Absolute Pitch

Unveiled …

Absolute Pitch:

Theoretical and Musical Considerations ... Its Value and Beyond

Gabriel Chen

Andre Previn, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and Mozart had it in their gene pool. Absolute pitch (AP), commonly called perfect pitch, is the ability to identify by ear any note at some standard pitch or to sing a specified note, say G#, at will (“pitch” Britannica Online). This uncommon cognitive ability, without the benefit of a reference pitch, is usually accomplished in a relatively effortless and instantaneous fashion. In the world of an absolute pitcher, every sound has a personality to it. A cat meows in D-flat; a telephone rings in G major. D’s possess an aura of D-ness; G’s an aura of G-ness, each “as intrinsic to the sound as whiteness is to snow” (Jourdain 113). At the Julliard School of Music, about 10% of the students have AP. A typical symphony orchestra will boast 20-40% of its membership with the ability. Numerous surveys indicate that about half of today's most popular recording artists have AP. In the first part of my paper, I examine the arguments for and the limitations of two major theories (heredity; and a combination of learning, unlearning, and imprinting) that explain why some people have AP. I then discuss a case study, which would illustrate two controversial issues surrounding AP. In the second part, I examine the value of AP, propose relative pitch (RP) as an alternative to AP, and speculate about future research in AP.

The exclusiveness associated with having AP, a rare ability that transforms a person into “the quarterback, the beauty queen and the genius rolled into one,” has increased the demand for AP ear-training courses (Dickinson 114). The Perfect Pitch Ear-Training Super Course by David Burge is one of many AP ear-training courses offered to the public today. Burge purports that anyone can unlock his or her own AP by learning the simple secret of “color hearing” (Burge 4). This procedure exhorts learners to attach a color to each pitch class. Burge relates a student’s experience of learning AP.

From your very first listening you will begin to hear richer qualities within the tones -- a natural effect you may never have noticed before. Your experience becomes stronger with each daily listening session of about 15 minutes. Soon your ear starts to recognize single tones intermittently…as your ability continues to crystallize, you find you can confidently name any tone on your instrument. This expands into your ability to recognize chords and keys. You suddenly notice that a particular piece is in the key of G major, and you can follow the chords by ear: E minor, A major, D dominant seven. As your ear continues to open, you will also notice when a singer has drifted a quarter or a half step flat -- by hearing the finer qualities of pitch with your own ears -- without a pitch pipe or other external pitch reference (Burge).

The results of many a color hearing test, viewed collectively, tend to be uniform. 995 children were asked to assign one of six colors to pure tones at octaves from 125 to 8000 Hz plus 12000 Hz. Most of them assigned darker colors (blue and violet) to 125 and 250 Hz. The lightest color (yellow) was assigned to 8000 and 12000 Hz, which implied that ‘high’ is bright and ‘low’ is dark, as is the case for speech. However, results of color hearing tests, differentiated between individual colors, tend not to be so uniform. The hearing of colors associated with a particular tone may “differ drastically from individual to individual even though the idiosyncratic differences may be very stable” (Deutsch 286). Burge’s method is popular today, but its efficacy can be questioned. A study of 26 volunteers (music majors) did not indicate any particular advantage to Burge’s perfect pitch ear-training procedure. Although there was some improvement in the identification of piano tones that was correlated with the number of weeks the individual devoted to the program, only one person “achieved what would be regarded as real AP,” identifying correctly the pitch class of 106 out of 120 piano tones (Deutsch 286).

