In Footnote #94, Levitin and Deutsch of the University of California in San Diego believe that everyone is born with perfect pitch or absolute pitch. (pg. 288-291) They present evidence that the key to absolute pitch is early exposure to music. We can all differentiate between different pitches and may inherently know the difference between notes. However, the problem here is that we don’t know how to label them. Absolute pitch is pretty rare with only about 1:10,000 or 1:2,000 ratios of people having it in the general population. Absolute pitch is a skill of varying degree as well; we all have the innate ability to hear different pitches. The labeling comes with childhood training and development.
Like early imprinting of young geese caused them to recognize Lorenz as their mother in Chapter 51 of Campbell is that same concept to be applied to humans as well? Meaning, does imprinting at an early age really that essential like in those young geese? Is the evidence given by Deutsch enough to support the idea that early childhood exposure to music is important to developing absolute pitch?
Ellen Zhou (ellenzhou2006@gmail.com)
Being exposed to tones and pitches from an early age definitely helps in developing an absolute pitch. There have been virtually no composers/musicians that have possessed absolute pitch without being exposed to music from a very early age; absolute pitch seems to not be able to develop when a person is a teenager, or in their 20's or 30's. Campbell states that a distinctive feature of imprinting is that it must have a "sensitive period", a limited phase in development when certain skills or behaviors can be learned (1126). This concept of a sensitive period seems to be applied with pitch-learning in humans, as all the legendary musicians such as Yo-yo Ma and Mozart have developed their skills from very early ages, pointing to the ages less than 6 as a "sensitive period" in humans. Evidence of musical legends that have started to learn music much later in life, and still became great, is virtually nonexistent.
ReplyDeleteDeutsch's argument of early childhood exposure is supported by her other research. In a paper titled "Perfect Pitch: Language Wins Out Over Genetics", Deutsch tested whether Asian students who fluently spoke Asian tonal languages (such as Chinese) could identify pitches better than Caucasian students (who spoke non-tonal languages) and Asian students who were not fluent in their tonal languages. The students who spoke tonal languages dramatically outperformed all the other groups. The age of the onset of musical training was also a variable in Deutsch's argument, and though students fluent in tonal languages from all age groups outperformed all other groups, students who "had begun musical training at ages 2-5 scored higher than those who had begun training at ages 6-9" (Deutsch). This evidence solidifies the fact that a young age is essential in ear training and perfect pitch, and also identifies the benefits of speaking a tonal language. Early age also ties in with tonal lanuage, as children who are fluent in a language are generally exposed to it from birth.
(http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=101)
(http://philomel.com/asa157th/deutsch.html)
-Akila Khan (starlight608@gmail.com)
Imprinting may not work AS similarly with humans as it does with geese and other animals, but children certainly do learn a lot from their adult caretakers when growing up. In fact, “Children are natural learners and between birth and five years, and especially to three years, children grow and learn at the fastest rate of their lifetime. It is easy to see the enormous opportunity parents, and those who care for children, have in these early years to help shape children's learning before they start school.” (http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=122&id=1628) Like David Shenk said when we recently video chatted with him, even things such as sexual orientation is established around the very early times of one’s childhood. Also, during this time, children learn an incredible amount of information, mannerisms, behaviors etc. from their parents because that’s usually who are in their environment the most when being raised. So, around their teenage years, the child happens to start showing mannerisms with extreme resemblance of their parents. Furthermore the fonder of Montessori education, Maria Montessori, believed that every human being goes through a series of quantum leaps in learning during the pre-school years. (http://www.montessori.edu/maria.html) This further supports Shenk’s point that the environment truly has an impact on children early in their life and learning experience.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe the idea that early and frequent exposure to music allows a child to develop absolute pitch. From personal experience, I am one of the least musically talented people I know, but I grew up with my parents constantly listening to all types of music, including contemporary. Still, I grew up without absolute pitch. Furthermore, Deutsch’s idea that early exposure to music is doubtable because of the situations like me and the others like me.
-Sachin Vasikaran (sachinvasikaran@gmail.com)