A Study of Ear Dominance and its Effects on Vocal Intonation, Amplitude, and Tone

Objective: Ear-dominance is often linked to hand-dominance (Efron et. al., 1983) or types of processing, e.g., right ear for verbal information and left ear for music and ambient sounds (Sacchinelli et. al., 2017). However, Diana Deutsch demonstrated in her Octave Illusion test (Deutsch, 2004) that one ear consistently processes the higher pitch over the other, even when the input is reversed. This study tested if varied aural input influenced vocal intonation, amplitude, tone quality, and/or singer preference. I considered factors such as handedness, informal tests for ear dominance, self-to-other ratio (Ternström, 1999), and years of singing in choir.

Method: Singer-participants (N = 30) were tested utilizing several informal test as well as Deutsch’s Octave Illusion test to determine ear dominance. Participants were all undergraduate students recruited from a single on-campus choir. The participants were then asked to sing the first four measures of Bogoroditse Devo by Sergei Rachmaninoff from the choir’s recent repertoire. The participants completed the four measures three times with a recording of the ensemble in headphones. The recording was the same performance each time, however, in each repetition, the recording was adjusted to have the participant’s singing section dominant in different ears. The participant’s voice was recorded (N = 3), and the recordings were analyzed through Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP) and Long-Term Average Spectra (LTAS) to test intonation and amplitude of the voice. Participants were asked which variation they prefer. A panel of experts were compiled to rank participant’s tone quality. The results of the multiple acoustic test and perceptions were compared for possible relationships.

Results: The analysis demonstrated that less experienced singers preferred hearing their choral section in their dominant ear and their intonation, amplitude and quality of tone increased. However, more experienced singers’ intonation, amplitude and quality of tone increased when the remainder of the choir was present in their dominant ear.

Conclusions: Choir directors can apply student ear dominance to standing order to improve singers’ intonation, amplitude, and quality of tone. Further research should assess ear dominance in standing order arrangements to determine whether individual and whole ensemble sound is affected in similar ways.