Emotional Responses to Single-Voice Melodies: Implications for Mobile Ringtones

Emotional responses (i.e., valence, arousal and liking) to single-voice melody versions that were systematically varied along five music structural characteristics (i.e., mode, tempo, articulation, appoggiatura and subito piano) were studied. The results suggest that differential emotional responses can be produced by simple manipulations on structural characteristics of a ringtone melody. For example, the subjects evaluated the major mode versions as more pleasant than the minor mode versions and the fast versions as more arousing than the slow versions. The fast and legato versions, in turn, produced the highest liking ratings. The results have direct implications for ringtone composing and arrangements.