That's because we tend to adjust our own singing pitch to accommodate others. And now scientists in the U.K. have found that even trained choral singers will follow their fellow choir members. But not necessarily in the right direction.
The researchers had eight pairs of musically trained amateur singers—all women for this study—sing, a capella, the melody of either "Silent Night"
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Individual volunteers all sang in their own separate studios, under four different scenarios: each singer was completely isolated, hearing only themselves; or singer one got to hear singer two
What they found was that singers stayed more on tune with the pitch written in the musical score when singing solo, versus singing with a partner. And when one partner veered off pitch, the other singer followed her, perhaps to compensate for the error—meaning even though they weren’t singing the pitch as written, the resulting duet was more harmonious. The findings are in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. [Jiajie Dai and Simon Dixon, Singing together: Pitch accuracy and interaction in unaccompanied unison and duet singing]
The results support a common practice in choirs: put weak singers next to strong ones, so they can follow their pitch. As for the rest of us amateurs, if you find yourself out at karaoke duetting with an off-pitch friend, take this advice from study author Jiajie Dai of Queen Mary University of London:
"You have to listen to yourself more than you listen to others. Trust yourself, never depend on others." This guideline appears to be the key…to staying on key.
—Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
