Effect of music training on monaural perception of pitch and rhythm.

Abstract

A monaural study of music perception was conducted on 77 right-handed subjects from a university population. The musical ability of each subject was classified in two ways, according to years of training and by total score for three tests of musical achievement [melody (sequence and excerpt), harmony, and rhythm]. Analysis indicated that subjects with more years of training showed a right-car dominance for recognition of excerpts but those with high scores had no such dominance. Both groups with either low scores or no formal training had a right-ear dominance for recognition of sequences. Correlations of scores from each ear within subjects and between tests indicated that perception of pitch tended to be more accurate in the same car. For all classifications of subjects no ear dominance was found for harmony and rhythm tests. These results suggest that the measurement of hemispheric asymmetry of music perception is dependent upon the criteria chosen for classification of subjects, in this case, training and achievement.