Absolute pitch
From Free net encyclopedia
Absolute pitch, widely referred to as perfect pitch, refers to the ability to identify a note by name without the benefit of a reference note, or to be able to produce a note (as in singing) that is the correct pitch without reference.
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Definition
Absolute pitch has been defined as "the ability to attach labels to isolated auditory stimuli on the basis of pitch alone".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A person with absolute pitch might be able to, for instance, distinguish whether a piece is played in its original key.
Distinctions
The musicologist Richard Parncutt and the cognitive psychologist Daniel Levitin introduced the following distinctions in their entry on Absolute pitch in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
"Passive" absolute pitch
Persons with passive absolute pitch are able to identify individual notes which they hear, and can identify the key of a composition (assuming some degree of musical knowledge). Some may be able to identify several notes played simultaneously, and therefore identify complex chords. Those with passive absolute pitch are not always capable of singing a given note on command.
"Active" absolute pitch
Persons with active absolute pitch are able to sing any given note when asked. Usually, people with active absolute pitch are not only able to identify a note, but recognize when that note is slightly sharp or flat. Active absolute pitch possessors in the United States number about 1 in every 10,000.<ref name="Sacks1995">Template:Cite journal</ref> However, it has been measured to about 1/20 in other locations.
Not all people with the gift of active absolute pitch are musicians. However, musical training is necessary for full development of the auditory potential of a person with perfect pitch.
Among the autistic and Savant community the incidence of absolute pitch rises to 1 in 20 or higher. Perfect pitch is also common among those with Williams syndrome.<ref name="Sacks1995"/>
Correlation with musical genius
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Phil Spector and Paul Shaffer are three musicians who have/had perfect pitch; Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Leonard Bernstein, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner are among those who did not. There is no necessary correlation between absolute pitch and musical genius: many with absolute pitch do not work in music. Absolute pitch is not necessary to be a talented musician.
Scientific studies related to absolute pitch
Absolute pitch as a special case of sensation
Absolute pitch is not limited to the realm of music, or even to humans. Songbirds and wolves have exhibited the ability. In fact, studies indicate that absolute pitch is more a linguistic ability than a musical one. Absolute pitch is an act of cognition, needing memory of the frequency, a label for the frequency (such as B-flat), and exposure to the common range considered a note. (A note in modern tuning can vary in its exact frequency.) It may be directly analogous to recognizing colours, phonemes (speech sounds) or other categorical perception of sensory stimuli. And while most people have been trained to recognize and name the colour blue by its frequency, it is possible only those who have had early, somewhere between the ages of 3 and 6,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and deliberate exposure to the names of musical tones—usually musicians—will be likely to identify a middle C. Absolute pitch, may, however, be genetic, possibly an autosomal dominant genetic trait,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> though, "Absolute pitch might be nothing more than a general human capacity whose expression is strongly biased by the level and type of exposure to music that people experience in a given culture."
It has been proven possible to learn the ability of naming musical tones later in life, although the skill is arguably not absolute pitch. However, with practice and dedication, the serious person with good ears could improve in pitch identification.
Absolute pitch and linguistics
In addition, perfect pitch is more common among speakers of tonal languages such as most dialects of Chinese or Vietnamese, which depend heavily on pitch for meaning. "Tone deafness" is unusual among native speakers of these languages. In addition, there are a number of Japanese speakers who have perfect pitch; Japanese is a pitch accent language, in which pitch is also involved in conveying the meaning of words (though less heavily than in tone languages). Speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages have been reported to speak a word in the same absolute pitch (within a quarter-tone) on various days.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It has therefore been suggested that absolute pitch may be acquired by infants when they learn to speak in a tone language (and possibly also by infants when they learn to speak in a pitch stress language). Such individuals may be more likely to acquire absolute pitch for musical tones when they later receive musical training.
Nature or Nurture?
Until the middle of the 20th century, most people believed that musical ability itself was an inborn talent. Some scientists believe absolute pitch is due to genetics and are trying to map the gene for it; others believe most humans do not typically develop this ability because there is no social use for it, and are trying to teach adults how to develop it. It is also possible that every person had the ability of perfect pitch when they were an infant, but that there was no use for it so the trait went undeveloped. Those with early musical training kept the ability because it was useful to their everyday lives. The debate is not yet settled, as data on this highly specialized ability are quite scarce. It is nevertheless becoming increasingly apparent that people can acquire perfect pitch (at least for single instruments) through learning. It has also become apparent that a critical period in early childhood is involved in the acquisition of absolute pitch; this critical period may be related to that for acquisition of speech. Pitch recognition is now taught at the Eastman School of music and various "perfect pitch" courses have been offered since the early 1980s.
Potential problems
Persons who have absolute pitch may be irritated when a piece is transposed to a different key (or played at a nonstandard pitch).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They may have a harder time developing relative pitch than others when following standard curricula, and the learning of tasks such as transposition may be hindered by an attempt to use their absolute knowledge for something that is better a relative task. Because their comprehension of musical pitch is categorical rather than spectral (Harris, 1974), poorly-trained absolute pitch possessors can find it quite difficult to play in tune with an orchestra which is not tuned to standard concert pitch A4 = 440 Hz. All of these problems can be overcome by careful training designed to make sure the relative-pitching faculties are developed as well.
Relative pitch
Many musicians, and most jazz musicians, have quite good relative pitch, a skill which can certainly be learned. With practice, it is possible to listen to a single known pitch once (from a pitch pipe or a tuning fork) and then have stable, reliable pitch identification by comparing the notes heard to the stored memory of the tonic pitch. Unlike true perfect pitch, this skill is dependent on a recently-perceived tonal center.
Famous possessors of absolute pitch
References
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Further reading
External links
- Absolute Pitch Power - 'Absolute Pitch Ear Training Course'
- The Graham English Blog - 'Absolute Pitch Ear Training Blog'
- Prolobe.com - 'Online Perfect Pitch training'
- Herken - 'Absolute Pitch training program'
- Telia.com - 'Subconscious absolute pitch as a general trait' (evidence that nearly all people have a subconscious version of absolute pitch)
- AbsolutePitchEarTraining.com - 'Absolute Pitch Ear Training Website', Graham English (September 6, 2005)
- Aruffo.com - 'Music Cognition and Absolute Pitch', Chris Aruffo (August 2, 2005)
- NYTimes.com - 'When Your Infant Is a Musical Genius', Eric Nagourney, New York Times (February 27, 2001)
- PerfectPitchPeople.com - 'Perfect Pitch Links: The Ultimate Web Resource for Information on Perfect Pitch'
- Silvawood.co.uk - 'Absolute Pitch: a free-to-download ear-training application' (software for trying to acquire perfect pitch)
- WeHearAndPlay.com - 'Your child can learn absolute pitch: The perfect foundation for musical development' (a piano method for preschoolers which also teaches absolute pitch)
- Aruffo.com - 'Absolute pitch,' Nicolas Slonimsky
- EarTraining.com - 'Absolute pitch,' David Lucas Burgecs:Absolutní sluch
de:Absolutes Gehör fr:Oreille absolue it:Orecchio assoluto nl:Absoluut gehoor ja:絶対音感 pl:Słuch absolutny sl:Absolutni posluh fi:Absoluuttinen sävelkorva