Influence of Absolute Pitch on Music Syntax Processing

Abstract

Absolute pitch is defined as a unique ability to identify musical tones without external reference. Does pitch relation processing benefit from this ability? Miyazaki (1992, 1993) provided negative evidence suggesting that the poorer performances were observed in transposing musical intervals for absolute pitch possessors relative to the controls. Absolute pitch possessors also had difficulties in perceiving transposed melodies, whereas they performed better in the melodies played in the C major mode as compared to the controls (Miyazaki Rakowski, 2002). It is well known that music syntax highly reflects the relationship of pitch in tonal music. Does music syntax processing benefit from absolute pitch? The question was investigated in two experiments. All the participants were music education undergraduate students, who were recruited by means of advertisements. They were tested in the basic grouping rules of music syntax and segment music phrase structure in the current study. 31 absolute pitch possessors and 31 non-absolute pitch possessors as the controls were selected as the subjects for this study, who were matched in gender and musical background. Experiment 1 involving the basic grouping rules of music syntax focuses on examining the abilities to find tonality and mode, perceiving tendency of melodic pitches and harmonic functional progression. These musical stimuli were played in major keys with C, D, E, Eb, and C minor. Experiment 2 investigated the ability to segment phrase structure, concentrating on segmenting phrase and hierarchy level within phrase structure in four tonal music pieces. The music pieces were mainly played in C major. Results showed that AP possessors scored higher in the tasks of tonality and mode, tendency of melodic pitches and harmonic functional progression compared to the controls in Experiment 1. Furthermore, AP possessors performed better on segmenting phrase and hierarchy level within phrase structures. The findings indicated that the superiority of music syntax processing AP possessors showed may be attributed to their excellent pitch perceptions. In conclusion, absolute pitch may not be perfect in music sense, especially in transposing music processing. However, it goes without saying that AP possessors can identify a specified pitch without external reference due to their long-term pitch memories. For those AP possessors, music syntax processing may benefit from their exceptional memories, thus leading to the superiority of performances on the basic grouping rules of music syntax and segment phrase structure. However, this must be viewed as a tentative study, and more systematic investigation into this question is needed in future.