Color hearing was not the basis of a training technique developed by Cuddy (1968), which attempted to retain just one tone as a reference standard among alternatives, as a basis to identify the others. Brady (1970), a keen musician with good relative pitch, subjected himself to very intensive training with a version of Cuddy’s technique. Brady prepared a set of pure tones spaced by semitones and spanning three octaves from A# (117 Hz) to A (880 Hz), and focused on the C above middle C. Brady’s idea was to relate each presented tone to C, rather than the preceding tone. After two months of daily training on a half-hour tape, Brady managed to get, out of 57 test tones, 37 completely correct. The incorrect responses were very close: 18 semitone errors and just two whole-tone errors (Howell and Cross 200). Brady’s performance, as he himself pointed out, would seem to satisfy the accuracy criterion adopted in some of the definitions of AP. Although Brady reports thirteen years later (1983) that he can still recall C to within a semitone without any deliberate attempt to nurture his skill, there remains the contention among AP possessors as to whether Brady would qualify as a true possessor, simply because his skill was acquired (Howell and Cross 200). True possessors of AP claim no unusual efforts made to achieve their eminence and that they simply noticed their unusual ability, usually at an early age.

This heredity viewpoint, espoused vigorously by possessors such as Révész (1913) and Bachem (1937), contends that AP is a special innate ability that one either inherits or not. Those who do inherit the trait will demonstrate pitch-naming ability, regardless of their early music training, and those who are not so genetically blessed “never attain the degree of excellence in identifying pitch displayed by the chosen few, no matter how much instruction they are given or how diligently they practice naming tones” (Deutsch 268). The human research committee at the University of California - San Francisco, surveyed 612 musicians and music students. 44 of 92 individuals (48%) indicated that they had first-degree relatives who possessed AP. In contrast, only 72 of 520 (14%) non-AP possessors reported first-degree relatives with AP (Baharloo and Johnston 229). Data also showed that out of 15 siblings of self-reported AP possessors, nine were reported to possess AP. In contrast, out of 23 siblings of respondents without self-reported AP, only two had AP (230). These results suggest that AP is aggregated in families and may indicate the involvement of a genetic mechanism in the development of AP.

Next, the heredity viewpoint posits the nature of the planum temporale (PT) asymmetry among AP musicians and non-AP musicians as a possible explanation for the genetic mechanism in AP. Schlaug and Keenan took anatomical magnetic resonance images from a right-handed group of 27 AP musicians, 27 non-musicians, and 22 non-AP musicians. A significantly greater leftward PT asymmetry and a significantly smaller right absolute PT size for the AP musicians compared to the two control groups was found, while the left PT was only marginally larger in the AP group (Schlaug and Keenan 1402).

This PT asymmetry hypothesis postulates why blind musicians are more likely than sighted people to have AP. The concept of blind musicians appreciating music and having “meaningful musical experiences” is not something new. Past research has shown that the musical brain is “highly nili,” and that music persists in people who are blind, deaf, emotionally disturbed, retarded, or affected by disabilities or diseases (Hodges 52). A new study now finds that blind musicians are more likely than sighted people to have AP. Roy H. Hamilton of the Beth Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and his colleagues surveyed 30 people who have been blind since the age of 6 or earlier. Within that group, 21 reported having a musical background and 12 of them —57% of the musicians—said they have AP. Researchers later confirmed their AP skills when they tested 7 of the 12 (Science News Nov 25, 2000).

PT asymmetry can also be used to explain the high incidence of AP among individuals with Williams syndrome. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine the brains of individuals with Williams syndrome. Williams syndrome is a condition caused by “a micro deletion of about 20 genes in the q11.23 region of one of the person’s two chromosomes seven” (Lenhoff and Pearles 491). Individuals with Williams syndrome are both physically and cognitively impaired. Lenhoff, Pearles and Hickok had five Williams participants receive and identify tones drawn at random. Out of 1084 trials, the participants as a group scored 97.5% correct. Their performance as a group compared favorably with the performance of musicians claiming to have AP, all of whom were well-trained, who as a group scored 84.3% correct on tests for AP using piano or synthesized piano tones. Magnetic resonance imaging for these Williams individuals showed an exaggerated left PT > right PT asymmetry (501).

Sadly, Révész and Bachem’s heredity viewpoint does not explain adequately why some persons have AP. Using the PT asymmetry hypothesis again, Schlaug and Keenan suggests the possibility of early music exposure as a means of developing AP. Early developmental pruning in the right PT might create an anatomical dominance of the left PT, which in turn would create a functional dominance of the left PT over the right PT. This functional dominance could be necessary for the acquisition and/or manifestation of AP. As such, Schlaug and Keenan argue that young children with an increased leftward PT asymmetry may develop AP if they have an early music exposure (1407).

