How well do we understand absolute pitch?

Abstract

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability based on the fixed association between musical pitch and its verbal label. Experiments on AP identification demonstrated extreme accuracy of AP listeners in identifying pitch, influences of timbre and pitch range, and difference in accuracy between whitekey notes and black-key notes. However, contrary to the common belief that AP is a component of musical ability, it was found that AP listeners have difficulty in perceiving pitch relations in different pitch contexts, and in recognizing transposed melodies, as compared to listeners having no AP. These results suggest that AP is irrelevant and even disadvantageous to music. Systematic music training in early childhood seems effective for acquiring AP. Possible genetic contributions to AP are undeniable, but evidence for them is inconclusive. There are several AP-like phenomena that do not reach consciousness: absolute tonality, long-term memory of pitch of repeatedly heard tunes, specific patterns of pitch comparison in the tritone paradox, and fixed pitch levels in speech. Contrary to true AP observed as a pitch naming ability, the implicit AP phenomena are widespread among general population.

For the price of a song: How pitch category learning comes at a cost to absolute frequency representations

“…This idea is consistent with the overwhelming tendency for AP to be associated with early musical training, with the finding that many AP possessors are limited to AP on the instrument they were trained on as children (Miyazaki, 2004), and with a range of findings on AP naming, revealing that while AP listeners are accurate at identifying pitch (subject to influences of timbre and pitch range), they have difficulty perceiving pitch relations in different pitch contexts and in recognizing transposed melodies, as compared to listeners without AP (Miyazaki, 2004). In the same way that learning leads to a loss of absolute frequency representations to listeners without AP, our analysis suggests that preserving absolute frequency in musical representations ought to impair relative discrimination and processing.…”

“…These results provide an explanation: there is a price to pay for learning relative pitch categories-the loss of absolute frequency sensitivity (Miyazaki, 2004;Levitin & Rogers, 2005). Learning pitch categories caused our FL-trained participants to ignore-and lose much of their ability to discriminate-the absolute frequencies of the notes that they heard.…”

“…Thus, despite the popular belief that AF sensitivity in music is a special ability, mysteriously acquired by a few, it would appear that the potential for absolute pitch possession is widespread. The mystery, then, is not why so few people have it, but rather, why so many lose it (Deutsch, 2002;Miyazaki, 2004;Levitin & Rogers, 2005).…”

Absolute Judgment of Musical Interval Width

“…Alternatively, as asserted by Dooley and Deutsch (2011), previous experiments purporting to demonstrate interfering effects of absolute pitch on musicianship may be attributable to ''artificial'' laboratory conditions and procedures, rather than natural perception and typical musical tasks. To more fully explore this hypothesis, the same absolute listeners could be subjected both to musical tasks at which they may excel (e.g., Dooley & Deutsch, 2010 and laboratory tests designed to confound absolute listeners (see Miyazaki, 2004a). The results of the present experiment do not address how absolute pitch ability may relate to musicianship, but argue against the assertion that absolute pitch ability is detrimental to musicians' relative pitch perception.…”

“…Recognizing the relative values between tones, therefore, is essential to musical experience, whereas recognizing their absolute values appears to be a superfluous novelty. Yet absolute pitch ability can impact musical experience by interfering with relative pitch tasks (for a review, see Miyazaki, 2004a). For example, in recognizing a transposed melody-a song that has been moved upwards or downwards in absolute value, but with tones' relative values remaining the same-it is easy to remember the pattern of relationships.…”