The Effects of Texture and Number of Parts on the Ability of Music Majors to Detect Performance Errors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine graduate and undergraduate music majors' ability to detect pitch arid rhythm errors in one-, two-, and three-part settings of texturally contrasting musical excerpts. A stimulus audiotape consisting of 12 excerpts resulted from the following arrangement by texture and number of parts: 4 one-part excerpts, 2 two-part and 2 three-part homorhythmic excerpts, and 2 two-part and 2 three-part polyrhythmic excerpts. Subjects ( N = 150) listened to purposefully marred recorded performances of these excerpts and attempted to identify pitch and rhythm errors by circling appropriate places on correctly notated scores. Results of analyses of variance with repeated measures on correct responses indicated significant main effects of degree status (graduate students were more accurate than were undergraduates); number of parts (subjects were most accurate in one-part settings, less accurate in two-part settings, and least accurate in three-part settings); texture (subjects were more accurate in homorhythmic texture than in polyrhythmic texture); and. error type (subjects were more accurate detecting rhythm errors than pitch errors). Significant interactions indicated that these variables did not function independently of each other.