Student musicians' ear-playing ability as a function of vernacular music experiences

This study explored the differences in ear-playing ability between formal "classical" musicians and those with vernacular music experience (N = 24). Participants heard melodies and performed them back, either by singing or playing on their instruments. The authors tracked the number of times through the listen-then-perform cycle that each participant needed for accurate performance. Participants retrospectively reported their thoughts and provided biographical information related to vernacular music experience. Analyses indicated that singing required fewer trials than playing on instruments and that vernacular musicians required fewer trials than formal musicians. The verbally reported thoughts indicated that participants used different strategies for encoding the melodies. Vernacular musicians applied a more sophisticated knowledge base to generate accurate expectations; formal musicians used less efficient strategies. Formal musicians devoted more conscious attention to physically producing the melodies on their instruments (e.g., fingerings), a process that was executed more automatically by vernacular musicians.