It is hard to imagine a good athlete without strong muscles and excellent physical training, good speaker without the ability to speak beautifully and speak freely in front of the public. So a good musician is inconceivable without a developed musical ear, which includes a whole range of abilities necessary for successful composition, expressive performance and active perception of music.

Depending on the musical characteristics, there are different types of musical ear. For example, pitch, timbre, modal, internal, harmonic, melodic, interval, rhythmic, etc. But one of the most inexplicable is still absolute pitch. Let's see what this mysterious phenomenon is.

The name of this variety comes from Latin word absolutus, which in translation means "unconditional, independent, unlimited, perfect". Perfect pitch refers to "the ability to determine the exact pitch of a sound without relating it to another sound whose pitch is known" (Grove's Dictionary). That is, absolute pitch allows, without tuning, without comparison with any “standard” of pitch, to instantly, and most importantly, accurately recognize and name the pitch of audible sounds.

Interestingly, the concept of absolute pitch appeared only in the second half of the 19th century. And since that time, scientific minds have been trying to find the answer to the question: “where does a person get such a unique ability?”. Researchers put forward a variety of hypotheses about the origin of absolute pitch. However, there is still no clear answer to this question. Some scientists consider it to be an innate (and also inherited) acoustic-physiological ability, which depends on the anatomical features of the hearing aid (more precisely, the structure of the inner ear). Others associate absolute pitch with special mechanisms of the brain, in the cortex of which there are special formant detectors. Still others suggest that absolute pitch is formed due to strong sound impressions in very early childhood and well-developed "photographic" figurative-auditory memory, especially in childhood.

Absolute pitch is a rather rare phenomenon even among professional musicians, not to mention ordinary connoisseurs of musical art, who may not even know that nature has awarded them this rare gift. Determining whether you have absolute pitch or not is quite simple. To "diagnose" this ability, experts use the piano, on which you will be asked to identify and name a particular sound. But in order to cope with this task, you must at least know the names of the notes themselves and how they sound. Therefore, as a rule, absolute pitch is detected in early childhood: in children at about 3-5 years of age, usually after getting acquainted with the names of musical sounds.

Absolute pitch is especially important for such musical professions as a conductor, composer, performer on instruments with a non-fixed tuning (for example, stringed instruments), because it allows you to more subtly perceive the pitch, more precisely control the system. Yes, and for an amateur musician, the presence of absolute pitch will not harm: the selection of chords to familiar melodies, of course, is much easier for owners of absolute pitch.

But along with undeniable advantages (primarily for professional musicians), this unique ability also has its disadvantages. In certain cases, absolute pitch can become a real test, especially for those who are familiar with the basics of musical literacy. You sit, for example, in a restaurant during a romantic date. And instead of enjoying the conversation or the aroma of delicious dishes under a quiet background sounding music treasured notes periodically “swim” in your mind: “la, fa, mi, re, mi, salt, do…”. Not everyone in such a situation is able to “turn off” and focus their attention on the interlocutor.

In addition, it is difficult to find a worse torture for an absolutist than listening to an inspired performance of a work by those who are “absolutely deaf”. Indeed, with such abilities, a person not only hears the exact pitch of the sound, but also absolutely accurately determines falseness, the slightest deviations from the correct standard sound. One can only sincerely sympathize with the absolute during the concert sounding of the joint playing of poorly tuned instruments (especially strings) or uncoordinated "dirty" ensemble singing.

By and large, it doesn't really matter if you have absolute pitch or not. But if you decide to devote yourself to music, and maybe even become a first-class professional musician, then a good ear for music you are vital. Its development should henceforth become a purposeful and regular action for you. To help in this difficult matter, classes on special discipline- solfeggio. But musical ear develops especially actively in the process musical activity: while singing, playing an instrument, picking by ear, improvising, composing music.

And most importantly, friends, learn to listen and understand music! With love and reverence, listen to every sound, sincerely enjoy the beauty of each consonance, in order to continue to give happiness and joy from communicating with music to your grateful listeners!!!

D. K. Kirnarskaya

Perfect Pitch

Possessors of absolute pitch, or, as musicians call them, absolutes , cause many white envy. Ordinary people with good relative hearing recognize the pitch of sounds. compare them: if you do not give them a standard for comparison, then they will not be able to name the given sound, which any absolutist can easily do. The essence of this ability has not been fully disclosed, and the most common version boils down to the fact that for the owner of absolute pitch, each sound has the same definite face as a timbre: just as easily as ordinary people recognize their relatives and friends by the voice, distinguishing timbres, absolutes " recognize each individual sound by sight.

It is likely that absolute pitch is a kind of "super-timbre" hearing, when the distinction of timbres is so subtle that it affects each individual sound, which is always slightly thinner and lighter than the neighboring sound, if it is higher, and also barely noticeably "darker" than the neighboring sound. if below it. A group of American psychologists led by Gary Krammer experimented with absolute musicians, non-absolute musicians, and non-musicians. The subjects were asked to distinguish the timbres of different instruments. All people recognize timbres very well, so it is not surprising that all the subjects did an excellent job. But absolutes responded much more confidently and faster than their fellow musicians or non-musicians. This means that absolute pitch includes a timbre element or even as a whole, as many psychologists believe, is an ultrafine offshoot of timbre pitch. Some self-observations of musicians support a "timbre version" of the origin of absolute pitch. Composer Taneyev recalled: “A note for me had a very special character of sound. I recognized her just as quickly and freely by this certain character of her sound, as we immediately recognize in the face of a familiar person. The note D already had, as it were, a completely different, also quite definite physiognomy, by which I instantly recognized and called it. And so are all the other notes.

The second popular version about the nature of absolute pitch emphasizes not the moment of timbre sensation, but the moment of super-memory to the musical height. It is known that an ordinary person can remember the pitch of a given sound for one and a half minutes - after a minute and a half he can sing this sound or recognize it among other sounds. Musicians have a stronger memory for musical pitch - they can produce a sound even eight minutes after they heard it. Absolutes, on the other hand, remember the pitch of sounds for an indefinitely long time. Psychologist Daniel Levitin believes that perfect pitch is just a long-term memory.

Absolute pitch can be active or passive. Passive hearing allows you to recognize and name the pitch, but if you ask such an absolutist to “sing the note in F”, then he is unlikely to sing it instantly and accurately. The owner of active absolute hearing will do this without difficulty, not to mention the fact that he can easily recognize any sound. In discussing the nature of active absolute pitch and passive absolute pitch, researchers find a place for both timbre and pitch versions of its origin. Many believe that passive recognition of sounds is based on timbre absolute pitch, and the possibility of their active reproduction is based on pitch. The question of the nature of absolute pitch still remains open, but no matter what absolutes memorize - timbre, pitch, or both, they are extremely rare, one out of a thousand people has absolute pitch.

Professional musicians while studying at music schools, colleges and conservatories constantly perform a lot of auditory exercises: they write musical dictations, sing from notes, guess chord sequences by ear. During the work of a conductor, choirmaster, singer and in the most different types musical activity, the ear facilitates a lot and often serves as a convenient help. Colleagues of happy absolutes sometimes set themselves the goal of mastering absolute pitch, developing it, even if by nature they do not have absolute pitch. In the course of many hours of training, fanatics eventually develop the coveted absolute pitch and use it for some time, at least in a passive form. But as soon as they stop training, the absolute pitch they had won disappears without a trace - the skills gained with such difficulty turn out to be very ephemeral and fragile.

