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Subscribe to RSSFrom the time he was a young boy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart could identify musical notes simply by hearing them played on a piano. Mozart possessed absolute or perfect pitch, a trait that has long mystified scientists who study this sort of stuff: Are people born with it? Or do they learn it?
Now, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have identified another clue to solving the mystery of perfect pitch: Whether or not you know the note might be down to your genes.
“I have always been sort of wondering why I developed perfect pitch," says Diana Deutsch, a professor of psychology at UCSD, who remembers being able to instantly identify musical notes when she was as young as 4 -- despite having minimal musical training. "Even the grown-ups had to look and see what note was being played on a piano,” she recalls.
Deutsch and her colleague Kevin Dooley -- who, incidentally, also has perfect pitch -- presented their findings this week in Kansas City, Mo., at the Acoustical Society of America's annual meeting.
The debate over perfect pitch has long focused on nature versus nurture. People who speak tonal languages -- which rely heavily on inflection to differentiate between words -- are more likely to possess absolute pitch than non-tonal language speakers. For example, in Cantonese, “ma” can mean either "mother" or "horse," depending on how the speaker says it. Even though tonal language speakers are more likely to possess perfect pitch, non-tonal language speakers sometimes have it if they start musical training at a young age. But there are plenty of musicians without absolute pitch.
Deutsch developed perfect pitch without training, which is true for many with perfect pitch -- and that suggests a genetic correlate, she explained. She wondered if it was related to an unusually large auditory memory, and so she and Dooley designed an experiment to see how pitch correlated to short-term visual and auditory memory.
They asked 27 English-speaking students or recent college graduates, seven of whom possessed perfect pitch, all of whom had started music lessons at age 6 or younger, to participate in a memory exercise, testing digit span. Digit span looks at how well people remember a series of numbers when they see them on a computer screen or hear them.
Both groups of students—those with absolute pitch and those without—listened to strings of numbers, followed by a visual digit span test. In the auditory test, those with perfect pitch recalled 10 digits, while those without remembered 8.1. (The perfect pitch-ers were also slightly better at remembering the numbers from the visual test than the non perfect pitch-ers, but only marginally so.) The ability to recall a string of numbers after hearing them has been linked to a person's genetics, and because Duetsch found that people with a large auditory digit span also possessed absolute pitch, she believes there might be a genetic link for pitch, too.
Up next, Deutsch plans to continue her research, perhaps looking at the non-musically trained family members of the subjects with perfect pitch to see how they rank on the digit span test.
Related:
Can't carry a tune to save your life? You may be amusic
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Don't worry; it's not needed for today's top 40 anyway.
I worked in a church nursery of children who enrolled at age 18 months. It was easy to tell which children recognized perfect pitch, as they would cover their ears with their hands when there was singing, or their parent's/grandparent's mouth during singing in worship services. And always, each child who did so had at least one parent who had perfect pitch and was an accomplished musician.
I have perfect pitch (absolute pitch or AP). No one in my family as far back as anyone can remember (we referenced 3 generations that could be remembered) had it. No one else since, either. I have a daughter and while she loves music, plays piano and sings, it is obvious she does not have AP.
I was unaware that I had it until my college entrance exams (music school). No one ever paid attention enough to know something was different even though I showed signs all through childhood.
Yes, only a singular example, but somewhat relevant.
I hear music as different colors -- example the note 'F' is "green" to me.
It is a wonderful ability but also a detriment to me. I cannot enjoy certain pieces or types of music unless they are almost perfectly in tune. If a song is played for me with the "wrong" artist singing or in a different key I have trouble identifying it when everyone else finds this easy to do.
Tuning piano by ear is a neat trick, but there is also the constant music in my head. What others call "earworms" - those songs you can't get out of your head sometimes? I have them 24/7/365 - even while sleeping. Whatever the last piece I heard is generally it until I actively change it or listen to something else.
I am a professional musician and music teacher. Learning the differences between my experience and those of the kids has not only helped me learn how to deal with my situation but it also gives me insight into how the students learn, making me better at what I do.
Have you heard of synesthesia? Well, if not, you have it! I have it, too, only I associate words, numbers, & letters with colors. Wednesday is blue, Monday is red, etc... It's all about the senses being tied together though not much is known about it. It is genetic and associating colors with music - while not as common as colors with word, etc... - has been reported by many people with synesthesia. It makes sense that you would have more perfect pitch if you can also "see" when you're hitting the right note:)
Players of most instruments develop "relative pitch", which is a useful skill -- more useful in some circumstances than perfect pitch. Horn players learn to transpose (play at a different pitch than what's written on the page), and my friends with perfect pitch had a terrible time with that in many cases. Being able to recognize a melody at any pitch is essential for a musician.
Associating pitches with colors is synesthesia -- Scriabin, among others had this condition (gift, ability).
Yes, I know that it is called synethesia. :) I also happen to be a horn player.
I find transposition easier using AP than RP because it is much quicker to audiate the part in different keys than it is to apply changes by interval.
I am going to guess that the method of transposition is what AP possessors find unsuitable, not transposition itself. I drove my prof. nuts in college because he wanted me to learn the established procedure of learning by interval and applying key signatures, while I asked, "why shouldn't I just play the part how it goes?" I understood the need academically, but it did nothing for my performance even though it made sight reading auditions with transpositions more difficult. Even in those cases, I was audiating the melody and transposing it by pitch/interval in my mind, rather than thinking about key signatures.
All good comments here from fellow musicians. But what I'm still trying to figure out is why this was in the Health section..?
So my inability to remember strings of numbers is genetic....
I had to major in a hard science because of that. Remembering formulas and how to use them is no problem.
Wow, that's very interesting. I never would have guessed that genetics would be a factor in learning perfect pitch. I've been taking
This research interests me, because I am currently learning Absolute Pitch. I've always had an excellent auditory memory - I can remember music that I've heard before on key. But I didn't learn to read music until I was an adult, and therefore developed no early-ingrained idea of that pitches = what names. Later in life, I am using musical pieces as devices to learn pitch names (this piece begins on D, that pitch is D). About 6 months ago, I would score a 0 on any AP test. Now I can pass most AP tests easily, with only the ones requiring rapid guesses (< 3 seconds per guess) give me trouble. My skills are also improving all the time, so does this mean I could be the first adult to develop AP later in life?
Since my experience and research suggests AP is a memory function, the key to having or learning it is memory. The question is whether it's short-term memory or long-term memory. I think the key to developing perfect pitch is to have an excellent auditory memory and to be exposed to pitches and their names early in life so that you develop a working rapid long-term memory of them. But this also suggests that there may be avenues to learn pitches later in life. I think that there are many more people with good auditory memories who could apply similar methods to learn pitches, thus increasing the number of people who could possess perfect pitch or partial perfect pitch. Others may only be able to learn a few pitches and need lots of rehearsal, but this is still a great boon along with the relative pitch skills traditional ear training provides.