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absolute pitch

A Dictionary of Psychology

absolute pitch n. The ability to identify the pitch of a musical tone, or to produce a specified tone at its correct pitch, without reference to another tone. See also perfect pitch. Compare relative pitch.

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© A Dictionary of Psychology 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001.

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	Research puts us in tune with perfect pitch ; ...of the brain's faculty for music is absolute pitch, the ability to identify a note without...pitch within an octave, but people with absolute pitch can assign notes to much finer subdivisions...young age, about 9 to 12, however, absolute pitch apparently cannot be acquired. Two... Read more
	Researchers seeking secret of perfect pitch Scientists hope to identify gene for rare musical skill ; ...interval between. Known as "perfect" or "absolute" pitch, it's a rare ability in adults, even...gene or genes that may contribute to absolute pitch abilities. The team plans to recruit...has just developed an online test for absolute pitch that prospective subjects can take... Read more
	HEAR THAT? PERFECT PITCH MAY BE THE KEY TO UNLOCKING GENETIC MYSTERIES.(U) ; ...the genetic code of perfect pitch, or absolute pitch as it's known. Researchers believe...UCSF are trying to determine. Since absolute pitch tends to congregate in families, researchers...genetically inherited diseases, however, absolute pitch also appears to be something that can... Read more
	TONE TEST ; ...that relatively few people harness absolute pitch, the ability to identify a tone without...far, the study shows that those with absolute pitch are more likely to have had formal...will mistake a C for a C#. People with absolute pitch often mistake a G# for an A (A440 is... Read more
	Taking note of perfect pitch ; ...not uncommon for Wolf and others with absolute pitch, commonly referred to as perfect pitch...conducting a study on the genetics of absolute pitch. The ability tends to run in families...having to write anything down. Having absolute pitch affords perks unrelated to music, too... Read more
	Anyone can have perfect pitch, all they have to do is learn Vietnamese at a very early age ; ...an extraordinarily precise form of absolute pitch, which is reflected in their enunciation...that they displayed remarkably precise absolute pitch when reading lists of words in their...a tonal language. "For people with absolute pitch naming a note is as simple and immediate... Read more
	BOTH GENES, EARLY TRAINING CITED IN PERFECT PITCH ; ...age 4 had perfect pitch (also called absolute pitch). But 27 percent of those who began...in order to develop an ability like absolute pitch." The California researchers have launched...most. In the world of a person with absolute pitch, "a dog howls in e-flat, an air conditioner... Read more
	Contributions of temporal and place cues in pitch perception in absolute pitch possessors ; ...cues are used differs depending on absolute pitch capability, pitch identification experiments...conducted for subjects with different absolute pitch capabilities and musical experience...provide both. The results indicated that absolute pitch possessors utilize temporal cues more... Read more
	A matter of imperfect pitch. (concert A tuning changes) ; ...myth. Very few people, she says, have absolute pitch, or the ability to recall a particular...consecutively. But concertgoers without absolute pitch have no such immediate reference points...What's the difference? Those with absolute pitch probably would not enjoy a piece played... Read more
	MUSIC, AGE, PERFORMANCE, AND EXCELLENCE: A NEUROSCIENTIFIC APPROACH ; ...to be restricted to musicians with absolute pitch, which suggests a genetic basis (Keenan...music as it is in many other areas. Absolute pitch is rare in musicians who started musical...2001 ), Estimates of the prevalence of absolute pitch depend on the selection of the population... Read more

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	absolute pitch (sense of) absolute pitch (sense of). That sense which some people possess of the actual...pitch may readily be acquired by practice, but the sense of absolute pitch much less easily. Absolute pitch is really an innate form of memory: the possessor retains... Read more
	absolute pitch absolute pitch the ability to recognize the pitch of a note or produce any given note; also called perfect pitch. Read more
	absolute pitch the position of a tone in the musical scale determined according to its number of vibrations per second, irrespective of other tones. The term also denotes the capacity to identify any tone upon hearing it sounded alone or to sing any specified tone. Experiments have shown that this ability, a form Read more
	perfect pitch perfect pitch n. Another name for absolute pitch , but a term that is avoided in careful usage. Absolute pitch could never be exact, because the frequency (1) of a sound wave is a continuous variable, and differences in frequency can be arbitrarily small. Read more
	perfect pitch perfect pitch. See absolute pitch . Read more

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