{"paper_id":"0cd2f301-ed23-414f-91c7-7e50b23ef577","body_text":"Musical scales optimize pitch spacing: A global analysis of traditional vocal music | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Musical scales optimize pitch spacing: A global analysis of traditional vocal music Steven Brown, Elizabeth Phillips, Khalil Husein, John McBride This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3928177/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The standard model of musical scales is derived from instrument tunings. However, the study of vocal scales – most especially in indigenous cultures – has been all but ignored. The voice is almost certainly the original musical instrument, and so an analysis of vocal scales provides a more naturalistic means of understanding the evolution of music. In particular, we explore the idea that the structure of musical scales is a reflection of the vocal imprecision inherent in the way that people sing, regardless of culture. To investigate this issue globally, we carried out a large-scale computational analysis of 418 ethnographic field recordings of vocal songs from indigenous/traditional cultures, spanning the 10 principal musical-style regions of the world. The results revealed that vocal scales have reliably larger intervallic spacings between pitch-classes than do instrumental scales in Western culture. In addition, the mean interval-size of the scales was significantly correlated with people’s imprecision in singing pitches across the world regions. These results lend support to a physiological model in which musical scales optimize pitch spacing in order to accommodate the imprecision inherent in vocal production and thereby maintain distinguishability between pitch-classes. Humanities/Cultural and media studies Biological sciences/Evolution Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {\"props\":{\"pageProps\":{\"initialData\":{\"identity\":\"rs-3928177\",\"acceptedTermsAndConditions\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"archivedVersions\":[],\"articleType\":\"Article\",\"associatedPublications\":[],\"authors\":[{\"id\":271101453,\"identity\":\"e282993c-86f4-4006-981d-a709621b1b33\",\"order_by\":0,\"name\":\"Steven Brown\",\"email\":\"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAyklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNiC2IU0DSEsahHOABC2HSdAiP7/52OOKivPR/NMOP/78oeIeA387AY0Gx9jSDc+cuZ0743aamcSBM8UMEmcSCGhh4zGTbGy7nbtBOsGM4WBbAoMBAwEt8m3834BazgG1pH/+cPAfUAv/AwKeOcbDBtRyAKglx0DiYANQiwQhhx1LMzdsOJMM9EtOmcSZYwk8EjcI2CLffPjZw4YKu9z+2embP1TUJMjx9xOwBQPwkKh+FIyCUTAKRgE2AADstUUXOzWXHQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"McMaster University\",\"correspondingAuthor\":true,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Steven\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Brown\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":271101454,\"identity\":\"06448ad6-98c2-460a-a191-3da542b2fead\",\"order_by\":1,\"name\":\"Elizabeth Phillips\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"McMaster University\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Elizabeth\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Phillips\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":271101455,\"identity\":\"f11c6e84-585d-42c8-8a5d-2069e2d497fb\",\"order_by\":2,\"name\":\"Khalil Husein\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"McMaster University\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Khalil\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Husein\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":271101456,\"identity\":\"f7239dc8-8243-441d-839e-492734f4cfe9\",\"order_by\":3,\"name\":\"John McBride\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"2Center for Soft and Living Matter, Institute for Basic Science\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"John\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"McBride\",\"suffix\":\"\"}],\"badges\":[],\"createdAt\":\"2024-02-04 16:20:30\",\"currentVersionCode\":1,\"declarations\":\"\",\"doi\":\"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3928177/v1\",\"doiUrl\":\"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3928177/v1\",\"draftVersion\":[],\"editorialEvents\":[],\"editorialNote\":\"\",\"failedWorkflow\":false,\"files\":[{\"id\":51522921,\"identity\":\"3b8f4a3a-0620-4ae2-9f51-0e21fca5c348\",\"added_by\":\"auto\",\"created_at\":\"2024-02-23 04:38:50\",\"extension\":\"pdf\",\"order_by\":1,\"title\":\"\",\"display\":\"\",\"copyAsset\":false,\"role\":\"manuscript-pdf\",\"size\":1322086,\"visible\":true,\"origin\":\"\",\"legend\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"filename\":\"MANUSCRIPT.pdf\",\"url\":\"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3928177/v1_covered_5c054065-aafe-483d-bcef-9b033872a926.pdf\"}],\"financialInterests\":\"There is \\u003cb\\u003eNO\\u003c/b\\u003e Competing Interest.