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Absolute pitch: effects of timbre on note-naming ability
Patrícia Vanzella1, E Glenn Schellenberg
1Department of Music, University of Brasilia, Brasília, Brazil.
Plos One
|November 19, 2010
Summary
Individuals with absolute pitch (AP) identify musical notes less accurately when presented as sung or synthesized voices compared to piano or pure tones. Early piano lessons enhance AP abilities and extend the sensitive period for musical development.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Music Cognition
Background:
- Absolute pitch (AP) involves identifying or producing musical tones without a reference.
- AP is primarily observed in individuals with early childhood music training.
- AP offers insights into memory interactions between linguistic and nonlinguistic information.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the pitch of voices is difficult for AP possessors to identify.
- To examine the influence of a musician's first instrument on AP performance.
- To explore the effect of instrument type on the sensitive period for acquiring AP.
Main Methods:
- Recruited a large sample of AP possessors online.
- Tested note-naming accuracy using piano, pure tone, natural voice, and synthesized voice stimuli.
- Analyzed the impact of early music lesson age and instrument type on AP accuracy.
Main Results:
- Note-naming accuracy was significantly better for non-vocal (piano, pure tones) than vocal (natural, synthesized voices) stimuli.
- The accuracy difference between vocal and non-vocal tones was not solely due to vibrato.
- Starting music lessons by age 7 correlated with enhanced accuracy, but later piano instruction also yielded equivalent abilities.
Conclusions:
- The human voice's link to language may trigger automatic, voice-specific processing that interferes with AP note naming.
- Training on fixed-pitch instruments like the piano appears to enhance AP abilities.
- Instrumental training may extend the sensitive developmental period for acquiring accurate AP.
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