Learning a well-formed microtonal scale : pitch intervals and event frequencies

This study investigates learning interval structure and pitch occurrence frequency of a microtonal scale by two groups of musicians (one experienced in Western tonal music only, the other in several microtonal systems) and non-musicians. While musically untrained participants could rapidly learn the pitch occurrence frequency of this scale, learning microtonal pitch intervals was slow in musicians. Interestingly, microtonal musicians were the slowest in responding to deviant pitch intervals and timbre changes in microtonal melodies amongst the musicians. These results extend our recent observation of non-musicians’ ability to learn aspects of microtonal pitch intervals, suggesting that paradoxically, musicians do not adjust their learned expectations to microtonal systems as quickly as non-musicians.