Infants, who are already prone to manifestations of absolute pitch, can learn it even in active form. Psychologists Kessen, Levine and Vendrich asked mothers of three-month-old babies to inspire them with a special love for the note "fa" of the first octave. This note is good for children's voice, and when the babies hooted on their note, the mothers had to remind them every time “fa”, as if to prompt this particular pitch. After forty days of training, twenty-three babies, participants in the experiment, hummed together on the note "fa" - they managed to remember exactly this height and they no longer strayed from it. After some time, when the meaning of this special love for “fa” did not become clear, and the mothers ceased to endlessly remind this particular note, the babies switched to their usual cooing. So finished my short life barely broken absolute pitch. From many such trials and errors, both with infants and with adults and children, the researchers made a preliminary conclusion about the uneducability of real, durable and not requiring additional work of active absolute hearing. The reason for all sorts of fiascos in trying to acquire absolute pitch is due to its genetic origin, confirmed many times.

Neuropsychologists also consider perfect pitch to be an innate and genetically determined quality. A group of neuropsychologists led by Gottfried Schlaug focused on research on the left hemispheric planum temporale, which is slightly enlarged in all people compared to the corresponding section of the right hemisphere. This department is in charge of sound discrimination, including the distinction of phonemes, and, as already mentioned, a certain increase in this brain device of the “speaking person” was formed in chimpanzees 8 million years ago. However, on closer examination, it turned out that absolute musicians have even more planum temporale than all the others. Homo sapiens, and even more than non-absolute musicians. “The results of the study show,” the authors write, “that outstanding musical ability is associated with an exaggerated left hemispheric asymmetry in the brain regions involved in musical functions.”

Judging by the data of neuropsychologists and geneticists, absolute pitch as an ultra-high ability of sound discrimination and auditory memory is not brought up and developed, but is bestowed from above. “Abandon hope, ye who enter here!” one should write not on the gates of hell, but in the solfeggio class, especially zealous teachers who captivate gullible students with promises to develop absolute pitch in them. However, more important question is different: does a musician need this gift of fate, is absolute pitch such a valuable quality, without which it is difficult for a musician to do? Since absolute pitch was brought to public attention, many almost anecdotal stories have been collected about it, telling about the incredible human auditory abilities. But these quasi-anecdotes do not bring absolute pitch closer to music, but move it away from it, reinforcing doubts about its usefulness as a purely musical quality, and not a curiosity of nature, which has a very indirect relation to the art of music.

Absolute hearing works in automatic mode, fixing everything that hits. Absolute pianist Miss Sauer's dentist distracted her from her discomfort by asking questions about what note the drill was buzzing on. Just like the young Mozart, who knew how to name the sound of a glass filled with water, the note on which the clock ticked and the creaking of doors, Miss Sauer distinguished the pitch of all sounds in general. Once, while learning the piece, she heard an uninvited accompaniment in the form of the sounds of a neighbor's lawn mower, which buzzed on the note "salt". From now on, whenever Miss Sauer performed this ill-fated piece, the sound of a lawn mower on the same note was awakened in her mind, and the concert piece was irrevocably ruined. Miss Sauer's colleague, the Reverend Sir Frederick Usley, professor of music at Oxford University, also had a legendary perfect pitch. At the age of five, he told his mother: “Just think, our dad blows his nose on “fa”. At any age, he could determine that thunder rumbles on G and the wind blows on D. At the age of eight, listening to Mozart's famous G-minor symphony on a hot summer afternoon, young Sir Frederick claimed that what he was actually hearing was not G-minor at all, but A-flat minor, located a semitone higher. It turned out that the boy was right: the instruments were so hot from the heat that their system slightly increased.

Much says about the ancient origin of absolute pitch, even more ancient than human speech. People sing and play the same melodies at different pitches, the same music often sounds either higher or lower. In musical creativity dominates relative pitch, for which the absolute height is not important performed music, a sound relations. Not so with birds: they sing their "music" at the same pitch, memorizing not so much bird melodies as the absolute pitch of the sounds included in them. This set of sounds is for them a sign, a signal, but not an artistic message. Dolphins do the same, making sounds of a certain height, where each frequency acts as a certain sign-signal. Animals forced to communicate over long distances use the frequency of sound as its most stable characteristic, not subject to distortion. From ancient times, the frequency of sound vibrations transmitted information in a storm, and in snow, and in rain, cutting through forests and oceans and overcoming all sound interference. In some species of animals, absolute pitch was thus formed, capable of distinguishing several commonly used frequencies and using them.

The works of the Englishman Sargent shed light on many phenomena associated with absolute pitch. He argues that almost every person could become an absolute if he began to study music in early childhood. His survey of one and a half thousand members of the English Society of Musicians shows that there is a definite connection between the time of the beginning music lessons and absolute hearing. Absolute pitch is dying out due to the fact that the same music, when it sounds in different keys, is perceived as practically the same; if this phenomenon, which musicians call "transposition", did not exist, then absolute pitch could be preserved. To suggest such a thing would be, however, a complete fantasy - singing as the basis of music-making could not live without the performance of the same melodies either by a soprano, or by a bass, or by a tenor. All data - both the phenomena of absolute pitch in animals (musicians sometimes call absolute pitch “canine pitch”), and the ease with which infants perceive the absolute pitch of sounds - makes us think that absolute pitch is not at all the highest achievement of human hearing, as is sometimes believed, but on the contrary , an auditory rudiment, a vanishing shadow of the evolutionary process, a trace of the auditory strategy of our distant ancestors. In ontogeny, child development, reflecting phylogenesis, historical development, one can clearly see how absolute pitch, having barely begun, dies off without receiving practical reinforcement: it is not necessary either in music or in speech, and being unclaimed, this rudiment calmly dies off as it once disappeared from people animal tail.

Among the advantages of absolute musicians, the so-called “color hearing” is often referred to, when musical tonalities seem to the perceiver as if colored, colored, and steadfastly evoke certain color associations in memory. Rimsky-Korsakov considered the key of E major "blue, sapphire, brilliant, nocturnal, dark azure" thanks to the prompting of fellow composers. Glinka wrote the choir "Darkness of the night falls in the field" in this key, and Mendelssohn used this key for the overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and for the famous "Nocturne". How was it possible to avoid “night and dark azure” associations here? In F major, Beethoven laid the foundation for the "Pastoral" symphony, connected with the life of innocent shepherds and peasants in the bosom of nature, and this tonality in the composer's community began to naturally gravitate towards green. E-flat major Rimsky-Korsakov and Wagner were associated with water - the first with Ocean-Sea Blue, and the second with Rhine Gold, although Rimsky-Korsakov could boast of absolute pitch, but Wagner did not. This further strengthens the idea that “color hearing” is a historical and cultural phenomenon, not connected with absolute pitch. Scriabin also gravitated towards color associations of keys, but like Wagner he did not have perfect pitch.

