Auditory Pitch Recognition in Musicians: The ears and the brain working together

Auditory Pitch Recognition in Musicians: The ears and the brain working together Site Map SKIP INTRO

Musical training can improve your hearing, according to several studies presented in Chicago at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The studies found that serious musicians are better than other people at perceiving and remembering sounds. But it's not because they have better ears. Sounds come in through the ears. But they travel through the nervous system and get interpreted by the brain. Quit Site Map SKIP INTRO

The effects of music training in relation to brain plasticity have caused excitement, evident from the popularity of books on this topic among scientists and the general public. Neuroscience research has shown that music training leads to changes throughout the auditory system that prime musicians for listening challenges beyond music processing. This effect of music training suggests that, akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness. Therefore, the role of music in shaping individual development deserves consideration. Quit Site Map SKIP INTRO

MAIN MENU Musicians hear pitches in four distinctly different ways: Absolute Pitch Relative Pitch Chord Recognition Timbre Recognition Quit Site Map

Absolute Pitch What is it? Click to find out Do you have it? Click to find out What are its advantages and disadvantages? Click to find out Quit Main Menu Site Map

Perfect pitch (also referred to as absolute pitch) is an ability to instantaneously identify or sing any given musical note without a reference pitch. There are two types of perfect pitch: active and passive. A person with active perfect pitch is able to sing or hum any given pitch; that is, if they are asked to sing a B flat without hearing the said note or any reference note, they can, whereas a person with passive perfect pitch cannot. Absolute Pitch Absolute pitch (also referred to as perfect pitch) is an ability to instantaneously identify or sing any given musical note without a reference pitch. A person with absolute pitch is able to sing or hum any given pitch; that is, if they are asked to sing a B flat without hearing the said note or any reference note, they can. This phenomenon is fairly rare. Some people have a natural tendency towards absolute pitch from an early age. Absolute pitch may also be developed over time through training and repetition. Quit Main Menu Sub Menu Site Map

The purest form of absolute pitch is “natural” perfect pitch. “Natural” perfect pitch is absolute pitch that an individual has from birth. Until a child with “natural” perfect pitch actually understands that the pitches they hear have names, he or she has no way to identify what they hear. Because of this, many people do not know they have absolute pitch until they understand what they are hearing. Quit Main Menu Sub Menu Site Map

Absolute pitch can also be acquired through repetitive practice. This is not as pure a form as “natural” perfect pitch, because the process is based on the programed memory of how the pitches sound rather than instinct. There also may be various outside factors that can affect how the brain imprints the sound. For these reasons, “learned” absolute pitch is not considered as pure as “natural”. Quit Main Menu Sub Menu Site Map

You know you have absolute pitch if: • You are able to name a musical note played on any instrument, including musical tones emanating from common objects like the hum of a kitchen appliance, car horn, and/or doorbell • You are able to identify the key signature of any given piece of music • You are able to sing any note without a reference pitch • You are able to name multiple notes played simultaneously Quit Main Menu Sub Menu Site Map

The Pros and Cons of Absolute Pitch: • For many, perfect pitch can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. • The blessings are that the possessor of perfect pitch can: • Tune a musical instrument without aid • Correctly judge whether or not a piece of music is being played in the correct key • Identify specific instruments as playing in or out of tune • The curses are that those with perfect pitch find it harder to enjoy music; like seasoned wine connoisseurs, they can hear all of a performance’s flaws in intonation. They also find it harder to enjoy music not played in their original keys, as to them it is being played out of tune. Quit Main Menu Sub Menu Site Map

The greatest advantage of having absolute pitch for a professional musician is intonation. Intonation is the intoned frequency of note in relation to the other pitches with which it is harmonized. A musician with absolute pitch is able to quickly hear whether he needs to adjust his sounding pitch up (sharper) or down (flatter) to fit into the context of the harmony. Quit Main Menu Sub Menu Site Map

The greatest disadvantage to have absolute pitch is that you actually do hear too well at times. When other musicians play with less than stellar intonation, a listener with absolute pitch can quickly become frustrated and tire quickly of listening. Absolute pitch means that you are always acutely aware of any discrepancies in the harmonic structure of what you are hearing. Quit Sub Menu Site Map Main Menu

Relative Pitch Relative pitch is the ability to discern a pitch by its relationship to the other pitches around it. This is the most common form of pitch recognition in musicians. Relative pitch is cognitive reasoning. A person with relative pitch can hear when notes are out of tune and adjust accordingly in relation to another pitch. Those with relative pitch often rely heavily upon interval relationships between pitches. Quit Main Menu Site Map

Most people are born with some degree of relative pitch. Musicians continue to develop higher levels of relative pitch as they become more experienced artists. Relative pitch is the method most of us use to match pitches when we sing along with music on the radio or sing along in a choir. Quit Main Menu Site Map

It is widely acknowledged that relative can be developed and improved dramatically through ear training. All college level music programs require music students to complete at least two years of ear training courses as core curriculum for degrees in music. There are software training programs available to assist in developing relative pitch. Used properly, theses programs can be a great help in increasing relative pitch awareness. Ear Master 5 Quit Main Menu Site Map

Chord Recognition Chords are the foundation of musical harmony. People with absolute or relative pitch are often able to discern the individual notes of a chord. For those who lack absolute or relative pitch, there are specific tonal characteristics to the different types of chords. Many people are often able to recognize the “quality” of a chord by its tonal color. Defining this “quality” helps us define whether the music is major, minor, etc. Quit Main Menu Site Map

Triads are notes stacked on top of each other in thirds. The triad outlines the chord. The intervals between the notes defines whether the chord is major, minor, augmented or diminished. These terms define the “quality” or the chord. Each “quality” has its own tonal characteristic. Major is the most solid sounding chord with a touch of consonant brilliance. Minor on the other hand sounds less stable compared to major, and it has a darker, less consonant sound. Discerning these chord types is called chord recognition. Quit Main Menu Site Map

Fortunately, there are now user friendly software programs to help with chord recognition. Most are easy to use and progress is usually noticed quickly. AudioSoftware.com Quit Main Menu Site Map

Timbre Recognition Timbre describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do with the sound's pitch, loudness, or length. In other words, if a flute plays a note, and then an oboe plays the same note, for the same length of time, at the same loudness, you can still easily distinguish between the two sounds, because a flute sounds different from an oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds. Quit Main Menu Site Map

Site Map Title Page Intro 1 Intro 2 Main Menu Absolute Pitch Sub Menu Relative Pitch Chord Recogni-tion Pitch Recogni-tion Description Description What is it? Pros and Cons Do you have it? Soft-ware Soft-ware Natural Advantages Disadvantages Learned

Auditory Pitch Recognition in Musicians: The ears and the brain working together