Why do a lot of Chinese speakers have an absolute pitch?
Someone who has an absolute pitch is able to recognize any sounds and to link them to their corresponding musical notes. For example, if you have an absolute pitch, you will be able to transcript a music score simply by hearing sounds. You can easily identity the sounds you hear without reading a music score. It is as if the music score was depicted naturally in your head while listening to the sounds surrounding you.
Mozart had an absolute pitch. When he was 14, while he was travelling with his father in Vatican, he managed to transcript Allegri's Miserere in 1770. At that time, nobody was allowed to see the music score of that music and Mozart transcripted it naturally just by ear.
Scientists are unable to explain if we are born with an absolute pitch or if we acquire absolute pitch at a young age. Some of them believe absolute pitch comes from genes and others believe it is acquired before the age of 3 when a toddler assimilates sounds to their corresponding words.
However, speakers from China, Vietnam or Thailand have more chances to have an absolute pitch than other speakers from European countries for example.
Why? Simply because the chinese, vietnamese and thai languages are tonal that means the differences of sounds of these languages (aka high pitch and low pitch) are naturally part of their intonation. For example, if we want to give a word its exact meaning, we have to master its proper intonation. In Chinese, there are some words which are written in a same way but whose tonality and meaning are totally different. For example, the word "ma" in Chinese can mean "horse" or "mother" or "hemp" according to the intonation used to pronounce it.
A study led between Chinese and American students showed that 60% of the Chinese students were able to recognize the tonality of music scores.
It may mean that people with an asbolute pitch may be good at playing an instrument and learning languages as both are based on variations of tonality.
I don't know if an absolute pitch can be acquired with a lot of practise once we are teens or adults.
What do you think about it?
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Corrections · 7
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Hi Cilla,
It is really an interesting situation.
I'm a part time jazz musician. After I'm struggling with composing issues for a couple of day, I become an absolute picth for 2 or 3 weeks. But after then I return my normal standart picth level.
I will search the language connection.
Thanks for information.
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Thank you very much @Bonnie for your corrections. My text was maybe too long that's why you couldn't correct it in a normal way.
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Nice job Cilla and interesting topic! Like Phi, I am more familiar with the term "perfect pitch." You do not use an article when referring to absolute or perfect pitch. It would also be useful to include the results of the American students as well for comparison!
Sorry about the comments - I couldn't correct the normal way for some reason.
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A study led between Chinese and American students showed that 60% of the Chinese students were able to recognize the pitches of music scores.
This may mean that people with absolute pitch may be good at playing an instrument and learning languages, as both are based on variations of tonality.
I don't know if absolute pitch can be acquired with a lot of practice once we are teens or adults.
What do you think about it?
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Why do a lot of Chinese speakers have absolute pitch?
Someone who has absolute pitch is able to recognize the pitch of any musical note. For example, if you have absolute pitch, you would be able to transcribe a music score simply by hearing the piece. You would be able to easily identity the pitches you hear without reading a music score. It would be as if the music score were depicted naturally in your head while listening to the sounds surrounding you.
Mozart had absolute pitch. When he was 14, while he was traveling with his father in the Vatican in 1770, he managed to transcribe Allegri's Miserere. At that time, nobody was allowed to see the music score, but Mozart transcribed it naturally by ear.
Scientists are unable to explain if we are born with absolute pitch or if we acquire absolute pitch at a young age. Some believe absolute pitch is genetic and others believe it is acquired before the age of 3 when a toddler associates sounds to their corresponding words.
However, speakers from China, Vietnam or Thailand have a higher chance of having absolute pitch than other speakers, such as those from European countries for example.
Why? Simply because the Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai languages are tonal, which means that the differences of sounds of these languages (aka high pitch and low pitch) are naturally part of their intonation. If we want to convey a word's meaning, we have to master its proper tone. In Chinese, tone is used to distinguish between words that may be written the same way but have different meanings. For example, the word "ma" in Chinese can mean "horse," "mother," or "hemp" depending on the tone used to pronounce it.
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