Perception of choral blend among choral, instrumental and non-music majors using the continuous response digital interface.

The concept of choral blend is often adjudicated but seldom researched. Voice match- ing to achieve choral blend (placing specific voices next to one another to achieve a blended sound within a section) is frequently recommended. The authors asked partic- ipants (N =55) comprised of vocal, instrumental, and nonmusic majors to move a con- tinuous response digital interface dial to indicate judgment of blend quality while listening to voice-matched choral groupings. Graphic analyses indicated general agree- ment in judgments of goodblendand badblendamong all three groups especially within alto and bass excerpts. Less agreement appeared for soprano and tenor excerpts. Pearson correlations between repeated excerpts were highly positive for vocalists but less consistent for others. Vocalists listened longer before making a judgment. Few group differences in judgment magnitude appeared, but general tendencies toward good blend judgments were evident. Discussion included future re