Another inadequacy in the heredity viewpoint is that it does not account for the importance of experience accrued in the development of AP. How else would it be possible to explain AP possessors’ close calibration and instinctive-ness to a very particular musical system – a system in which pitch levels were “tied to internationally standardized frequencies only as late as 1939” (Howell and Cross 201). AP possessors have access to a set of internal “standards” that allow them to fetch the name of a tone without comparing the representation of the tone they have just heard with a recently fetched representation of a standard (Klein and Coles 4). Siegel hypothesized that AP possessors store a “limited number of points along the pitch continuum in long-term memory,” and that they can use this information for classifying pitches. When AP possessors are faced with the task of tuning to a pitch outside the permanently stored pitches under the condition of a long delay, they estimate pitch with reference to their internal “standard” (Dyson and Gabriel 60). Adherence to a set of internal “standards” explains why a person who grew up with a piano tuned a semitone or so flat will inevitably embrace such “standards” in pitch classification. The variance in internal “standards” also explains the striking difference in the pattern of errors made by AP possessors. AP possessors are not only subjected to “constant errors and drifts,” but their judgments also show some scatter. Errors are not simply clustered around the correct value, but occur at intervals of an octave and perhaps also at intervals of a fifth or a fourth (Howell and Cross 201).

Octave errors were detected among AP subjects (eight males and six female students of music) at the University of Illinois. Each subject heard a series of pure tones generated by a programmable oscillator. The 81 tone pitches represented the fundamentals of the piano, ranging from 63 to 4186 Hz. The different tones were presented in random sequence, and the subject was instructed to identify the octave number and the name of the pitch (e.g. A# or C) associated with each tone. Each tone was sounded until the subject responded. Subjects who described themselves as having the AP skill made fewer errors than those who reported “normal” pitch discrimination. Yet, the errors the AP subjects did make were “octave” errors. Although AP subjects identified the pitch correctly, they assigned it to a higher or a lower octave than that of the actual stimulus (Klein and Coles 1306).

A combination of learning, unlearning, and imprinting (early learning) theory of AP has oft been favored as an alternative to the heredity viewpoint. It must however be noted that genetic components in AP cannot be ruled out completely unless some technique for teaching AP is developed that will succeed with every person, or at least with all children. Abraham (1901) suggested that perhaps an “inborn potential” for developing AP was relatively widespread, but it is simply trained out of most of us (Deutsch 269). He commented that pitch-naming ability was relatively easy to develop in children. Similarly, Copp (1916) suggested a concept of “imprinting” might be involved. She claimed 80% of all children can be taught to produce middle C when asked, and to recognize it when played, only if they begin musical training at an early age (269). Researchers like Miyazaki (1988) purport an early-learning theory: AP is acquired during a “critical period” in childhood (ages 3-6 years). According to this theory, children have the potential to acquire AP if they are exposed to note names and pitch sounds during the critical period (Marvin and Brinkman 112).

The human research committee at the University of California - San Francisco found further evidence of a correlation between early musical training and the development of AP. 29 of 72 (40%) individuals who had begun their musical training at age < 4 years reported AP. In contrast, 43 of 160 (27%) individuals who had received their first musical training at age 4-6 years and 13 of 161 (8%) individuals who had received their first musical training at age 6-9 years reported AP. Only 4 of 104 (4%) individuals who had begun musical training at age 9-12 years and 3 of 112 (2.7%) individuals who had begun musical training >12 years reported AP. (Baharloo and Johnston 229). The correlation between early musical training and AP has encouraged the design of some types of early childhood education with the purpose of developing AP ability. These include the Yamaha method and the Royal College method, and other methods termed “fixed do.” “Fixed do” pedagogy expressly associates solfége syllables (do-re-mi, etc.) with particular standard pitches: for example “do” is always C, “sol” is always G (Gregersen 280). Oura and Eguchi (1981) indicated that Japanese investigators who reported the high rate of success training young children using the “fixed-do” system also introduced another device to facilitate the learning of AP. Investigators not only had children associate a unique visual symbol with each note, but also had them learn both the notes and chords: “A flag of a particular color having three of the symbols signified a particular chord” (Deutsch 286).

