AIRS 6th Annual Meeting: 2014

Title: The role of musical vs tone-language experience on implicit choice of key for singing a
familiar song
Authors: Annabel J. cohen, Bing-Yi Pan (University of Prince Edward Island)

Abstract

A component of the AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills (ATBSS) indicates the singer’s implicitly
chosen key for singing a familiar song under different contexts (No, C-training, E♭, Poststory).
20 Canadian musicians, 20 Canadian nonmusicians, and 20 native Chinese non-musicians
performed the online ATBSS (English and Mandarin versions respectively). The pitch of the first
tonic note of the 4 contexts was compared. Chinese non-musicians and Canadian nonmusicians
performed equally but differed from musicians in the No, E♭ and Post-story contexts (MannWhitney U, all p’s < .05). Canadian nonmusicians differed from the musicians after the
Ctraining context (p < .05).