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Abstract

Objective

Singers are the first judges of their own performances. Although performers usually share a precise definition of pitch accuracy, do they correctly estimate their own ability to sing in tune? This study examines the accuracy of professional singers’ self-evaluations and investigates the profiles of performers/judges.
Methods

Eighteen highly trained soprano singers were invited to evaluate the pitch accuracy of peers’ performances, selected from an existing corpus, and their own previously recorded performances in a pairwise comparison paradigm. The statistical model derived from the participants’ evaluation of their peers allowed us to estimate the pitch accuracy of participants’ own performances and served as a reference to quantify participants’ evaluation and self-evaluation abilities.
Results

The results show that participants were surprisingly inaccurate when evaluating themselves. Specifically, most participants overestimated the accuracy of their own performances. Also, we observed a relationship between singing proficiency and self-evaluation ability, as well as the presence of different profiles.
Conclusion

In addition to emphasizing that singers are not necessarily their own best judges, this study suggests potential role(s) for self-evaluation (in)accuracy in the development of exceptional skills.