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absolute pitch
ability to hear a note & to apply a label that corresponds to it’s frequency
small percentage of listeners have this capability
why is perfect pitch a remarkable phenomenon
most people can only recall 7 pitches, plus or minus 2
people w/ absolute pitch: 70 to 75 pitches in the auditory range (roughly the 3 of semitones from 60 to 4000 hz)
absolute pitch (AP)
occurs in 1 in 10,000 people
some possessors unable to turn it off
difficult to judge whether a transposed melody is the same
wolves possess AP
- used to identify members of their pack
complex traits
environmental factors
genetic factors
learning (environmental)
AP depends on early exposed by an individual who is reinforced for trying to put labels on pitch
the early the exposure the more likely one has trait
most get exposed during music lessons
there is evidence of a critical period
the earlier one begins music lessons, the more accurate the labeling
ap is acquired before the age of 9
some musicians are better able to identify the white keys on piano, those keys are taught earlier than the black ones
is musical training alone isufficiant?
Musical training alone is insufficient: many persons who receive musical trainings do not develop AP
speakers of tonal language have higher prevalence
tone language
vocal pitch changes convey word meaning
deutch et al. (2006)
compared AP prevalence in music conservatories in China & US
no semitone errors allowed
Why higher prevalence in Mandarin speakers
perhaps early attentional focus on the pitch attribute of the auditory stream creates a better environment for AP acquisitions
Hereditary
Recent studies have identified several regions of the human genome that shows evidence of linkage to AP
difficult to study because of the environmental element
for instance in separated monozygotic twins they would both need to begin music lessons at the same time
Autism
AP is frequently represented in individuals w/ atypical neurodevelopment
AP appears to be a universally occurring correlate of musical savantism in autism
case study of an autistic man
man is able to identify musical pitched in spoken words
now a multilingual adult
delayed language (focused on musical pitches)
has exceptional auditory descriptive abilities
Timbre
French word used to denote “tone quality” or “tone color
timbre continued
the attribute or auditory sensation whereby a listener can judge two sounds as dissimilar using any criteria other than pitch loudness or duration
timbre #3
a multidimensional attribute - it is impossible to construct a single subjective scale as one would for loudness or pitch
How does one study timbre?
Multidimensional scaling
multidimensional scaling
a statistical technique for evaluating perceptual similarities of all pairs of stimuli in a set
similarity judgments are treated as a perceptual distance for which a best -fitting geometric map of stimuli, plotted as points in space is constructed
test of multidimensional scaling - map of the US
place distances between pairs of cities into the program
an acute map is constructed
application to timbre
judge similarity of musical instruments playing the same note
MD’s of instruments - categories
more bright
less bright
physical properties of sound important for timbre
brightness is related to the amount of high - frequency energy in the long term spectrum
muted trombone is the brightest of the instruments compared (muted = high pass filters)
physical properties of sound important for timbre continued
bite (or attack) is related to the onset of individual notes
when transient of notes are removed, some instruments sound alike that otherwise would not (eg alto sax & french horn)
Conclusion - timbre of musical instruments
timbre of a particular instrument is dependent on its steady-state spectrum as well as on dynamic cues present in the onset of the sound
MDS
a tool that can be used to examine the dimensional that are important for giving sounds their unique timbre
Timbre for samples of musical instruments
important factors
bite
high-frequency energy
there are many secondary effects that are not included in the analysis
mistuned piano
nasal
loud fundamental pitch with minimal overtones
rich or thick
describes sounds waves where high & low frequencies are cut off & middle frequencies are intensely amplified
breathy
sounds where un-pitched air flow is audible
vibrato
describes the audio effect of oscillating frequencies which results in pitch shift
tremolo
change in a sound waves amplitude which causes rapid volume changes
timbre of singing voice
is also complicated
a system for describing vocal timbre in popular song
Breathy phonation
breathy quality
creaky voice
creaky quality
growl
low, raspy quality
oral twang
raised larynx, constricted back of the throat, bunch up the tongue. results in a closed or nearly closed velum
makes the entire supra laryngeal tract smaller to create a sound that is characterized as a “baby” voice. Estill refers to tinker as oral twang. (ex. Dolly Parton “Jolene”
Nasal
nose quality
falsetto
high pitch
whistle register
mariah carey
timbre
anything different than loudness, pitch & subjective duration
