Klarinet Archive - Posting 000380.txt from 2003/08

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Tony=20Pay?= <tony_pay@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] Perfect pitch references
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 07:48:33 -0400

The following references suggest, among other things, that surprisingly, we are
all born with absolute pitch, but lose it unless it is exercised. Saffran, the
scientist whose experiments are detailed, suggests this is because it isn't
very useful to most of us compared with the 'more sophisticated' relative
pitch. (Compare the early childhood 'window of opportunity' for learning
languages, which is open to several simultaneous different languages, but shuts
later.)

A description of Saffran's research:

http://i-medreview.subportal.com/health/Kids/Child_Development/108416.html

An overview of the scientific literature on the subject:

http://www.stanford.edu/~meep/abspitch.html

It's worth noting that Robert Levin, who possesses both relative and absolute
pitch to a striking degree, reports that he has no difficulty using both
abilities -- nor does he find transposition confusing.

Tony

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