Comparison of absolute musicians with non-absolute musicians emphasizes their fundamental equality in the main: both hear and fix sound relations and remember the pitch of sounds, but use different strategies at the same time - where the absolute does not think and does not compare, acting instantly, there the non-absolute achieves the same with minimal effort, but with the same result. Except when it is required to tune the instrument with an accuracy of a few hertz or recognize a false sound. So is it worth envying the absolutes, and how to interpret this gift of nature, knowing about its rudimentary origin, and also that some great composers, including Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Scriabin, did without absolute pitch.

The very phrase "absolute pitch" suggests something perfect, the highest, unattainable. This name reflects public reverence for absolute pitch, if only because of its very low prevalence. The very fact of possessing absolute pitch is already suggestive of ultra-high musicality. However, even an approximate review of the facts and views of specialists forces us to abandon such reverence. “Absolute pitch is not a panacea,” writes Ms. Sauer, who knows how to find out what note drills and lawnmowers are buzzing on. “He is only what you can do with him and how you can use him. One does not automatically follow from the other.

A few statistics are in tune with these chilling tirades. If the total number of absolutists in the world is about 3%, among students of conservatories in Europe and America it is already 8%, then among Japanese music students there are already 70% absolutists, probably due to the fact that Eastern languages ​​are genetically closer to tonal languages, and the auditory capabilities of Asians are generally higher. Isn't that why it's complicated classical music Europe so quickly gained popularity on Far East that the auditory resources of these peoples are extremely large compared to Europeans? It is easy for them to perceive the global sound constructions of sonatas and symphonies, since their hearing is very perfect. However, the percentage of outstanding musicians among Asians is by no means greater than among Europeans. Absolute pitch all over the world is possessed by quite ordinary musicians, and just piano tuners, and even people who are not at all music lovers and not interested in it. “Having absolute pitch in no way makes you a good musician,” writes Dr. - This does not mean that you understand musical relationship, this does not indicate a sense of rhythm, it simply means that you have perfect pitch. Many people think it means something much more.”

At the same time, among the outstanding musicians, the number of absolutes is very large. On the heights of the musical Olympus, at the height of Mozart-Bach-Debussy and the like, non-absolute pitch is a big exception. The same can be said about outstanding performers of the rank of Richter-Stern-Rostropovich. In a special study of outstanding cellists, it was noted that 70% of them are absolute players. There is a certain discrepancy: on the one hand, absolute pitch and musical talent are clearly connected, and among the geniuses of music, a non-absolute is as rare as a white musician among the black titans of jazz. At the same time, absolute pitch does not guarantee even tolerable musical abilities: the possession of absolute pitch, apart from the absolute pleasure of recognizing the door of one's home by its unique creaking, does not promise any other pleasures.

Even a superficial analysis of the auditory capabilities of the great ones can bring some clarity to the mythology of absolute pitch. “When I was two and a half years old,” recalls the composer Saint-Saens, “I found myself in front of a small piano that had not been opened for several years. Instead of hitting randomly, as children usually do, I played one key after another and did not release it until its sound died out completely. Grandmother explained the names of the notes to me and invited the tuner to put the piano in order. During this operation, I was in the next room and amazed everyone by naming the notes as they sounded at the tuner's hand. All these details are known to me not from other people's words, since I myself remember them perfectly. In this description, it is not at all surprising that absolute pitch manifested itself so early - it always wakes up early; surprising and not that the child so confidently called all the sounds, only once hearing them - this is absolute pitch. It is amazing that the love of music awakened early in the child, when he listened to the sounds with such attention, with such unprecedented interest, perceiving the piano as his interlocutor, who must be listened to, and not as a toy that must be beaten so that it responds with offended strumming.

Absolute pitch is rudimentary in its origin, it is an atavism, but among gifted musicians, on the one hand, and among ordinary "tuners", on the other hand, it is preserved for various reasons. Outstanding musicians are gifted in terms of hearing not only with absolute pitch, their general high musicality, their sensitivity to the meaningfulness of sound enhances all sound-distinctive abilities, including absolute pitch. It does not die in the mind of an outstanding musician, because it is included in the context of other auditory data, among which there is necessarily an excellent relative pitch: an outstanding musician equally freely uses both absolute pitch and non-absolute pitch, if necessary.

Absolutes, which can be conditionally called "tuners", are essentially non-musicians. Their absolute pitch is just a vestige preserved as a curiosity of nature. Sometimes in a family of musicians, this rudiment is delayed because the child is overloaded with sound impressions, his hearing aid is working in an enhanced mode. In addition, the children of musicians have a hereditary tendency to preserve absolute pitch. However, in all such cases, the tendency to retain absolute pitch does not come from within consciousness, from within the awakening musicality, and as a result, a dead absolute pitch arises, which can push one to choose a musical profession - the recognized fetishism of the phrase “absolute pitch” will play its treacherous role here. The seeming ease of mastering the basics of the profession will obscure the bitter truth from such a “pseudo-talent”: nature did not endow him with a real creative gift, but only a surrogate in the form of absolute pitch.

Even if absolute pitch and its preservation are caused by internal causes, and the child is indeed endowed with excellent intonation pitch, a good sense of rhythm, and even a remarkable relative pitch, all these qualities taken together do not mean that musical talent is evident. These hearing properties are operational properties that make it possible to successfully dissect the musical fabric, understanding why it is constructed this way and not otherwise. But these properties of hearing do not yet mean that the absolute player has at least a small fraction of musical fantasy, imagination and artistry. It is still very far from the requirements that society imposes on gifted performers and composers. In addition, in the musical profession, it is quite possible to get by with a good relative pitch, which once again warns society against excessive enthusiasm about the magical properties of absolute pitch. Its rudimentary origin and fundamentally conscious, reflex nature once again emphasize that the concept of "absolute pitch" is just another myth. To believe in it or not - everyone chooses for himself.

A music teacher can always tell which of his students has perfect pitch. They don't necessarily play instruments better than others or become soloists in vocal groups.They are distinguished by the ability to instantly (in 1-2 seconds) name a sounding note . Such musicians easily and accurately reproduce any melody they hear and can record it. Simultaneously with the perception of sound, they see its position on the staff.

Most musicians define notes by ear in a different way. They are guided by the relationship between sounds. Easily recognizing the interval between two notes, they can name one of them only if they are prompted by the second.This is a relative ear, quite sufficient for serious music lessons, but not phenomenal. .

For centuries it was believed that perfect pitch was the property of the musical elite. By some estimates, only one in 2,000 people has it. However, a growing number of experiments, from linguistic studies to brain scans, are proving that this gift is much more common . Some scientists even believe that all people, regardless of musical talent, can develop it. There is hope that modern research will finally bring clarity to the long-standing debate about what the nature of absolute pitch is: whether it depends on hereditary factors or on learning music at an early age.

At a convention of the American Acoustic Society in 1999, psychologist Diane Deutsch presented the results of a study conducted at the University of San Diego. It concerned the phenomenon of absolute pitch in people speaking languages ​​with tone stress. . A third of the world's population, mostly in Asia and Africa, speaks languages ​​in which the meaning of a word changes depending on the height of the stressed syllable.The Vietnamese and Chinese, for example, from early childhood get used to distinguishing sounds by pitch and associating the meaning of words with them. This develops their perfect pitch. . In the same way as absolute musicians immediately name the note they hear, they instantly recognize the meaning of the word by the pitch of the sound. The deviation does not exceed a quarter of a tone.Diana Deutsch considers this proof that perfect pitch can be developed. .

