in 10 cent steps). The sequences were presented to 30 non-musicians and 30 musicians, matched in age and gender, using the method-of-limits procedure, in a test/retest paradigm. For each condition, participants were asked to specify whether the presented singing performances were “in tune” or “out of tune”. For (b), the same melodies, with smaller manipulations (0 to 30 cents, in 5 cent steps), were presented to 30 musicians using the same procedure. We observed a high test – retest reliability, independent of both familiarity of melody and musical training. As expected, there was an effect of expertise (p < .001) on the perceptual thresholds (experts’ tolerance of ~10 cents). In addition, we observed a specific profile for music experts, who were particularly sensitive to interval compressions. This study yields the opportunity to refine objective tools for the evaluation of singer pitch accuracy but also to provide pertinent material to investigate the music perception process.