Re: Absolute pitch discussion

[Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Leon and list,

> What you will use is determed at the moment your brains get wired. If some
> one tells you around your third year: this tone on the piano is do, this
> one is re, this one is mi, etc. you will pick that up very easily."

Quite right. But what we are struggling with is the "annoying" fact that -
wherever we look - only a minority of such children develops absolute pitch
(AP). Even in China, and even in the most musical families.

I agree with you on the value of AP. Our data indicate that it may be caused
by a minor neurodevelopmental pathology, quite similar to those causing one
of the many types of synesthesia. Those who are affected by AP can have
minor advantages from it, but also major disadvantages. The universal myth
of a connection between AP and musicality should perhaps be one of our
incentives to be careful and clear about the wealth of data that we already 
have.

Martin

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Martin Braun
Neuroscience of Music
S-671 95 Klässbol
Sweden
web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leon van Noorden" <leonvannoorden@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: Absolute pitch discussion


Dear List,

I cannot see how the relation between frequencies and their note names is
genetically coded. The bimodal distribution shows simply that there are two
ways to deal with pitches: in an absolute in and a relative way. What you
will use is determed at the moment your brains get wired. If some one tells
you around your third year: this tone on the piano is do, this one is re,
this one is mi, etc. you will pick that up very easily. If no one tells you,
which is the case in many families, you will learn probably to sing in
kindergarten with several songs which do not attach specific sillables or
vowels to specific tones. On top of that you will probably hear the song on
different absolute pitches. In this case you wil learn to use the relative
relation between pitches. The latter has turned out to be much handier in
our (western) musical practice.

I do not understand people who think that absolute pitch is a sign of a high
degree of musicality. Absolute pitch can be very annoying, I can tell you.
At my 8th I could not play on my cello together with the piano in my
grandfather's house which was so old that it was about a whole tone lower
than normal. I could not adapt to the fact that my cello (which was tuned to
the piano) gave another note than I expected. At my 18th I could not sing a
song 'a vue' without first learning the melody by singing the note names.
The words of the song would interfere with the notename and therefor the
'targeting' of the note. I could go on with summing up negative points about
AP, such as no 'official' names for the raised or lowered tones and
confusions between notes with the same vowel (fa/la and mi/si) in reaction
time experiments. It is true that when you get older AP weakens and drifts
upwards.

Given the fact that AP is so common in Chinese and Japanese people, I would
like to know how they teach the musical basics to children. I do not
understand how the simple fact that their language is a tone language
explains the possession of AP. I would like to know e.g. how many chinese
families have an instrument with fixed pitches around in their home. In any
case they have to learn only five tones, while we have seven. (On the other
hand it is sometimes said that the dialects around my birthplace,
Maastricht, are also tone languages).

Kind regards,

Leon van Noorden