Why don't all humans have perfect pitch? Danel Levitin of McGill University in Montreal makes an interesting comparison: “A person doesn't have to look at a rainbow to tell if a tomato is red. Each of us instantly recognizes any of the ten primary colors. But if we easily classify colors, then why can't we immediately name each of the twelve basic sounds? Levitin has an answer to this question. Absolute pitch, he argues, includes two components - sound memory and sound ranging. "Absolutes" automatically associate the memory of the tone with its position on the staff. Without absolute pitch, a person cannot automatically identify a note with its name. At best, he can only play the note as soon as he hears it.

But where does such a phenomenal ability come from? Is a person born with it or acquires it in music lessons? This question is very difficult.

In musical families, the love of music is passed on from generation to generation. But is it only love? What about abilities, including absolute pitch? In the last decade, scientists have come to the conclusion that absolute pitch is “grinded” by generations. According to Nelson Framer of the University of San Francisco, musical geniuses are created at the gene level. Framer has studied many people with absolute pitch and their relatives. In addition, the objects of his research were people who were taught music early. It turned out that hearing develops better in those who had “absolutes” in their family than in those who simply studied music from early childhood. Finally,Framer came to the following conclusion: there is a genetic predisposition to absolute pitch, but this natural gift develops in music lessons. .

Many researchers explain the different degrees of musical talent in people with absolute hearing. “With a good heredity, the decisive role is played by the fact how early the child began to study music,” says psychologist Elizabeth Marvin. —The greatest successes are achieved by those who have joined it from three to six years. ».

New York University geneticist Peter Gregersen and colleagues examined 2,700 students at American conservatories and colleges and found that among Asians 32% have absolute pitch, while the rest of the students account for only 7% of "absolutes" . Of course, this ratio reflects the genetic features that have already been mentioned. But, according to Gregersen, both the age of initiation to music and the method itself matter. music education. Students with absolute pitch began to study music at the age of five, on average, while the rest - from the age of eight. It is also important that in Asia, when teaching music,preference for the Suzuki method , in which students determine the notes and play only by ear. For example, in Japan, children raise flags, the color of which corresponds to a particular note. . In the United States, it is customary to immediately teach musical notation. This develops not absolute, but relative hearing.

But if the ease of identifying notes is indeed due to genetic predisposition and the method of learning, then this should also be reflected in the work of the brain. In order to find out, a tomography examination of musicians with absolute and relative pitch was carried out.Scanning revealed significant cognitive differences. For musicians with relative pitch, when asked to name a note, there was a burst of activity in the area of ​​the brain where incoming information is mapped to memory. That is, they operated on working memory. On the contrary, musicians with absolute pitch used long-term memory to determine the note. . It seems that their sound recognition tool is hidden much deeper.

Scientists agree that all people have the beginnings of absolute pitch. For some, it develops from generation to generation, for others, on the contrary, it becomes dull.When training, bet on relative hearing does not allow the development of absolute pitch even if the introduction to music began early . Interestingly, even people with developed absolute pitch do not always use it. They, too, take advantage of the possibilities provided by relative hearing, as they consider it more useful.

E. Ruderman

The characteristic features of absolute hearing include:

• its low prevalence;
• finding it in childhood; ease and secrecy from observing the process of its formation and development;
• the existence of two types of absolute hearing: passive and active;
• the multiplicity and dispersion of the magnitude of errors in the recognition of sounds;
• short duration of the reaction of recognition of sounds;
• low sound-altitude sensitivity;
• the presence of 12 identification standards.

