Absolute Pitch and Relative Pitch in Music Students in the East and the West

Abstract

Absolute pitch (AP)—an ability to identify an isolated pitch without musical context—is commonly believed to be a valuable ability for musicians. However, relative pitch (RP)—an ability to perceive pitch relations—is more important in most musical contexts. In this study, music students in East Asian and Western countries (Japan, China, Poland, Germany, and USA) were tested on AP and RP abilities. In the AP test, 60 single tones were presented in a quasirandom order over a five-octave range. In the RP test, ascending musical intervals from 1 to 11 semitones were presented in four different keys. Participants wrote down note names in the AP test and scale-degree names or musical interval names in the RP test. The conservatory-level Japanese students showed the highest AP performance and more than half of them were classified as accurate AP possessors, but only 10% were classified as accurate RP possessors. In contrast, only a small percentage of participants from Poland, Germany, and the USA were identified as accurate AP possessors, whereas many more were accurate RP possessors. Participants from China were typically intermediate on both measures. These noticeable contrasts between AP and RP performance in different countries suggest influences of the underlying socio-cultural conditions, presumably relating to music education. Given the importance of RP in music, the results suggest that more emphasis should be place on RP training, particularly in East Asian countries.

Experiential and Cognitive Predictors of Sight-Singing Performance in Music Higher Education

“…This outcome contradicts results obtained by Demorest and May (1995) and Kopiez and Lee (2008) and suggests a plausible developmental component to sight-singing ability. Some authors suggest there could be a critical period for AP acquisition (e.g., Deutsch et al, 2004 , 2009 ; Miyazaki et al, 2012 ), but such a critical period could also exist for RP, which is the “ability to perceive pitch relations” ( Miyazaki et al, 2018 , p. 135). Musicians with stronger RP would presumably be able to hear mentally and sing written notation more easily.…”

Some like it sharp: Song familiarity influences musical preference for absolute tuning

“…This possibility initially seems at odds with ; however, it is important to note that the authors of this prior work only tested single, isolated musical notes. Given the importance of relative pitch processing in music (e.g., Miyazaki et al, 2018) and the discussion of how relative and absolute pitch processing might interfere with one another ( Miyazaki, 1993;Miyazaki, 1995), it is reasonable to predict that isolated musical notes might provide a different pattern of results than rich, polyphonic musical compositions that contain salient relative pitch cues. Thus, the primary goal of Experiment 2 is to explore this third possibility.…”

Is Absolute Pitch Associated With Musical Tension Processing?

“…One point was given for each correct answer, and 0.75 point was given for each semitone error, but zero point was given for each error of more than a semitone. Finally, 20 students who scored above 32 (a score of 80% of the maximum) on each of two AP tests were designated AP possessors ( Hutka & Alain, 2015 ; Kim & Knösche, 2017 ; Miyazaki, 2004b ; Ross et al., 2004 ), while 20 students who scored below 20 (a score of 50% of the maximum) on the tests were considered non-AP possessors ( Miyazaki & Rakowski, 2002 ; Miyazaki et al., 2018 ).…”