Adults' perception of Western and Javanese musical scales Free

A cognitive/perceptual model of the processing of musical intervals was investigated by assessing the role of experience with Western music in perception of mistunings in both Western and non‐Western scales. Musically inexperienced subjects, persons with limited background in music, and professional musicians heard seven‐note major, minor, and Javanese pelog melodies. Each of the melodies contained successively the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, third, and first pitches of each scale, with the first and last pitches always D4 (293.66 Hz). The frequency relationships of the pelog scale were maintained within this framework. Each melody was altered in two ways. First, the top pitch (A4, 440 Hz in major and minor; 461.3 Hz in pelog) was raised along a continuum in ten 0.4% steps. Second, any pitch but the first was randomly selected for sharpening at each of ten 0.5 % steps. PEST was used to estimate the smallest degree of pitch raising on these continua that subjects could reliably perceive for each scale type. As predicted by the model, results indicate a strong relationship between musical training and perception of tuning alterations in the Javanese scale. Musically sophisticated subjects had equal perceptual thresholds across the three scale types. Musically naive subjects had a perceptual advantage for Western scales. Patterns of subject responding differed slightly when pitches were randomly selected for sharpening as opposed to when only the top pitch was raised. [Work supported by Am. Psychol. Assoc.]