Distinguishing between musical excerpts learned by novices individually or in pairs

In a previous study, we found that musical learning of novices was equally accurate (in terms of playing the correct rhythms and pitches) when learning in a solo or duo setting. Intrigued by these findings, we conducted a follow-up experiment investigating whether the learning outcomes differed in subjective terms as perceived by listeners judging the performances. Here, expert musicians were asked to discern whether melodies learned under conditions of synchrony, turn-taking, or imitation were likely learned individually or with a partner. In addition, they evaluated the learners’ proficiency in playing the melodies, assessing expressiveness, the clarity of their articulation and phrasing, as well as the overall coherence of the performances. Listeners showed differential responses to both the learning condition and the pairing (solo or duo) in which the melodies were learned. Although the outcome did not yield salient-enough results for significant clusters of responses to emerge, our findings could inspire future research to delve into the question of discernible signatures between individual and group musical learning by adopting a longitudinal approach.