The Difficulty of Learning Microtonal Tunings Rapidly: The Influence of Pitch Intervals and Structural Familiarity

Abstract

The current study investigates the learning of microtonal tuning systems, which have a different pitch interval structure than the Western tonal system (12-tone equal temperament). To examine the influence of structural similarity, we included systems that differed from the 12-tone equal temperament system in different degrees in terms of temperament, pitch ratio, and pitch differences. After a brief exposure phase in which participants became acquainted with the previously unfamiliar systems, we assessed aspects of their learning. We measured pitch memory performance and the knowledge of pitch membership using a pitch deviant detection task and a goodness-of-fit perception task. In the pitch deviant detection task, participants were required to detect pitch shifts in a second playing of a given melody, whereas in the goodness-of-fit task, they made judgments about whether the last tone (probe) fits or does not fit with the context of the just presented melody. A total of 30 musically untrained individuals were tested in each experiment, and results showed that learning was limited; hence the task was difficult in such a short period. Pitch deviant detection was better in the microtonal system that is well-formed with two step sizes than that in the other systems in the test. Goodness-of-fit perception was similar between 12-tone equal temperament and the other microtonal systems, and participants who were fundamentally better at pitch discrimination and contour perception were better at rejecting incongruent probes (nonmember of the system) in the goodness-of-fit task. This study has implications for music perception of pitch ratio- and pitch difference-based tuning systems.