Implicit Absolute Pitch Representation Affects Basic Tonal Perception

Abstract

It is undisputed that the cognition of tonal music is primarily established by pitch relationships set within a tonal scheme such as a major or minor key. The corresponding notion—that absolute pitch and absolute key are largely inconsequential for tonal cognition—thus seems inevitable. Here, we challenge the latter notion, presenting data suggesting that absolute pitch and absolute key significantly modify listeners’ judgments of tonal fit and tonal tension. In two experiments extending the probe tone technique (as applied in Krumhansl & Kessler, 1982) participants heard a brief tonal context (a major triad in Experiment 1, a harmonic progression in Experiment 2) followed by individual probe tones, and rated how well each probe fitted the preceding context, as well as the musical tension conveyed by each probe. Two maximally distant key contexts, G major and D♭ major, were used in both experiments and in both tasks. Ratings revealed significant absolute pitch effects in both tasks, though in different ways. In the tonal fit task, diatonic pitches in G major were rated higher than those in D♭ major; in contrast, chromatic pitches were rated higher in D♭ major, compared to G. In the tension task, overall ratings were significantly higher for D♭ major contexts than for G major context (Experiment 1). Importantly, these effects reflect the occurrence frequency of pitch classes and keys in the tonal repertory: frequent pitch classes were rated as better fits than rarer ones, and a rarer key (D♭) rated tenser than a frequently-occurring key (G). Absolute pitch effects were most strongly manifested by participants without formal training, for whom the relative pitch effects of the tonal hierarchy were weak, and were stronger when tonal context was weaker (Experiment 1 as compared to Experiment 2). Results suggest that implicit absolute pitch perception, reflecting key and pitch class occurrence frequency, significantly affects tonal music processing; such absolute pitch effects may be activated principally when tonal perception or tonal cues are lacking.

Revisiting discrete versus continuous models of human behavior: The case of absolute pitch

“…Implicit pitch memory also appears to generalize beyond the specific recordings heard in one's listening environment, which suggests a more abstracted representation of pitch chroma and provides a compelling connection to explicit AP. For example, non-AP listeners appear to respond differentially to isolated notes based on how frequently the notes are heard in the listening environment [53,54]. Relatedly, non-AP listeners can differentiate conventionally "intune" from "out-of-tune" notes with above-chance accuracy, though musicians outperform non-musicians and the effects are not observed for unfamiliar timbres [55].…”

The definition of a musician in music psychology: A literature review and the six-year rule

“…However, Cook (1998) argued that listeners should not be neglected, but rather considered as active consumers necessary in the process of music-making. Although in the papers studied, these listeners were also identified as musicians, with "trained listeners" (Eitan, Ben-Haim, & Margulis, 2017) and "expert listeners" (Davies et al, 2013) having seven and 22.5 years of MEC, respectively (Table 1), both greater than the median number of years for all trained (5.5 years) and expert musicians (10 years). This shows that listening skills are considered an important factor in the role of a musician.…”

Absolute pitch judgments of familiar melodies generalize across timbre and octave

“…For example, non-AP listeners can tell when isolated notes are played in standard Western tuning (A4 = 440 Hz) compared to notes that have been shifted by 50 cents (Van Hedger et al, 2017), suggesting that listeners have implicitly developed goodness-of-fit representations for individual notes based on listening experience. Furthermore, pitch chroma and musical key has been shown to influence aesthetic evaluations (Ben-Haim et al, 2014) and judgments of musical tension (Eitan et al, 2017) for novel stimuli among non-AP possessors. These findings, taken together, suggest that most listeners have developed robust implicit memories for sounds based on absolute pitch, and in particular, pitch chroma.…”