4 ms·
> I think absolute pitch is fascinating and confusing...because pitch is arbitrary. > So, absolute pitch is clearly a learned skill. Being able to name a note
by retsibsi 8y ago
> I think absolute pitch is fascinating and confusing...because pitch is arbitrary.
> So, absolute pitch is clearly a learned skill.
Being able to name a note as an A or a B or whatever must be learned, because those labels are arbitrary -- but isn't that just a matter of translation? It seems that the fundamental ability (perceiving and identifying absolute frequencies) could still be innate.
- SwellJoe 8y agoThat may be so. But, it seems to be more common among the children of musicians and children who have heavy exposure to music early in life. But, then again, that could also be indicative of genetics...maybe people who love music enough to expose their kids to a lot of it at a young age have more of whatever this ability is, just not enough to be absolute pitch. I guess it could be that there are people who have the fundamental ability, without ever learning the labels to apply to them. Like the fact that humans took a while to name a bunch of the colors, and even now there are cultures where blue and green are not distinct colors. Maybe there are people with absolute pitch who just never learned the names of the notes they're hearing. Heck, maybe those folks are some of the ones who are "learning" absolute pitch as adults in these trials.