\",\"formattedTitle\":\"Musical scales optimize pitch spacing: A global analysis of traditional vocal music\",\"fulltext\":[],\"fulltextSource\":\"\",\"fullText\":\"\",\"funders\":[],\"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow\":false,\"hasManuscriptDocX\":false,\"hasOptedInToPreprint\":true,\"hasPassedJournalQc\":\"\",\"hasAnyPriority\":true,\"hideJournal\":true,\"highlight\":\"\",\"institution\":\"\",\"isAcceptedByJournal\":false,\"isAuthorSuppliedPdf\":true,\"isDeskRejected\":\"\",\"isHiddenFromSearch\":false,\"isInQc\":false,\"isInWorkflow\":false,\"isPdf\":true,\"isPdfUpToDate\":true,\"isWithdrawnOrRetracted\":false,\"journal\":{\"display\":true,\"email\":\"info@researchsquare.com\",\"identity\":\"researchsquare\",\"isNatureJournal\":false,\"hasQc\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"externalIdentity\":\"\",\"sideBox\":\"\",\"snPcode\":\"\",\"submissionUrl\":\"/submission\",\"title\":\"Research Square\",\"twitterHandle\":\"researchsquare\",\"acdcEnabled\":true,\"dfaEnabled\":false,\"editorialSystem\":\"\",\"reportingPortfolio\":\"\",\"inReviewEnabled\":false,\"inReviewRevisionsEnabled\":true},\"keywords\":\"\",\"lastPublishedDoi\":\"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3928177/v1\",\"lastPublishedDoiUrl\":\"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3928177/v1\",\"license\":{\"name\":\"CC BY 4.0\",\"url\":\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/\"},\"manuscriptAbstract\":\"The standard model of musical scales is derived from instrument tunings. However, the study of vocal scales – most especially in indigenous cultures – has been all but ignored. The voice is almost certainly the original musical instrument, and so an analysis of vocal scales provides a more naturalistic means of understanding the evolution of music. In particular, we explore the idea that the structure of musical scales is a reflection of the vocal imprecision inherent in the way that people sing, regardless of culture. To investigate this issue globally, we carried out a large-scale computational analysis of 418 ethnographic field recordings of vocal songs from indigenous/traditional cultures, spanning the 10 principal musical-style regions of the world. The results revealed that vocal scales have reliably larger intervallic spacings between pitch-classes than do instrumental scales in Western culture. In addition, the mean interval-size of the scales was significantly correlated with people’s imprecision in singing pitches across the world regions. These results lend support to a physiological model in which musical scales optimize pitch spacing in order to accommodate the imprecision inherent in vocal production and thereby maintain distinguishability between pitch-classes.\",\"manuscriptTitle\":\"Musical scales optimize pitch spacing: A global analysis of traditional vocal music\",\"msid\":\"\",\"msnumber\":\"\",\"nonDraftVersions\":[{\"code\":1,\"date\":\"2024-02-06 03:14:31\",\"doi\":\"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3928177/v1\",\"editorialEvents\":[{\"type\":\"communityComments\",\"content\":0}],\"status\":\"published\",\"journal\":{\"display\":true,\"email\":\"info@researchsquare.com\",\"identity\":\"researchsquare\",\"isNatureJournal\":false,\"hasQc\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"externalIdentity\":\"\",\"sideBox\":\"\",\"snPcode\":\"\",\"submissionUrl\":\"/submission\",\"title\":\"Research Square\",\"twitterHandle\":\"researchsquare\",\"acdcEnabled\":true,\"dfaEnabled\":false,\"editorialSystem\":\"\",\"reportingPortfolio\":\"\",\"inReviewEnabled\":false,\"inReviewRevisionsEnabled\":true}}],\"origin\":\"\",\"ownerIdentity\":\"7386774d-c70e-4b62-b19b-8d8ec2a640f0\",\"owner\":[],\"postedDate\":\"February 6th, 2024\",\"published\":true,\"recentEditorialEvents\":[],\"rejectedJournal\":[],\"revision\":\"\",\"amendment\":\"\",\"status\":\"posted\",\"subjectAreas\":[{\"id\":28570440,\"name\":\"Humanities/Cultural and media studies\"},{\"id\":28570441,\"name\":\"Biological sciences/Evolution\"}],\"tags\":[],\"updatedAt\":\"2024-02-23T04:30:37+00:00\",\"versionOfRecord\":[],\"versionCreatedAt\":\"2024-02-06 03:14:31\",\"video\":\"\",\"vorDoi\":\"\",\"vorDoiUrl\":\"\",\"workflowStages\":[]},\"version\":\"v1\",\"identity\":\"rs-3928177\",\"journalConfig\":\"researchsquare\"},\"__N_SSP\":true},\"page\":\"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]\",\"query\":{\"redirect\":\"/article/rs-3928177\",\"identity\":\"rs-3928177\",\"version\":[\"v1\"]},\"buildId\":\"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt\",\"isFallback\":false,\"isExperimentalCompile\":false,\"dynamicIds\":[84888],\"gssp\":true,\"scriptLoader\":[]}","source_license":"CC-BY-4.0","license_restricted":false}