Bearing in mind the methods of developing AP, there is evidence that the type of early childhood music training individuals are exposed to can perhaps be more important than early music exposure. 1067 music students who enrolled in music theory classes in one of 13 educational institutions in the United States were surveyed about their AP ability and family history. The overall rate of AP in this population was 12.2%. There was a markedly increased rate of AP among Asian students (47.5%) compared with Caucasian students (9.0%). An initial explanation for the difference might be that early childhood exposure is more frequent among Asian students. However, it was found later that there was no significant difference between these two ethnic groups, with 80% of Asians and 71% of Caucasians reporting early music exposure of at least some type. Yet, when the type of early childhood music training was compared, Asians were significantly more likely to have been exposed to early training based on “fixed do” techniques compared with Caucasians (29% vs. 6.0%) (Gregersen 280).

Still, the “fixed do” music training technique cannot account for the high prevalence of AP, manifested in the reading of lists of words, among Vietnamese and Mandarin Chinese speakers. Indeed, when 1067 music students were broken down into ethnic subgroups, the Chinese had a higher rate of AP compared to the Japanese (65% vs. 26%) (Gregersen 280). Native Vietnamese and Mandarin Chinese speakers use tones to convey meaning. Unlike the Japanese language, which is not tonal, the Vietnamese and Mandarin Chinese language have different rising and falling tones that “impart different meanings to the same combination of vowels and consonants” (Glanz 1). In two experiments led by Deutsch, seven Vietnamese speakers read out a list of ten words twice on two separate days. The average pitch of each word was determined by computer analysis, and for each speaker, comparisons were made between the average pitches produced by the same word on different days. For most speakers, the signed pitch difference, averaged across words, was well within a semitone. In the other experiment, 15 Mandarin speakers read out a list of 12 words twice within a session, with the two readings separated by roughly 20s, in two sessions on different days. For most speakers, the signed pitch difference, averaged across words, was well within a semitone (Lubman 2267) Even though the precise connection between AP in music and tonal speech remains unanswered, these tonal speakers demonstrated their ability to refer to a remarkably precise and stable AP template in producing words, which may suggest the possibility that “many or even most babies are born with AP but lose it if they do not learn a tonal language or undergo early music training” (Glanz 2).

Levitin of McGill University says most people have excellent pitch memory, but “the ability to express that memory diminishes in a person who does not speak a tonal language or study music at a young age” (Glanz 2). Levitin (1994) asked 46 undergraduate psychology students to select two CDs of popular music from a shelf of recordings, to choose a song and try to hear it in their heads, then to sing as much of it as they wished. Levitin found on his first trial that 24% of the participants sang the song in the correct key and 67% of them sang within two semitones of the correct pitch. Similar results were obtained on a second trial (Marvin and Brinkman 112). Likewise, Braun (2001) examined the speech-pitch contours of 2,400 sentences of 15 speakers of Dutch. The subjects read statement sentences that were designed to elicit pitch contours with consistent and identifiable peaks and valleys. A bias was found toward the standard frequencies of music according to the international norm A4=440 Hz, and it was limited to the dominant tones in daily music exposure, ACDEFG (Braun 85). These results indicate that a precognitive AP memory may perhaps be a normal trait of the human brain.

On the basis of his finding in the two trials, Levitin hypothesized a two-component theory of AP in which the first component is pitch memory and the second, pitch labeling. According to his theory, many listeners (even non-musicians) possess pitch memory, but only true AP listeners have both the ability to remember and to name (Marvin and Brinkman 112). Using Levitin’s criteria, Julian Lim, a tenor with Rhythm and Blues, a coed Duke University a cappella group, would fall into the category of a true AP listener, as he is able to remember and name notes that make up any song.

