Emergence of collective intonation in the musical performance of crowds

Abstract

The average individual is typically a mediocre singer, with a rather restricted capacity to sing a melody in tune. Yet when many singers are assembled to perform collectively, the resulting melody of the crowd is suddenly perceived by an external listener as perfectly tuned -as if it was actually a choral performance- even if each individual singer is out of tune. This collective phenomenon is an example of a wisdom of crowds effect that can be routinely observed in music concerts or other social events, when a group of people spontaneously sings at unison. In this paper we rely on the psychoacoustic properties of pitch and provide a simple mechanistic explanation for the onset of this emergent behavior.