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The Gift of Pitch
Most people can't name a musical note without a reference tone, but those who can have so-called "perfect pitch." But are people born with perfect pitch, or can they earn it through diligent -- and early -- study? Two researchers share different studies on absolute pitch, amusia and everything in between. We talk with Dr. Jane Gitschier, professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco, and Dr. Michael C. Miller, MD, a psychiatrist and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter.
Test your ability to perceive music
Harvard Mental Health Letter web site
University of California-San Francisco pitch study
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Comments
Since John Cage said he preferred the traffic sound of 6th avenue to any music he ever heard, might he have some degree of tome-deafness?
I discovered I had "perfect pitch" when I was a child taking piano lessons. My father was playing the Chopin etude in b minor. I was sitting across the room and asked him if the piece began on repeated b's. He said yes. From there, it was easy.
My question is: I have always found it easier to tell the pitch off a piano (instantaneously) than any other instrument, where I have to repeat the note again in my head and then name it. It takes a second or 2. Is this common?
I enjoy listening to music and although fortunately I can appreciate it, I cannot sing. My now grown daughter who is quite musical told me when she was 18 months old, "mommy you're not tunney". Also, my high school Glee Club invited me to join because they needed more bodies but asked me to mouth the words! I'm not where that puts me in the spectrum but it never stopped me from singing in the shower!
Debbie– I think that's a *really* common phenomenon. My husband, a trumpet player, hears pitches much better when played on the trumpet, largely because of the color of the notes, and of course where they fall in the range of the instrument. I, as a singer, can feel where a note "falls" in my voice, so it's easier for me to name a pitch after vocalizing.
The overwhelming majority of people I know with absolute pitch are pianists. I wonder if it has to do with the fixed nature of pitch on their instrument, where a C is always a C no matter how much attention you're paying to it (whereas singers and players of other instruments need to work a bit harder to produce the desired pitch – be it through focus on embouchure, intonation, tone, etc.).
Great show today! My father might actually have amusia (sp?). He can't always tell up or down, and certainly when he's singing it simply meanders around. He has moderate mid and high frequency hearing loss and has had hearing problems for a long time. Hearing onesself is a very important part of singing in tune, and hearing problems do not seem to be discussed in studies of either tone deafness or the changing of absolute pitch over the years. Why is this? PS I have perfect pitch (was discovered age 5 or 6) and my mother's side of the family is very musical-although we don't know if they have perfect pitch.
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