I started taking organ lessons when I was five or six. Informally, I was exposed to music quite a bit even before then. I definitely am aware of the notes that make up a song, and I often ‘see’ the score in my mind for choral pieces. I guess my having AP is helpful in pieces that are especially complicated because I can sing the score as individual notes rather than relying on intervals. Sight singing comes naturally to me too. Although I can identify notes easily, I identify the ‘natural’ notes more quickly and accurately than the notes with sharps or flats.

I believe that there are different grades of AP, probably due to the neurological makeup in different persons. I get confused sometimes between notes, especially if there's sound interference. It is hard to explain. For example, if we start a song in one key and go sharp or flat, I cannot tell immediately. I suppose this is particular to a cappella singing. However, if everyone keeps quiet and I concentrate on my own 'internal' standard, I can get it back in a few seconds (Lim).

Lim’s anecdote presents us with two highly interesting but debatable conceptions to our understanding of AP: (i) the effect of key color on AP; (ii) the effect of categorical perception on AP. Lim mentions he can identify ‘natural’ notes more quickly and accurately than notes with sharps or flats. This seems to be consistent with findings by Takeuchi and Hulse (1991) that AP listeners identify the names of white-key pitches more quickly and more accurately than black-key pitches (Deutsch 275). Subjects had to simply respond “same” or “different” when presented simultaneously a tone and a visual pitch-class name. Of 17 AP possessors, 15 made significantly more errors on black-note stimuli than on white. All but one of the 14 responded significantly more slowly when either the tone presented or the visual pitch name was black (275). The early-learning theory I discussed earlier is hypothesized by Miyazaki (1988) as a possible explanation of the variation in response time among different-colored keys. Because young children in the early stages of piano study tend to play pieces using simple five-finger patterns on the white keys, the early-learning theory posits that they acquire AP for white keys only. These students move on to a more difficult repertoire with more black keys after their critical period has ended. Black-key identifications are unconsciously made by half-step displacements from the more familiar white keys in a slightly longer process (Marvin and Brinkman 112). However, Takeuchi and Hulse throw Miyazaki’s hypothesis on its head. They suggest that the variation in response time among different-colored keys is “due to a greater exposure to white notes in music in general in all the subjects’ musical history, and not just when the person is first learning” (Deutsch 275).

Next, Lim says he cannot tell immediately if his a cappella group goes sharp or flat in a song. Lim’s response mirrors findings in a study by Siegel and Siegel (1977) on magnitude estimation and absolute identification of sets of tones spaced one-fifth semitone apart. In terms of categorization performance, AP possessors show very clear resolution “between note categories but not within them.” It is as though AP possessors “cannot readily tell sharp from flat notes” (Howell and Cross 203). Studies of categorical perception are premised upon the assumption that AP possessors have a “whole gamut of internal standards” at their disposal (204). When identifying tones, AP listeners have to anchor their judgments to a relatively stable framework. However, the question of whether AP possessors rely on one, a few, or a whole gamut of internal standards remains unanswered (205).

Indubitably, what remains unresolved is the true value of AP. Are there always advantages in having AP? Batteries of music aptitude tests have found no strong correlation between AP and other musical abilities. Composers like Schumann, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky have done well without AP. As N. Slonimsky, in his autobiography, Perfect Pitch, writes: “The lack of it does not exclude musical talent, or even genius. Neither Wagner nor Tchaikovsky had absolute pitch, while a legion of mediocre composers possessed it to the highest degree” (Sacks 621). In addition, many non-AP possessors splurge thousands of hours and dollars on classes or courses that claim to develop AP. Yet, is spending all the time and money worth the effort? The issue raised here should be the form or purity of AP one hopes to achieve. Terhardt and Seewann found that musicians could generally determine whether well-known passages were played in the correct key, even though most of them did not have AP. In fact, most of them succeeded even when the difference was as small as a semitone. The musicians perceived notes as higher or lower simply on the basis of pitch class (Scientific American 90). AP ability, at least in a partial form, is not as scarce or limited as everyone thinks.

