10/26/2020 Music Perception Perception of Complex Tones • Experience is important in discrimination of complex tones Different Same Detection threshold getting better (smaller) over time Music Stimulus • Each musical note has a name and a pitch • Fundamental frequency determines name (A – G) • C4 (Middle C) • A5 (Concert / Tuning A) 1 10/26/2020 Music Stimulus • Tone chroma (pitch class) is the similarity of notes with same name • Tone height is difference in tonal quality of notes Music Stimulus • No instrument can accommodate the full the range of audible frequencies Perceiving Music • Some are able to judge absolute (perfect) pitch, whereas other can judge relative pitch 2 10/26/2020 Perceiving Music Perceiving Music Middle C on Guitar 70 60 50 • Harmonics 40 30 • Give notes bonal quality (timbre) 20 Response (dB) Response • Integer multiples of the fundamental 10 0 0 • Missing fundamental does not affect 262 524 786 1048 1310 1572 1834 2096 2358 2620 2882 3144 3406 3668 3930 4192 pitch perception Frequency (hz) Middle C on Flute 60 50 40 30 20 Response (dB) Response 10 0 0 262 524 786 1048 1310 1572 1834 2096 2358 2620 2882 3144 3406 3668 3930 4192 Frequency (hz) Perceiving Music • Chords are combinations of three or more notes played simultaneously • Major Chord = Major 3rd + Minor 3rd • Minor Chord = Minor 3rd + Major 3rd Fifth b # Third b Root (gives name) C Major E Major G Major C Minor E Minor G Minor (Cm) (Em) (Gm) 3 10/26/2020 Perceiving Music • Consonant Chords are pleasing and clean-sounding b • Minor chords C Minor • Major chords (Cm) • Dissonant Chords are tense and dirty- sounding • Diminished chords • Augmented chords b b C Minor Dim. 5th (Cm dim5) Perceiving Music • Different chords and scales elicit different emotional responses • Major = happy • Minor = sad • Different chords can “prime” different emotional constructs • Consonant = Positive • Dissonant = Negative Perceiving Music • Results from an affective priming task • Prime Chord Identify Target Word • Faster RTs when prime and word shared valance 4 10/26/2020 Making and Perceiving Music • Rhythm is the sequences of accented and unaccented notes • People create rhythm naturally (Wundt and Bolton) • Syncopation is perceiving two distinct rhythms grouped together AaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaaAaa BbbbBbbbBbbbBbbbBbbbBbbbBbbbBbbbBbbb Making and Perceiving Music • Deutsch’s Speech to Song Illusion, occurs when a spoken (not sung) phrase is heard as a melody • Speech – music link • We do this ‘naturally’ Making and Perceiving Music • The octave illusion is the perceived grouping together of notes that differ in octaves 5 10/26/2020 Perceiving Music • Tritones are a pair of Shepard tones on opposite sides of the pitch class circle • Semitones are not opposites • Tritone Paradox (Diana Deutsch) 100 80 Tritone 60 40 20 Pattern Heard Descending (%) HeardDescending Pattern 0 C-F# C#-G D-G# D#-A E-A# F-B F#-C G-C# G#-D A-D# A#-E B-F Perceiving Music • Tritone Paradox varies across people • Experience seems to be a big factor 6.