Differences between scale steps and absolute interval sizes: A new test for intervallic awareness

Neto, Pedro da Cunha Pinto; Oliveira, Guilherme Alves Delmolin de

doi:10.1177/0305735619869456

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…There are different ways subjects can analyze melodies before and while sight-singing. Indeed, according to Neto and de Oliveira (2019) , individuals can make sense of melodies either as sequences of intervals (i.e., distances between pitches) or as scale-steps (i.e., perceiving pitch functions in the scale). This division resonates in the classification of strategies suggested by Fournier et al (2019) : Reading mechanisms include a subcategory to regroup decoding strategies, which includes two strategies that reflect this distinction, namely, relating to scale degrees and relating to intervals.…”

Section: Sight-singing Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a mental toolbox: Relationships between strategy choice and sight-singing performance in higher education

Pomerleau-Turcotte

Dubé

Sala

et al. 2022

Psychology of Music

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Sight-singing is an inescapable component of music training in higher education and is often challenging for students. However, some strategies could help students perform. Yet, the extent to which students can use strategies to improve their sight-singing performance remains unclear. This article asks two questions to fill this gap: (1) Which strategies do students use when sight-singing? (2) Does the application of some types of strategy predict performance? We recruited 56 postsecondary music students and asked them about their musical backgrounds. They then sight-sang a short melody while we recorded their eye movements. After that, we conducted semi-structured retrospective interviews, using eye-movement videos and attention distribution heatmaps to help participants remember the strategies they used. We analyzed the interview transcripts to identify the strategies students used and regrouped them into categories. We extracted seven categories and discovered that using body movements predicted rhythm scores, that using musical knowledge predicted pitch and combined scores, and that relying on automatic skills predicted all dimensions of sight-singing performance. We recommend that aural skills instructors teach strategies explicitly and help students develop robust musical knowledge, as they are required to build strong automatic skills.

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Section: Sight-singing Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a mental toolbox: Relationships between strategy choice and sight-singing performance in higher education

Pomerleau-Turcotte

Dubé

Sala

et al. 2022

Psychology of Music

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“…Scale step distances can be defined as the number of diatonic leaps that exist between two tones of the same musical scale (Neto & Delmolin, 2019). In Figure 1, for instance, the distance between a major and a minor third (Figure 1—left and right arrows, respectively) is two scale steps, since there are two diatonic leaps separating the lower and the higher notes of both intervals (e.g., left arrow, from C to D and from D to E).…”

Section: Scale Steps Versus Centsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cents versus scale steps: Can we tell the difference between major and minor thirds?

Neto

Vanzella

2021

Psychology of Music

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We report an experiment in which participants ( N = 368) were asked to differentiate between major and minor thirds. These intervals could either be formed by diatonic tones from the C major scale (tonal condition) or by a subset of tones from the chromatic scale (atonal condition). We hypothesized that in the tonal condition intervals would be perceived as a function of scale step distances, which we defined as the number of diatonic leaps between two notes of a given music scale. In the atonal condition, we hypothesized that intervals would be perceived as a function of cents. If our hypotheses were supported, we should verify a less accurate performance in the tonal condition, where scale step distances are the same between major and minor thirds. The data corroborated our hypotheses, and we suggest that acoustic measurements of intervallic distances (i.e., frequency ratios and cents) are not optimal when it comes to describing the perceptual quality of intervals in a tonal context. Finally, our research points to the possibility that, in comparison with previous models, scale steps and cents might better capture the notion of global versus local instances of auditory processing.

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“…In the present study, we expand on theoretical work by Neto and Delmolin (2019), and we hypothesize that the intervals and scale steps represent cognitive and sensory instances of auditory stimuli, respectively. From an acoustic perspective, melodic intervals are often quantified according to a unit of measure called cents , which divides one octave into 1,200 equal units.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

“…From an acoustic perspective, melodic intervals are often quantified according to a unit of measure called cents , which divides one octave into 1,200 equal units. In musical terms, however, melodic intervals can be encoded in terms of scale steps, which are defined as the number of diatonic notes between two tones of the same musical scale (Neto & Delmolin, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The idea that the perception of cents is influenced by scale steps structures is framed as a case of cognitive influence on sensory processing because perceiving cent regularities is likely to be an innate human capacity (Chang & Trehub, 1977; McDermott & Oxenham, 2008; Stefanics et al, 2009; Takegata et al, 2005), which happens independent of experience (Chang & Trehub, 1977; Stefanics et al, 2009; Wagner, Rahne, Plontke, & Heidekruger, 2018), musical priming (Wagner et al, 2018), and is available even to newborn children (Stefanics et al, 2009). Scale steps, on the other hand, represent higher order abstractions of sound, which are dependent on culturally established concepts such as music scales and tonality (Dowling, 1978; Neto & Delmolin, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Not just cents: Physical and psychological influences on interval perception.

Neto¹,

Cui²,

Rojas³

et al. 2021

Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain

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The physical distance between two notes of a scale can be measured in terms of an acoustic unit called cent. The same distance, however, can also be measured in terms of scale steps, which are defined as the number of diatonic tones between two notes. Our study supports the idea that the perception of distance between two notes is influenced by both acoustic and musical abstractions from the auditory input. Specifically, we demonstrate that distances are perceived as a function of cents and scale steps. Our results were consistent regardless of musical training, country, and sensitivity to tonal hierarchies, which were measured by means of a probe-tone experiment. Overall, we suggest that scale steps are represented cognitively and that this variable can be used to describe the relationship between two musical notes within a tonal framework.

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Differences between scale steps and absolute interval sizes: A new test for intervallic awareness

Cited by 4 publications

References 23 publications

Building a mental toolbox: Relationships between strategy choice and sight-singing performance in higher education

Building a mental toolbox: Relationships between strategy choice and sight-singing performance in higher education

Cents versus scale steps: Can we tell the difference between major and minor thirds?

Not just cents: Physical and psychological influences on interval perception.

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