Moreover, each time the average person sings “Amazing grace” or “America the beautiful,” he or she probably would begin on a different pitch. But the mistuned singing certainly does not stop him or her from enjoying the song. Indeed, one generally does not need AP to comprehend music on a social level. Along a similar vein of thought, how many people actually pay attention to precise pitches during a concert? Even if you are one of those who do, take my advice: bat an eyelid, ignore the mistuned pitches, and the concerto or symphony will still sound comprehensible to you. If by the end of the concert, the piece does not make any musical sense, then look for the interplay of other factors since the ‘niceness’ of a piece is rarely the sole result of its mistuned components only.

In fact, there are instances when AP can hamper a person’s enjoyment of music. The price of certainty in recognizing pitches is an intolerance of deviation. AP possessors cannot bear to hear music performed a semitone higher or lower than the key in which it was written: “Such a hearing…becomes very strenuous and fatiguing” (Marvick 295). Although nothing is out of tune, the intensity of stimulation is itself obtrusive. “It is a handicap when I listen to music because I constantly listen for the individual tones themselves. Rather than listening to the overall thing, I dissect it…into notes and colors,” said a female AP possessor (295).

As people age, their cochlea shrinks slightly. This often leads to a gradual rise in perceived pitch. It must however be noted that a drop in perceived pitch can be and has been experienced by AP possessors in the past. Although individuals with RP ability would claim to hear nothing amiss when pitches are shifted, only an AP possessor is aware of a change in the entire tuning of the auditory system. AP possessors would say that everything is now in the “wrong” key since all music sounds as though it has been transposed (Deutsch 280). David Arcus, the Chapel Organist at Duke University, is an AP possessor who reports a change in his internal pitch standard over time.

I’m 42 this year. AP is definitely helpful to me in improvising. AP also helps me sight-read or sight-sing easily. I am already experiencing a pitch shift. This came about ever since the Brombaugh organ, whose pitch is a′≈ 410, was installed in the Memorial Chapel of Duke Chapel back in 1997. Now my c′ has become a b′. I was particularly aware of pitch discrepancies in very old pipe organs when I was younger, although these discrepancies tended not to affect my hearing pitch at a′=440 (Arcus).

Arcus has a neurophysiological condition known as “musical paracusis.” Arcus’s condition is not an exception as other AP possessors have made this specific complaint before. For example, when pianist Alicia de Larrocha was asked if she possessed AP, her response was telling: “I used to have it. Unfortunately, with age, little by little it’s going. Until a few years ago, I could say exactly the notes, chords, intervals, everything…Sometimes I know that I am hearing the pitch a little higher; so I have to figure out and say, it has to be an A” (Jourdain 117). However, not every AP possessor seems to experience this change. Wynn (1992) compared adjustments to A4 made in 1989 by five AP possessors to those made in 1971 and 1976, and found that there was no consistent change in direction. Carpenter’s (1951) subject also showed no significant change at age 71 from the 435 Hz he claimed to be his A4 65 years earlier (Deutsch 281).

Sometimes, AP possessors experience this change in internal standard but are not consciously aware of it. Corliss (1973) reports that she was surprised to find that when she plays Chopin’s Prelude in A Major (Op. 28, No. 7) from pitch memory, she performs it in #G. Although she attributes her playing to the fact that she originally learned the piece as a child on a piano more than a quartertone flat, it could very well be due to the fact that her hearing mechanism shifted by 1 semitone with age (Deutsch 281). Not all AP possessors however are troubled by the loss. Gerald Moore, the famous English piano accompanist, described in his book “Am I too loud?” that as a young man, he had AP and gradually lost it later. This seems a remarkable account by anyone’s standards because the loss happened in a period of Moore’s life when he was still fully engaged as an accompanist. Moore points out that he regarded the loss of AP as a relief, i.e. with regards to the fact that he frequently had to transpose pieces on the piano (Moore).

