Music Proficiency and Quantification of Absolute Pitch: A Large-Scale Study among Brazilian Musicians

Abstract

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify and name the pitch of a sound without external reference. Often, accuracy and speed at naming isolated musical pitches are correlated with demographic, biological, and acoustical parameters to gain insight into the genesis and evolution of this ability in specific cohorts. However, the majority of those studies were conducted in North America, Europe, or Asia. To fill this gap, here we investigated the pitch-naming performance in a large population of Brazilian conservatory musicians (N = 200). As previously shown, we found that the population performance was rather a continuum than an “all-or-none” ability. By comparing the observed distribution of correct responses to a theoretical binomial distribution, we estimated the prevalence of AP as being 18% amongst regular music students. High accuracy thresholds (e.g., 85% of correct responses) yielded a prevalence of 4%, suggesting that AP might have been underestimated in previous reports. Irrespective of the threshold used, AP prevalence was higher in musicians who started their musical practice and formal musical education early in life. Finally, we compared the performance of those music students (average proficiency group) with another group of students selected to take part in the conservatory orchestra (high proficiency group, N = 30). Interestingly, the prevalence of AP was higher in the latter in comparison to the former group. In addition, even when the response was incorrect, the mean absolute deviation from the correct response was smaller in the high proficiency group compared to the average proficiency group (Glass's Δ: 0.5). Taken together, our results show that the prevalence of AP in Brazilian students is similar to other non-tonal language populations, although this measure is highly dependent on the scoring threshold used. Despite corroborating that early involvement with musical practice and formal education can foster AP ability, the present data suggest that music proficiency may also play an important role in AP expression.

A Theory of Instrument-Specific Absolute Pitch

“…While most studies of absolute pitch have concentrated on individuals with near-perfect accuracy in pitch labeling, other research has suggested that many musicians have pitchlabeling abilities somewhere in the middle of a continuum of pitch identification accuracies (Levitin and Rogers, 2005;Wilson et al, 2009;Wengenroth et al, 2014;Leite et al, 2016). This intermediate ability has been called "quasi-absolute pitch, " and while exact definitions vary, generally refers to accuracy above chance but below around 85%.…”

Absolute pitch: Myths, evidence and relevance to music education and performance

“…However, there is diversity of opinion about what level is required. For example, Takeuchi and Hulse (1993) cite a series of studies with mean accuracy levels spanning from 58% to 99%, while Leite, Mota-Rolim and Queiroz (2016) argue for a threshold of 20% accuracy on the basis of error probability. With no fixed method to test AP, the required accuracy rate is additionally influenced by differences in measurement tools and criteria (Bermudez & Zatorre, 2009a).…”

“…Greater evidenced consensus is being achieved on the prevalence of AP in musician subgroups, with cross-cultural studies enriching the consideration of the potential for population differences based on factors including genetic, ethnic and/or language backgrounds. For example, amongst music school students in Brazil, Leite et al (2016) found that 4% achieved 85% accuracy on a test of tone identification, with 18% achieving accuracy significantly above the level of chance. Comparing Japanese and Polish music students and applying an 80% accuracy threshold, Miyazaki et al (2012) identified a 49% prevalence in the former group and 12% in the latter.…”

Articulatory motor planning and timbral idiosyncrasies as underlying mechanisms of instrument-specific absolute pitch in expert musicians

“…Consider three subgroups of people with varying levels of global AP: the first scores at chance level across timbres (“non-AP”), another subgroup scores above chance but below ~85% across timbres (“quasi-AP”), and yet another subgroup scores above ~85% across timbres (“AP”). (For discussion of “quasi” or “partial” AP, see [ 13 – 14 ]). Members of each of these subgroups could have an added advantage for the timbre of one or more of their main instruments, and this added advantage is what we would refer to as “ISAP”—for quasi-AP or AP possessors, ISAP is thus an instrument-specific gain in absolute pitch ability.…”