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Re: any examples of acquired absolute pitch?



Anthony,

Check http://www.perfectpitch.com. They claim that many people have
acquired perfect pitch with their method and cite two studies in which its
effectiveness has been confirmed:

(1) Rush, M. A. An experimental investigation of the effectiveness of
training on absolute pitch in adult musicians, The Ohio State University.

(2) Nering, Marguerite Elaine. A study to determine the effectiveness of
the David Lucas Burge technique for development of Perfect Pitch, The
University of Calgary.

I tried the method about 15 years ago and got to hear what they described:
a maximum in smoothness at C and a maximum in sharpness at F# (those were
not their exact words, but what I remember I perceived). However, I was
not as consistent as recommended (I was too busy to practice everyday) and
after a while my performance actually started to decrease. I gave up at
about 1/4 of the course.

Arturo

> Hi, i've found some interesting comments on absolute pitch on this
> mailing list and was wondering if anyone has heard of any examples of
> people who have acquired absolute pitch somehow during their later lives,
> ie not in early childhood development.
>
> There is a clear trend between absolute pitch (AP) and autism, and many
> autistic savants with musical talents (which tend to be more in terms of
> music reproduction ability than creative composition) that have been
> examined also have AP. There are numerous examples of people who have
> acquired special abilities such as those exhibited by autistic savants as
> a result of injury or other non-developmental processes. I haven't however
> heard of any examples of people who have acquired AP later in life, it
> would be very useful if anyone knows of any examples.
>
> There are suggestions that AP development is an independent process that
> is present in autistic and non-autistic people, and that presence of AP is
> pre-requisite for development of special musical abilities for savants.
> This model would suggest that cases of later-life AP
> development would be unlikely, however if there are any examples of people
> developing AP later in life for example through brain injury, similar to
> how savant-like special abilities have been shown to be developed
> (essentially spontaneously), it would be very useful.
>
>
>
>
> thanks
>
> Anthony
>
>
>
>
>
>
> a couple of references:
>
> ** <http://www.brams.umontreal.ca/plab/publications/article/32>Absolute
> pitch in autism: a case study, L Mottron, I Peretz, S Belleville, N Rouleau
> - Neurocase, 1999
>
>
> Musical savants: exceptional skill in the mentally retarded, Miller L K,
> Lawrence Erlbaum, 1989: 266
>
>
> Absolute pitch in blind musicians, Roy H. Hamilton, Alvaro Pascual-Leone
> and Gottfried Schlaug, NeuroReport Vol 15 No 5, 9 April 2004
>
>
>
>
> --
> Leuconoe, don't ask ? it's dangerous to know ? what end the gods will
> give me or you. Don't play with Babylonian fortune-telling either. Better
> just deal with whatever comes your way. Whether you'll see several more
> winters or whether the last one Jupiter gives you is the one even now
> pelting the rocks on the shore with the waves of the Tyrrhenian sea ? be
> smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes to a short period. Even
> as we speak, envious time is running away from us. Seize the day, trusting
> little in the future.
>
>


-- 
__________________________________________________

Arturo Camacho, PhD
Alumni
Computer and Information Science and Engineering
University of Florida

Web page: www.cise.ufl.edu/~acamacho
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