Although I do not have AP, I am not poorer musically. I play in concerts and it is difficult to see how having AP would make my solos or inventions more appealing to the audience. [1] I have, over the years, mastered the ability to find a note by either ‘mentally’ singing up the scale or by measuring it against a common reference point like middle C on the piano. This skill is known as relative pitch (RP). I did not consciously seek out RP. I think it is a product of I having spent hours on the piano since the age of six, and of I listening to recitals by various musicians frequently. RP helps me tell the kind of chords, intervals, and progressions that I hear. For example, I am able to distinguish between groups of tones like the major, minor, augmented, dominant seventh, sharp five and flat nine. In addition, RP is helpful when I play in a jazz band. As I improvise or play by ear, I pay attention to what my fellow musicians play, try to understand the tones they use, and then imitate or transpose harmonically.

I have company. For most people, including many music students, AP has little use outside of professional musicianship and is too fine a form of categorization for everyday living. Training methods geared to the development of RP ability, with minimal if any attempt to train AP recognition, include the Suzuki method, and other “moveable do” techniques. “Moveable do” pedagogy associates “solfége syllables with a scalar function within a key, so that ‘do’ can associate with different pitches, depending on the key being utilized for the training exercise” (Gregersen 280). The Suzuki method, developed by Shinichi Suzuki, works on the ideas of parental responsibility, early beginning, listening, constant repetition and delayed reading. Listening to music, for example, should begin at birth and formal training may begin at age three or four. Suzuki students develop basic competence on their instruments before being taught to read music. In addition, students learn musical concepts and skills in the context of the music rather than through dry technical exercises. More importantly, parents have to assume the role of “home teachers” as a child learns an instrument. In the beginning, one parent often learns to play before the child, so that he or she understands what the child is expected to do. After that, the parent attends the child’s lessons and the two of them would practice daily at home (Suzuki Association of the Americas Inc).

Surprisingly, in terms of accuracy, RP possessors may in certain cases be better than AP possessors. Deutsch illustrates a situation where AP possessors might make wrong judgments in categorizing intervals. A sequence A+40, C-40, D-40, E+40 is presented. The person using RP will recognize the first interval of 220 cents as a major second and the second interval of 280 cents as a minor third and will then conclude that the second interval was larger. However, an AP possessor who is unable to avoid categorizing each note and has an internal pitch helix tuned to A4 equal to 440 Hz will perceive the sequence as being A to C and D to E. He or she will then say that the first interval was the larger, which would be erroneous (290). Another situation that shows AP possessors to be at a disadvantage compared to RP possessors was devised by Cuddy (1977). Both AP and RP possessors were required to identify whether two 7-tone sequences were identical or differed on one of the tones by half a semitone. The performance of RP possessors was independent of whether the sequence was tonal or atonal. On the other hand, AP possessors were better at picking out a single mistuned tone from a sequence, but when many of the tones were already mistuned, they were unable to determine whether an additional 50-cent change had occurred (Deutsch 292). Hence, it appears that AP can hamper performance since possessors appear “less flexible” to learn a new scale.

Presently, the neurology of AP leaves several questions unanswered. The literature on amusia for example, has shown instances where individuals who have suffered the destruction of a particular brain tissue correspondingly lose language abilities as well as specific musical abilities like AP. One of history’s most eminent amusiac was the composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel was 58 when progressive left-hemisphere damage wiped out an area of the cortex where the temporal lobe meets the parietal cortex (Jourdain 290). Ravel first made spelling errors in his letters; soon he could neither read nor write. Ravel’s problem then spilled over into his musical composition: “Ravel was able to work on his opera, but only in his head. He had lost the complex skills required to objectify musical imagery and convey it to paper. Music that had long resided in memory was simply incarcerated. He could sing or play only a few bars of his own compositions” (291). Ravel eventually lost his AP abilities. But it might be premature to generalize a distinct correlation between language and AP because although hundreds of research studies are on neuromusical research, little has been researched and explored on language study. Thus, the exact relationship between language and AP needs further probing.

