Example Stimuli from Consonance Study

These pages contain example stimuli from the paper "Individual Differences Reveal the Acoustic Basis of Consonance" by McDermott, Lehr, and Oxenham (Current Biology, 2010). The paper can be downloaded here.
Quicktime must be installed for the sounds to play. Headphones are essential for the third page as the stimuli there are dichotically presented.
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Figure 1, parts a-b (Chords and their average pleasantness ratings):


Fig. 1a&b

Fig. 1a-b. Consonance Preferences. (a) Mean pleasantness ratings of musical chords, for cohort 1 (142 listeners). (b) Description of chords used in experiments. Ratios in stimuli approximated those listed, because the equal-tempered scale was used.

Example consonant chords:

Sax, Perfect Fifth:

Synth, Major Third:

Voice, Perfect Fifth:

Voice, Major Triad:


Example dissonant chords:

Sax, Minor Second:

Synth, Tritone:

Synth, Major Seventh:

Voice, Minor Second:

Voice, Tritone:

Voice, Augmented Triad:



Second Page of Stimuli      Third Page of Stimuli

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