Perception of musical pitch and lexical tones by Mandarin-speaking musicians

The relationship between music and language processing was explored in two perception experiments on the identification of musical notes and Mandarin tones. In the music task, Mandarin-speaking musicians were asked to identify musical notes of three timbres without a reference pitch. 72% of the musicians met the criterion for absolute pitch when an exact match was required, and 82% met the criterion when one-semitone errors were allowed. Accuracy of identification was negatively correlated with age of onset of musical training, and piano notes were identified more accurately than viola and pure tone stimuli. In the Mandarin task, the musicians were able to identify, beyond chance, brief Mandarin tone stimuli that were devoid of dynamic F0 information and cues commonly considered necessary for speaker normalization. Although F0 height detection was involved in both musical note and Mandarin tone identification, performances in the two tasks were not correlated. The putative link between absolute pitch and tone language experience was discussed.