Although a left ear advantage was originally claimed for the recognition of dichotically presented melodies [D. Kimura, Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 16, 355–358 (1964)], other studies have not always obtained this result. One confounding variable may be that of individual differences in ear dominance, for pitch [R. Efron and E. W. Yund, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 59, 889–898 (1976)]. When two different tones are presented, one to each ear, for some subjects the pitch of the left ear tone is more salient, for others that of the right ear tone. These individual differences may obscure any more general ear advantage for the perception of melodies. Subjects were therefore tested for their ear dominance for pitch, and this was correlated with their performance on listening to dichotic melodies, which varied in length from 3 to 17 notes in each ear.