Effects of Pre-Tuning Vocalization Behaviors on the Tuning Accuracy of College Instrumentalists

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two pre-tuning vocalization behaviors (humming and singing) on the tuning accuracy of woodwind and brass instrumentalists. Undergraduate collegiate musicians ( N = 72) performed a sustained stimulus pitch (concert B-flat) while engaging in one of the two conditions or the control condition (silence). We also explored the relationships between participants’ tuning accuracy and their tuning confidence, examined the reasons instrumentalists provided for their pre-tuning vocalization preferences, and compared their most accurate performance condition with the condition they perceived to result in their most accurate tuning. Although participants performed with better tuning accuracy in the singing condition than the humming and silence conditions, these differences were not significant. Correlation analyses examining relationships between participants’ tuning accuracy and their tuning confidence in each condition yielded mostly weak and nonsignificant results. Participants reported internalization of pitch, physical response, and focus of attention issues most frequently when asked why they preferred a particular tuning condition.

Effects of Dark and Bright Timbral Instructions on the Production of Pitch and Timbre

“…Interestingly, 21 participants (37.5%) played most in tune in the neutral instruction condition, but the other 35 (62.5%) participants actually played more in tune in other conditions. Consistent with previous research indicating weak relationships between musicians’ pitch perception and production (Ely, 1992; Morrison, 2000; Schlegel & Springer, 2018; Silvey et al, 2019), it seems that our participants’ perceived most accurate performance did not match their actual most accurate performance. It is also possible that our participants believed that they should play with their best tone in the neutral condition, which could suggest that their default behavior is their best sound.…”

“…Similarly, Ely (1992) indicated that timbre affected participants’ judgments of tone pairs even though timbre did not influence their tuning accuracy on a performance task. Not surprisingly, weak relationships were found between perceived intonation accuracy and actual intonation accuracy in previous studies (Schlegel & Springer, 2018; Silvey et al, 2019).…”

“…Sharp responses were more than 5 cents above the equal-tempered standard; flat responses were more than 5 cents below the equal-tempered standard. We used these categorical boundaries because they are consistent with previous instrumental tuning studies (e.g., Byo et al, 2011; Ely, 1992; Schlegel & Springer, 2018; Silvey et al, 2019). These tuning results are displayed in Figure 1 for both octaves across instructional conditions.…”

“…Once we determined the mean frequency, we compared that value to the equal-tempered standard in each octave to determine the cent deviation, which we expressed in absolute value. The cent deviation value was determined using a "cent value-determination of an interval" calculator (Sengpiel, 2014). We also used Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2014) to analyze each tone's spectral centroid.…”

Research to Resource: Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Wind Intonation

“…Previous research has demonstrated mixed results concerning the effects of vocalization (e.g., singing) on intonation, with some results indicating that it provided positive effects on pitch discrimination (e.g., Elliott, 1974; Jones, 2003) and others indicating that it had no effect on pitch matching (e.g., Bennett, 1994; South, 2013). Silvey et al (2019) tested for the effects of two types of vocalization—singing and humming—on wind instrumentalists’ tuning accuracy while performing concert B-flat tuning notes. Participants completed a tuning task three times.…”