Discrimination of Modulated Music Tempo by String Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of musical training and age on the ability of string students to discriminate tempo change, and the effect of musical style, speed of a musical composition, and the direction of tempo change on the ability to detect tempo change. Subjects were 116 string students, age 7 through 18 years. Musical stimuli were chosen from familiar string literature. Each excerpt was generated by using synthesized tones and was recorded at a normal tempo, slower than normal tempo, and faster than normal tempo. Three presentations were made at each speed: tempo increase, tempo decrease, and no tempo change. The subjects' task was to identify the direction of the tempo change or no-change. Statistical analyses revealed a significant curvilinear relationship between score and years of musical training, and between score and age. Additional regression analyses indicated that speed, direction of change, and musical style each contributed significantly to tempo perception over and above musical training and individual differences. These findings confirm that tempo perception is a complex phenomenon and that several parameters of tempo discrimination have yet to be identified.