Discrimination of Rhythmic Displacement by High School, Undergraduate and Graduate Music Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate music students ability to discriminate the rhythmic deviation of the last tone in a series of six tones that were otherwise equal in duration and occurred at regular intervals. Graduate (n = 76) and undergraduate (n = 76) music majors and high school music students (n = 76) listened to 18 sets of six tones and decided whether the final tone was on time, early or late. Whenever the last tone was identified as occurring early or late, subjects were asked to indicate exactly how early or late. Results indicated that subjects correctly discriminated among on time, early and late presentations 71.4 % of the time and were able to discriminate among the discreet rhythmic designations (p =.001). Subjects correctly identified the duration of the discrepancy for only 50 % of the items for which the direction of deviation was correctly identified. Overall, musical training did not appear to influence results. usicians often discriminate rhythmic accuracy in their own performances as well as the performances of others. Music educators use this discrimination ability to provide feedback, instruction and grades for students. Technological advances have allowed for the development of commercial computer hardware and software capable of calculating the accuracy of rhythmic performance. As this software becomes increasingly common in educational settings, it seems prudent to consider the threshold at which musicians are able to perceive deviations in rhythm. Knowledge about the abilities and limitations of music educators to first correctly discriminate rhythmic accuracy and then provide accurate and specific feedback related to it should provide valuable insight concerning music instruction. Durational discrimination studies that investigated subjects ability to determine which of two intervals of sound or silence was longer or shorter have found subjects were able to correctly discriminate differences when there was a 6 % or greater alteration in the comparativ