Another area worth looking into is the question of whether AP can be regarded as an outstanding or sophisticated auditory achievement since it can be found in a number of non-human animals. We already know many animals have “sound-producing” and “sound-processing” capabilities. Animals often use their “sound-producing” capabilities to convey meanings during signaling, courtship, mating, etc. “Sound-processing” capabilities are observed in remarkable musical feats displayed by certain birds – “they are able to distinguish between composers” (Hodges 49). Even more remarkable is the ability of a number of birds (Hulse and Cynx 176-196) and a frog (Elepfandt 235-238) to recognize AP. The above findings indicate that AP is perhaps an elementary and not a sophisticated feature of the auditory system among vertebrates. Could AP then be an elementary feature of our auditory system? Earlier, I discussed Braun’s findings in his experiment dealing with the speech-pitch contours of Dutch speakers. Braun’s claim that a precognitive AP memory might be a normal trait of the human brain could, in time to come, spur further research on a particular form of relationship between the auditory system of human and non-human animals.

“Without music, life would be a mistake” (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, 1844-1900). In The Critic as Artist, Oscar Wilde writes: “After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears” (Jourdain 322). Invariably, music idealizes our thoughts, emotions and our feelings. We respond to music in the same way we respond to intangible human distinctiveness like love, hate, envy and fear. We swoon; we resent; we grumble; we cry when we listen to a piece, but all out of joy in experiencing and evaluating one of God’s most beautiful and inspiring creation – music. We cannot all be perfect. If a child has extraordinary musical talent, it will be evident. Even if a child is not the next Mozart, it does not mean that he or she can or will not develop a fine sense of pitch or tune. All the child needs is some encouragement and an immersion into the world of music at home. Yes, I understand there are limitations in that having music-in-the-air for the child from young, i.e. upbringing, does not necessarily translate into all children developing a fine sense of pitch or tune. 2 However, my point is not so much about getting the child to declare effortlessly that the note played in the concerto was a G, but rather to encourage the child to think of music as a form of communication between him/her, the composer, and the orchestra/band. As long as children enjoy and love the music that they partake of, their ignorance about the certainty of pitches will never appear more blissful.

Bibliography of references cited

Arcus, David. Interview. April 7, 2002.

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Identification of Genetic and Nongenetic Components.”

The American Journal of Human Genetics 62 (1998): 224-231.

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Absolute Pitch Questionnaire

Dear participant. I'm doing a research paper on Absolute Pitch (AP). I want to document the personal experiences of some AP possessors. I hope to weave in some of your 'only-human' experiences into the paper so that readers will have a better appreciation of the benefits and drawbacks of having AP. 

I would appreciate if you could kindly complete the form. I'm looking for a personal response, rather than a summary of what you'd consider a 'typical' answer other AP possessors would give.

Q1. When did you start having formal music training? When and how did you realize you had absolute pitch? Do any of your immediate family members have absolute pitch? 

Q2. Some absolute pitchers say that they "mentally dissect a piece of music they hear into notes and colors." What happens to you pyschologically when you listen to a piece of music? Does an immediate sense of the KEY of the piece come to you or do you have to piece together individual notes before the KEY presents itself? 

Q3. Do you think having absolute pitch is an asset to you in: (i) sight-reading/sight-singing (ii) improvising? Some absolute pitchers are found to experience a pitch shift after age 50 or so, i.e. a C might now be heard as a #C. Have you personally experienced any drawbacks/setbacks in having absolute pitch?

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**Please note that the above questionnaire has been modified slightly for optimal space use in this paper. Please refer to the link below for the complete absolute pitch questionnaire. Thank you.

https://gabrchen.tripod.com/Absolute_Pitch_Questionnaire.htm

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[1] Some AP and non-AP possessors will dispute my view. However, regardless of whether my view was supported or opposed, it constitutes only my personal opinion.

2 Some people have too poor an ear for intervals to make much sense of music. Roughly 5% of the general population cannot hear that intervals in a familiar tune have been altered by a half-step. These are monotones, popularly known as the tone deaf (Jourdain 113).