Part of the features of absolute pitch was explained by the innate nature of this ability. The other remained unexplained.
Let's analyze characteristics absolute pitch from the standpoint of its mono-tonal stepwise nature.
1. Low prevalence of absolute pitch
The first thing that is revealed by simple observation and noted by many researchers is the fact of the extremely low prevalence of absolute pitch.
Thus, questionnaire surveys of 495 musicians conducted by W. Hecker and T. Ziegen showed that only 35 of them consider themselves to have absolute pitch, which is 7% of the respondents (85). A. Wellek noted absolute pitch in 8.8% of the musicians he observed (106). G. Reves found it in 3.4% of those examined (101). B. M. Teplov, who observed about 250 musicians-teachers, found among them no more than 7% of the owners of absolute pitch (67). A. Rakovsky states that absolute pitch is inherent in 1% of musicians (99).
Our observations show that 6.4% of teachers of three music schools in the Kursk region have perfect pitch.
Despite some scatter of figures, it can be considered as established the fact of the low prevalence of absolute pitch among musicians, not exceeding 9%, and on average 6-7%. In relation to the entire population, the proportion of absolute pitch owners will be much smaller and is unlikely to exceed 1%.
The noted low prevalence of absolute pitch was explained by the innateness of this ability and the impossibility of developing it artificially. In fact, the low prevalence of absolute pitch is determined not by innate inclinations or features, but by the interval polytonal nature of the music surrounding us.
From birth, each of us hears and repeats melodies that sound in different modes and in different keys. Perception means of expression, in which the content of the music around us is shaped, requires an intonation-interval polyladotonal feeling and relative hearing. Formed in to school age in the perception and reproduction of music, the modal feeling, in conditions of constant tonal drift, cannot be anything other than polytonal, which means that it determines the formation of a polytonal feeling and the relative path of musical ear development.
The circumstance that reduces the prevalence of absolute pitch is also the tradition of predominantly vocal performance. The predominance of vocal music with its intonation-interval nature and the very subordinate role of instrumental music creates a basis that favors the development of relative hearing. “... Singing in its very essence is focused on intonation, and not on the absolute heights of individual tones. At singing voice there is no fixed stepped keyboard, it must be created by ear on the basis of interval-modal representations, ”E. V. Nazaikinsky noted (53, 69).
How do some children manage to form a mono-tonal step feeling and absolute pitch in such a poly-tonal and intonation-interval musical environment?
The first step in music is monotonal for everyone. The determining factor is the increased emotional sensitivity, which is manifested in the distinction of the modal step qualities of the sounds of the melody, which causes a very rapid formation of a step mono-tonal feeling in the sensitive period. “Musical experience in its essence is an emotional experience,” pointed out B. M. Teplov (67, 23). Exactly emotional form reflection as the simplest first of all appears in human ontogenesis. Therefore, in some children with increased emotional sensitivity to musical (modal) experience, absolute pitch is formed quickly, before the start of polytonal musical activity.
Apparently, a prerequisite is also the presence of a musical instrument with a fixed pitch and the ability for the child to select favorite melodies on it by ear. E. V. Nazaikinsky emphasized the role of instrumental music in the formation of absolute pitch. "Clavier, piano, organ fix pitches" (53, 69), while fixed stops "on individual tones<...>are material for absolute hearing” (53, 72). Descriptions of the first experiences of music-making by the future owners of absolute pitch are surprisingly similar. In all cases, it is indicated that the house had a harpsichord, a piano, a piano, and the child spent hours at the instrument, picking up melodies. An example is the memory of B. V. Asafiev: “I learned to memorize marches<…>whistle and hum them, and then “pick up” on our old, old piano” (53, 70) or C. Saint-Saens: “When I was two and a half years old, I found myself in front of a small piano. Instead of knocking at random, as children usually do, I played one key after another and did not let go of it until its sound died out completely ”(67, 136). The emotional and modal expressiveness of the sounds of the selected melody is associated in the presentation with certain keys of the instrument, forming auditory-visual-motor stereotypes. Further experience in the selection of melodies, fixing, as a rule, in one key, forms mono-tonal step perceptions and representations of individual keys-sounds.
Great importance also have the physiological and psychological characteristics of the child and the conditions in which absolute pitch is formed. In addition to the emotional sensitivity and impressionability noted above, we will also point out the stable needs and interests of the child's personality, the imagery of thinking, the typological features of higher education. nervous activity, the ability for creative upsurge and the excited state of the nervous system at the time of perception and reproduction of melodies, the strength of the charge nerve cells(9, 111), the strength and duration of the action of stimuli, the time interval between repetitions, the number of repeated exposures (57, 37), etc.
The main thing is still the speed of internalization of the mechanism of monoladotonal stepwise perception. The intonation-interval and polytonal atmosphere of the surrounding music pushes for the development of relative hearing, and you need to quickly gain a foothold in one fret and key, emotionally experience and fix in perception the individual absolute step qualities of sounds. It is not at all necessary for a long time of exposure to monotonality and memorization of all 12 steps in it. It is enough for a child to experience in perception and to fix in the representation the absolute modal quality of one or two sounds, which already indicates the formation of a stepwise mono-tonal feeling, in order to be “infected” with the ability to catch and assimilate the individualizing absolute stepwise modal qualities of sounds in the future. The perception of the absolute step quality of other sounds and the formation of absolute pitch are already predetermined, and its further development is a matter of time and the child's normal musical abilities. From a certain point on, polytonal musical activity no longer prevents the formation of absolute hearing, but, on the contrary, contributes to the generalization of auditory representations of the absolute meanings of sounds.
In the list of evidence for the first manifestations of absolute pitch, the ability to recognize sounds of a “non-musical” origin is often mentioned. So, it is said about Ch. Gounod that he discovered absolute pitch when he determined that “a street vendor shouts at “do”” (67, 136). The boy described by M. Gebhardt at the age of three recognized the bell of a tram car, and then heard “do” in the horn of a car, “fa” - in the ringing of a bell, “do” - in the cry of his sister, “mi” - in the buzzing of a bee (67, 138 -139). The ability of W. A. ​​Mozart to recognize the sounds of clocks, bells, glass vessels and other items. The subject of L. Weinert recalled that he first fixed “la” in his memory when he heard the sound of the oboe, according to which the orchestra was tuned (53). These and other similar testimonies gave B. M. Teplov reason to assume that “in children who subsequently discovered absolute pitch, the initial exercise consists in constant attempts to “recognize” all kinds of audible sounds (including non-musical ones).” (67, 140). Many modern researchers also believe that for the development of absolute pitch it is necessary to remember from the very beginning that such and such a sound is called the tone “do”, “la”, etc. (53). The same understanding of the essence and mechanism of the formation of absolute pitch lies in the so-called trigger concept of functioning proposed by M. V. Karaseva and the methodology of polymodal anchoring for its development (34, 114-118).
In reality, it is not absolute pitch and its basis - the mono-tonal feeling - that is derived and developed from attempts to recognize individual sounds, but, on the contrary, the ability to recognize individual sounds appears as the step-by-step mono-tonal feeling becomes and strengthens. The sound can be remembered and recognized under the condition of its adequate constant perception. Such perception is possible only as a result of referring it to an ordered system of sounds, which is musical mode, that is, when the sound is perceived as an element of the mode. The latter is possible only if there is a modal, or rather, mono-tonal feeling. This position is not only theoretical, but also practical value, as it indicates what to proceed from in the formation of absolute pitch, from unprepared and doomed to failure attempts to recognize sounds or from the preparation of the ability to recognize them on the basis of a stepwise mono-tonal feeling.
2. Absolute pitch detection
It is widely believed among musicians that the formation of absolute pitch is the result of the development of relative pitch. This opinion is shared by a number of researchers (27).
However, there is no serious evidence of the development of absolute pitch. naturally in adulthood, including among professional musicians who improve their relative ear for music throughout their lives.
All authentically known cases of detection of absolute hearing refer to childhood. From the numerous evidences of absolute pitch detection, it follows that it is detected immediately after children get acquainted with the names of notes at preschool or primary school age and that the process of formation of absolute pitch in such children is easy, without special pedagogical intervention and hidden from adult supervision. An example is the report by S.M. He was then only five years old” (43, 103).
It is also believed that absolute pitch appears immediately in full measure in a final and perfect form, “as a finished nugget in a completely finished form” (44, 208), and does not require further development.
