#24 absolute pitch & timbre new w/ sound

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