Re: AP in all of us? New evidence from speech research (Rebecca Mercuri )


Subject: Re: AP in all of us? New evidence from speech research
From:    Rebecca Mercuri  <mercuri(at)GRADIENT.CIS.UPENN.EDU>
Date:    Tue, 8 May 2001 11:08:47 -0400

In the days when there used to be more "jingle" type ads on TV, if you asked a kid to sing the commercial, they'd typically sing it on or very close to the original pitch the ad was in. I recall some years ago reading or hearing about a study where the popular acapella baseball songs (ones not prompted by the stadium organist) were surveyed and folks around the US sang those at the same pitch as well. My personal theory is that it's a physical memory -- song singing involves the muscles (or whatever they are) in the throat/larynx and there's probably some feedback that provides a form of pitch memory as in "that feels like the comfortable singing pitch I know for that song." Anyone know of any work on that angle? Rebecca Mercuri, Ph.D.


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