In fact, every future owner of absolute pitch accumulates recognizable sounds.
Here is M. Gebhardt's description of the process of formation and development of absolute pitch in a gifted boy. “At the age of three years, two months, the mother, having played the sound “do” on the piano, called him to the boy. The next day he recognized it in a series of different sounds and never again confused it with others.<...>At the age of three and a half, he already mastered all the sounds of the first octave.<...>Six months later, he also imperceptibly, while playing, learned all the sounds of other octaves of the middle register, and could already recognize “la” on the violin and “la”, “sol”, “re” on the cello<...>At five and a half years old<...>the boy recognized the sounds of the piano completely unmistakably” (82; 83).
The formation period can last from several months to several years. Improving absolute pitch, as well as relative pitch, is a lifelong process for professional musicians.
There are many examples of imperfect perfect pitch. One of such examples is the fact of the existence of the so-called passive absolute pitch, which B. M. Teplov described as “not fully developed absolute pitch” (67, 150).
The facts of the discovery of absolute pitch in childhood and the absence of evidence of its formation in adults are explained by its stepwise monotonal nature. Absolute pitch is formed only during the period of formation of modal feeling before the development of relative pitch. The modal feeling is formed in children and in almost all ends in preschool age. Many data indicate that the modal feeling is formed very early, already by the age of 3-4 years, and by the age of seven it is so developed that in the future no noticeable progress is visible and “tasks that directly appeal to it are among the most easily solved by the average child" (67, 167). The emerging modal feeling is always concrete and necessarily takes on one of two qualities: stepped or interval, mono-tonal or poly-tonal. The first, as we know, is the basis of absolute pitch, the second - relative. Most children do not manage to stay in mono-tonality for a sufficient time and they develop a poly-tonal feeling and relative hearing, which, as they develop, strengthens interval poly-tonal representations and makes it more and more difficult and even excludes in the future the possibility of developing absolute pitch in a natural way.
The graded essence of absolute pitch also explains the ease, speed and secrecy of its formation.
Solfegist teachers know how difficult it is to form interval representations and what a problem for most students is, for example, the task of determining intervals by ear. Without special directed pedagogical work and special exercises, interval representations may not be formed (24, 37).
The situation is quite different with step representations. Step-by-step feeling and step-by-step representations are formed by themselves when a certain mode is perceived. For their formation, most children do not require special pedagogical work and special exercises (24, 35).
Interval representations appear on the basis of step representations. Step representations are primary, interval representations are secondary in the logic of musical ear development. Failure to comply with this logic in the practice of educating musical ear is a methodological error that leads to a violation of the basic principle of didactics: the consistency and accessibility of training.
The priority education of a graded feeling and the formation of graded ideas is therefore the most natural, simple, accessible and methodically correct step in the development of musical ear, both relative and absolute.
3. Types of absolute pitch
Studies by D. Chris (90), O. Abraham (76), W. Köhler (89), L. Weinert (105), B. M. Teplov (67) and others showed that the term "absolute pitch" actually means two abilities: the ability to recognize a single audible sound and the ability to sing or imagine the named sound. The first ability occurs without the second, the second does not occur without the first. The ability to recognize sounds by ear, but not to reproduce them at a given pitch, is called passive absolute pitch. The ability to both recognize by ear and reproduce sounds at a given pitch is called active absolute pitch.
O. Abraham found that of all the owners of absolute sound he examined, only 35% had active absolute pitch.
The owners of active hearing are not connected when recognizing by the timbre characteristics of sounds. They equally successfully recognize the sounds of any instruments, any registers, and even the sounds made by sounding objects.
The owners of passive absolute hearing, when recognizing sounds, depend on their timbre. The most easily recognizable are the sounds of the middle register of the piano. The most difficult to recognize are the sounds of tuning forks and voices, including one's own (90; 105).
In addition to the extreme cases that characterize the two types of absolute pitch, absolute pitch of the intermediate type is more common, in which difficulties in recognizing sounds are combined to varying degrees with the ability to imagine and sing some of them by name (67, 124).
It can also be considered proven that passive absolute pitch is the same genuine absolute pitch as active, and represents the initial level of its development. “Passive absolute pitch is, as it were, halfway to active: it is not fully developed absolute pitch. Therefore, the passive absolute pitch, developing, should approach the active one,” wrote B. M. Teplov (67, 150).
Based on his conclusion about the essence of absolute pitch as the ability to isolate musical pitch in the sensation of a single sound, B. M. Teplov saw the difference between passive absolute pitch and active pitch in the degree of such isolation. “... With passive absolute hearing, the isolation of musical pitch in isolated sound is less complete than in active,” he wrote (67, 150). By this, B. M. Teplov explains the inability of the owners of passive absolute hearing to recognize the sounds of unfamiliar timbres or to reproduce the pitch of sounds with a voice from memory.
Now we know that not isolating the actual pitch from the timbre in a separate sound is the essence of absolute pitch. This means that it is not the degree of isolation of pitch in sound that distinguishes the two types of absolute pitch. Those with passive absolute pitch are able to reproduce with their voice the pitch of any sound of an unfamiliar timbre, or arbitrarily sing a sound and thus isolate the actual pitch from the timbre, but remain unable to recognize it.
The existence of two types of absolute pitch is due to the existence of two components of musical hearing: modal feeling and musical auditory representations. Having singled out these two components in melodic hearing, B. M. Teplov characterized one of them as perceptual, or emotional, the other as reproductive, or auditory. The modal feeling, being a perceptual, emotional component, provides a full-fledged perception. Musical auditory representations, or the reproductive auditory component, underlie reproduction. The modal feeling, or the emotional component of melodic ear, fully explains the psychological nature of all those manifestations of musical ear, in which the reproduction of a melody is not required. As for the latter, it is directly dependent on another component of melodic hearing - on musical auditory representations, ”said B. M. Teplov (67, 185).
Absolute pitch also has two components: modal feeling and modal auditory representations. Just as with relative hearing, the recognition of melodies is based on the modal feeling, and their reproduction by voice or selection by ear is possible only if there are sufficiently vivid auditory representations of these melodies, with absolute hearing, the mono-tonal step feeling provides the ability to perceive and recognize individual sounds, and the auditory mono-tonal step performances - reproduce them in singing.
Recognition of melodies or individual sounds is carried out by emotional-sensory experience of interval or step modal qualities of sounds. It is impossible to reproduce an emotional experience with a voice in singing. The ability to sing a melody or individual sounds appears as the mechanism of perception is internalized and with the development of generalized auditory representations of this melody or these sounds.
As for the inability to recognize the sounds of unfamiliar timbres with passive hearing, it should be borne in mind that the initial stage of the formation of the ability to perceive and recognize individual sounds, based on primary auditory images, is characterized by experiencing the “external” nature of the sound while maintaining the original contextual ones, including timbre, characteristics of the perceived. The mono-tonal step quality in the perception of individual sounds at this stage is not sufficiently generalized, and therefore sounds are recognized only in the original timbre context. As auditory representations are internalized, auditory images are generalized, sounds of other registers, other musical instruments, and even sounds of sounding objects are gradually covered by recognition. At a certain level of development of musical and auditory representations, characterized by a high degree of their generalization and arbitrariness, the ability to recognize the sounds of any timbres and reproduce the pitch of sounds in singing from memory appears.
In addition, it is known that the nature of the timbre is determined by the number and volume ratio of audible overtones. An unusual combination of overtones can lead to a complication of the very ability to recognize sounds and to identification illusions.
4. Mistakes in sound recognition
In studies by L. Weinert (105), A. Vellek (106), and others, a plurality of second, third, and fourth shifts in recognitions and the absence of constancy in errors in the same persons were found. Such a multiplicity and dispersion of erroneous readings is explained by the multiplicity of reasons that cause these errors.
Some of them can be explained by the variability of constant and aconstant types of perception under conditions of tonal variability that occurs in combinations of presented sounds.
