Relationship Between Self-Rated Musical Competence and Auditory Processing in Instrumentalists

Introduction Although the benefits of musical training have been shown to affect a number of auditory processes, the question of how self-rated musical competence correlates with auditory perception remains largely unexplored. The present study aimed to investigate how self-perceived musical competence correlates with musicians’ ratings of their own abilities in speech perception, spatial hearing, and sound qualities. Material and methods The Edinburgh Lifetime Musical Experience Questionnaire (ELMEQ) was administered on 57 instrumentalists aged 19 to 53 years (mean = 25.1 ± 4.9 years, 34 males and 23 females). All had normal hearing and had undergone formal training on musical instruments for 1–2 years. All of them also regularly practised music for at least 1–2 h/week. Based on their ELMEQ scores, they were divided into two groups: low (ELMEQ score ≤ 7; n = 12) and high (ELMEQ score ≥ 11; n = 16; self-perceived musical competence. Participants were sent a modified questionnaire from the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) using Google forms, and the data statistically analysed. Results A Mann–Whitney U-test showed that participants with high self-rated musical competence had significantly higher ratings on the spatial hearing and sound qualities sub-domains of SSQ compared to their counterparts who had lower ELMEQ scores. However, both groups scored about the same on the speech perception domain of SSQ. A Spearman test revealed a moderate to strong positive correlation between self-rated musical competence and SSQ ratings in each domain. Conclusions The findings show that instrumentalists with high self-rated musical competence exhibited high proficiency in the spatial hearing and sound quality domains of auditory processing.