The difference in the tone qualities of the various musical instruments has to do with the complexity of their sound waves. The flute, for example, has a harmonic pattern that is relatively simple, appearing on an oscilloscope basically as a sine wave; the harmonic pattern of an oboe, in contrast, is exceedingly complex. Various physicists and musical psychologists have rated musical instruments on the basis of their harmonic complexity. It also has been found that individuals differ in their ability to discern harmonic complexity in a musical tone, an ability measured by Seashore's Test of Timbre Discrimination. It was hypothesized, therefore, that individuals who can easily detect differences in the timbre of a tone would be more likely to appreciate musical instruments with more complex sound waves, and that the degree of this tendency would be directly proportional to the length of time one has played the instrument. The population for the present study consisted primarily of adolescents and young adults of both sexes. They were given Seashore's Test of Timbre Discrimination in small groups and questioned as to what musical instruments they played and how long they had played them. The Test of Timbre Discrimination consisted of one hundred pairs of tones presented on two 78 rpm records. Each subject was asked to indicate whether each pair of notes was the same or different in timbre. The pairs that differed did so by variation in the intensity of their third and fourth partials. The overall intensity of the tone was kept the same by decreasing the third partial with a corresponding increase in the fourth; the number of partials and their frequencies remained the same throughout the test. Scores on timbre discrimination were examined for age or sex differences, and the mean score was obtained for all individuals in