As we noted, along with the primary formation of absolute pitch, each of its possessors to some extent develops relative pitch as a result of the intonation-interval and polytonal nature of music. Thanks to this synthesis, each carrier of absolute pitch combines the ability of both constant and aconstant latotonal step perception, which means that he can hear in sounds not one, but two of its modal qualities: absolute, independent of the tonal tuning, and relative, characterizing the steps fret in new tonalities with all sorts of deviations and modulations.
The absolute quality of individual sounds is recognized on the basis of constant perception. But when a series of sounds is recognized, their random sequence can lead to more or less persistent modal tonal rearrangements and, consequently, to the actualization of aconstant perception, and hence to a split in the perception of the step modal function of sounds. Inattention to such a restructuring or inoperative, belated awareness of the fact of shifting the perspective of perception leads to uncontrollability of the change from absolute hearing to relative and errors in the designation of the absolute values ​​of musical sounds. Our experiment confirmed this. In a series of sounds presented for identification, persistent repetition of diatonic characteristic sounds of a certain key, causing tuning in it, leads to errors in recognizing the absolute values ​​of sounds while maintaining recognition of their modal, step qualities in a new mode of tone.
It is clear that the number of such errors is due to the level of development of absolute pitch, the degree of its combination with relative hearing, the number and persistence of random tonal rearrangements when the sounds presented are combined and simply elementary literacy and attentiveness to the subject, angle and tonal background of perception.
In addition, it is one thing to emotionally feel and perceive the step mono-tonal quality of sound, and another thing to pick up, remember its name. As we know, the ability to distinguish and recognize sounds by absolute pitch appears in children before the knowledge of notes and is not associated with their names. L. Weinert noted relatively long-term recognition reactions, in which the subject waits for the name of the sound to emerge in consciousness (105). Recall of the name of the perceived sound may be delayed, confused with another name, perhaps not come at all. Everyone knows, and B. M. Teplov noted in experiments, that even when recognizing intervals, professional musicians with relative pitch often find it difficult to answer or give incorrect answers (67, 167). The cause of errors can be fatigue, distraction of attention, the above-mentioned modal split in the perception of sounds, insufficient assimilation of its modal quality in new context conditions, etc.
Of a different nature may be small-second recognition errors, which, according to L. Weinert, make up three-quarters of all "absolute" errors. Absolute pitch, being formed as the ability to perceive and recognize the steps of the mode, first of all masters the diatonic steps that characterize the mode. Chromatic steps, which destroy the distinct experience of the mode in perception, are mastered in the second place and initially in emotional experience have not an independent, but only a derivative quality, only a shade of the quality of the diatonic step that it alters. As they are assimilated, the modal quality of altered sounds in perception acquires an autonomous meaning, but at the initial stages, which for some people can be delayed for a long time, they are perceived and recognized as derivatives and are mixed with the main diatonic ones upon recognition.
Interesting data, which can also be attributed to the characteristic features of absolute pitch, are given by D. Baird. Most of his test subjects, who had absolute pitch, stated that the black keys had a special sound quality that was different from the sounds of the white keys. Some of them admitted that they recognized the white or black key before its name (67, 132). Some researchers, in particular, G. Helmholtz and O. Abraham, sought an explanation for this in design features piano (86, 502-504). Testing this ability in persons who do not have absolute pitch, B. M. Teplov did not confirm it and came to the conclusion that “experimental data speak against the ability to distinguish between the sounds of black and white keys by color” (67, 132). However, our surveys of absolute pitch owners confirmed the data of D. Baird. Indeed, the owners of perfect pitch recognize the "color" of the keys before their names.
What's the matter here? Why are persons without absolute pitch incapable, while those with absolute pitch are able to distinguish the quality of the sounds of black and white keys before determining their names?
The key to this feature lies in the stepped monotonal nature of absolute pitch. It is not the sounds of black and white keys that differ and are recognized, but the chromatic and diatonic steps of monotonality. The fact is that in most cases absolute pitch is formed on the basis of the perception of natural monotonality located on the white keys of the piano, due to their greater prevalence, convenience, accessibility, visibility. So, one of the owners of absolute pitch in the tests of L. Weinert testifies: “When I went to school, I knew only the white keys, but I recognized all of them by ear” (67, 135). G. Lubomirsky indirectly explained this feature of absolute pitch by highlighting the so-called “black-and-white” pitch, that is, the ability to distinguish between the sounds of black and white keys, which is formed as a result of mastering the natural C major and filling it with chromatic steps. Which of the owners of relative hearing does not distinguish between diatonic and chromatic sounds, and if the diatonic is located on white keys - the sounds of white keys from the sounds of black ones? The same happens when recognizing sounds by absolute hearing.
Thus, both short-second errors and the distinction between the sounds of black and white keys, which seem to be mutually exclusive manifestations of absolute pitch, nevertheless can be found even in one person and have one explanation - monotonal step nature.
The fact of octave errors in the recognition of sounds should also be attributed to the number of identification illusions of absolute pitch.
The results of studies by O. Abraham (76), D. Baird (77) and our observations show that those with absolute pitch can correctly name a sound, but find it difficult to designate the octave to which this sound belongs. Octave identification errors are typical for all owners of absolute pitch. Quint errors are less common. According to our observations, they become more frequent when the sounds of extreme registers, especially the extreme upper ones, are recognized.
Octave identification illusions arising from absolute hearing cannot be explained otherwise than from the standpoint of its modal essence. Frequent mistakes in determining the octave of a recognizable sound are made by those who never make a mistake by a semitone or a tone. This is inexplicable in terms of timbre or proper pitch sensation of sound. In terms of timbre and frequency, neighboring sounds are more similar than sounds that are an octave apart. But the fact of octave illusions is quite understandable with modal perception of sound. Only from the point of view of modal quality, sounds that are a pure octave apart have a similarity, while neighboring sounds are characterized by a modal difference. When recognizing sounds according to the modal criterion, errors of half a tone or a tone are excluded, but octave errors are allowed. These second errors are not allowed by the owners of developed absolute pitch while maintaining octave illusions, thereby revealing its modal essence.
Octave and fifth illusions are also provoked by the overtone composition of the sound. The first three partial tones following the main, and the most audible, form in relation to it an octave, a duodecim and a quintdecim. The sound of, for example, the tone “to” of a small octave also includes the sound of the overtones “to” of the first octave, the “salt” of the first octave and “to” of the second octave.
Relative interval recognition, based on internal singing and conscious comparison of sounds, is based on the main tone during perception.
Absolute stepwise recognition, which does not include singing, is based on the emotional experience of the modal function of sound and does not include conscious reliance on a certain tone. Such an emotional-modal experience can be caused by the perception of sound not only by the main, but also by partial tones. It can be seen from the overtone series that the octave illusion can be the most common, and the fifth illusion is less common.
The following overtones are less distinguishable and do not cause identification illusions in familiar timbres. But in unusual, unfamiliar timbres, they can be not only the cause of illusions, but also difficulties in recognizing sounds. So, the timbre of the oboe arises when the volume of the third harmonic prevails over the second, the second - over the first, the first - over all the others. The timbre of the clarinet is with the predominance of odd: the fifth, third, first overtones over the rest of the even ones. As a result of a different combination of the volume of overtones, other timbres of sounds also arise. Perception and unconscious emotional-modal experience of the most audible overtones can lead to illusions, confusion, difficulty and even impossibility of recognizing the absolute value of the fundamental tone.
Thus, identification illusions and difficulties in recognizing the sounds of unfamiliar timbres with passive absolute hearing can have one nature and one explanation. The reason for these illusions lies in the stepwise monotonal nature of absolute pitch and the emotional-sensory nature of the mechanism for recognizing individual sounds. Developed absolute pitch as a result of many years of identification experience and a consequence of the generalization of auditory representations is characterized by confident recognition of sounds of various timbres, the absence of fifths, seconds and other errors, while maintaining the most difficult to overcome octave illusions.
As can be seen from the above data, all owners of absolute pitch make mistakes in recognizing sounds. On the other hand, musicians with relative pitch can recognize individual musical sounds with some minimal accuracy. Absolute pitch is spoken of when this ability reaches certain certain degrees of accuracy.
Is there a limit of accuracy, separating the recognition of individual sounds of the owners of absolute pitch from those who do not have it? What is the minimum percentage of correct answers given by the owners of absolute pitch when recognizing sounds? What is the accuracy of absolute pitch?
D. Baird sets this limit at the level of 10%, considering that persons without absolute pitch recognize up to 10%, and with absolute pitch - over 10% of the presented sounds (77). A. Wellek believed that the owners of absolute pitch should give at least 60% of correct answers (106). S. G. Grebelnik considers 63% of correct recognitions to be such a limit (27).
However, D. Baird's subjects, who had absolute pitch, gave from 26% to 99% correct answers. L. Weinert received from 24% to 95% of the accuracy of the 22 owners of absolute pitch observed by him. L. Petran received a continuous series of accuracy indicators from 2% to 78% from the subjects both with absolute and without absolute pitch. In this series, only indicators close to the extreme ones can serve as evidence of the presence or absence of absolute pitch. The boundary of their separation cannot be established (98).
These facts make it possible to recognize that the accuracy of absolute pitch is not a constant and unambiguous value. It is individual for each owner of absolute pitch, characterizes the degree of its development, decreases in the upper and lower registers, is very small in the most extreme registers, in unusual timbres (67) and cannot be a criterion for the authenticity of absolute pitch.
The accuracy of absolute pitch increases as it develops. Possession of absolute pitch, strictly speaking, can be recognized already with the confident recognition of one sound. Recognition of more sounds is a matter of time and conditions of musical activity. But even a large percentage of recognition is not an indicator of the possession of genuine absolute pitch, since recognition can also be carried out with pseudo-absolute pitch.
No one will judge the possession of a melodic ear on the basis of the percentage of correct answers when recognizing melodies known to the subject. Even the unmistakable recognition of most or all of the presented melodies cannot indicate the presence of a modal feeling and ear for music, since the recognition itself can be carried out on the basis of other criteria, in particular, metro-rhythmic or timbre ones. Melodic ear is characterized by the very nature of the perception and experience of melodies.
Likewise, absolute pitch cannot be revealed by the number of correct recognitions of sounds. Multiple unmistakable recognition of only a few sounds, depending on the content, order and number of presentations, may give a greater or lesser percentage of accuracy, but the fact of possessing absolute pitch will not cause doubts. Just as errors in recognizing the same sounds with a high percentage of accuracy cannot but raise doubts about the presence of absolute pitch. From the earlier description by M. Gebhardt of the process of formation of absolute pitch in a gifted boy, it can be seen that the number of recognizable sounds in him gradually increased from one sound at 3 years and 2 months to all piano sounds at 5 and a half years. Did this boy have absolute pitch at 3 and a half years old, when he recognized only the sounds of the first octave, which make up no more than 14% of the sounds of the entire piano keyboard? Undoubtedly it was.
The accuracy of absolute pitch is not a criterion of authenticity, but an indicator of its development, while one of the criteria for the authenticity of absolute pitch is the duration of the sound recognition reaction.
5. Duration of sound recognition reaction
with absolute hearing
One of the most remarkable features of absolute pitch is the speed of the reaction of recognition of sounds.
M. Gebhardt, in describing the process of development of absolute hearing in a gifted boy, which we cited, notes the “astonishing” speed of sound recognition. In 30 seconds, a six-year-old owner of absolute pitch accurately named 37 sounds.
D. Baird determined the reaction time of recognition in one owner of absolute pitch. It averaged 0.754 s.
B. M. Teplov measured approximately with the help of a stopwatch the reaction time of recognizing and reproducing sounds according to absolute pitch. It never exceeded 2 s, and in most cases was less than 1 s.
O. Abraham determined the time from the sound to the subjects pressing the corresponding key. It ranged from 0.399 to 0.714 s. Then the same subjects were asked to press the keys of sounds called by the experimenter. Here the reaction time ranged from 0.394 to 0.605 s. Thus, it turned out that recognition itself takes a negligible time, from 0.005 to 0.109 s. Sounds are recognized almost instantly.
Persons who do not have absolute hearing, but who can recognize sounds with sufficient dexterity and accuracy, need much more time to perform the same task. The experiments of D. Baird, E. Gaug, G. Muhl showed that their reaction time ranges from 4 to 24 s, and is sometimes measured in minutes.
This difference between the owners of absolute pitch and those who do not have it in the duration of the recognition reaction is explained by the difference in the mechanism and the recognition process itself. Without absolute pitch, recognition is carried out by relating, comparing the recognizable sound with the standard (the upper or lower sound of one's own voice, the previous or subsequent sounds) and includes singing and understanding the sung. For those with absolute pitch, the recognition mechanism is not based on a sense of intervals, and the recognition process does not include singing and understanding its results. Sounds are recognized self-evidently, their names pop up in the mind without special efforts and without operations of comparison and inference.
The short duration of the sound recognition reaction is explained by the modal nature of absolute pitch. Sounds are recognized by their modal qualities. As has been repeatedly pointed out, the modal qualities of sounds are perceived and recognized on the basis of the emotional experience of their functional meaning, modal quality. Such recognition, in contrast to recognition by timbre criteria or a sense of interval, does not require singing and operations of comprehension, calculation, comparison. “Differentiation involves recognition without direct comparison. It refers to a function of the same kind that takes place in the so-called absolute pitch" (68, 62). Sounds are recognized almost instantly, by the shade of emotional experience. Recognition of sounds does not interfere with extraneous noises, distraction, etc., which is impossible with a timbre or interval recognition mechanism that requires concentration of attention, tension, singing, mental actions of comparison, comprehension, reasoning, etc.
In our experiments on the artificial formation of absolute pitch, it was found that not every quick recognition of individual sounds by their modal quality can be called absolute pitch in the accepted sense. There is a speed limit up to which the perception and recognition of sounds is still conditioned by the initial monotonal context and is violated when the tonality changes, but after which the recognition of sounds does not interfere with tonal reorganizations. This limit has a quantitative expression. As you know, quantitative indicators are used to monitor the dynamics of the development of reading skills in primary grades. secondary school and are expressed as the number of words read per minute. With a reading speed of less than 100-120 words per minute, one cannot yet speak of an existing ability. The psychophysiological mechanisms of reading are not yet sufficiently automated and internalized. The meaning of what is read is perceived by the reader in fragments or is not perceived at all. Only a reading speed of more than 120 words per minute indicates sufficient internalization, the formation of a functional organ, the ability to read meaningfully and the possibility of its further independent development.
Absolute pitch also begins at an average recognition rate of at least 150-160 sounds per minute, that is, a reaction time of 0.4 s, since it is precisely this level of automation and internalization of the system of psychophysiological mechanisms of stepwise monotonal perception, as experiments have shown, that indicates sufficient inhibition and reduction of effector links and the translation of exteriorized actions into the mental plane.
Only with a simultaneous form of perception and such a duration of the recognition reaction do sounds acquire an absolute quality, individual portrait and "a well-defined physiognomy", freed from the original mono-tonal attraction.
It can also be confidently assumed that the further improvement of absolute pitch, which ultimately ensures its extra-timbre and reproductive levels, is directly due to the continued reduction in the duration of the recognition reaction to 0.005-0.109 s noted by O. Abraham.
Thus, absolute pitch is an internalized ability of monotonal stepwise perception of sounds, and that is why it must be characterized by a short recognition reaction time, otherwise it will not be absolute. The duration of the recognition reaction is the most important indicator of the degree of internalization of the psychological mechanisms of mono-tonal step-by-step perception and provides the levels of absolute hearing, from the initial passive to the highly developed active.

6. Threshold of distinguishing the pitch of sounds
by absolute pitch

We noted that the smallest threshold of distinctive sensitivity, that is, the minimum possible difference in height between two sounds in humans, is 2 cents.
According to P. Pear, V. Straub, L. V. Blagonadezhina, B. M. Teplov, noticeable deviations, that is, the value of the thresholds for distinguishing two sounding pitches in the middle octaves, for most people are in the range from 6 to 40 cents.
To determine the threshold for distinguishing pitch by absolute pitch, the subjects were asked to compare the pitch of the real sound with the pitch of the imagined sound. O. Abraham and N. A. Garbuzov found that musicians with absolute pitch notice a deviation from the pitch standard if it is at least 32-80 cents. This means that the threshold for distinguishing pitch by absolute pitch is 2-5 times higher than the threshold for distinguishing two real sounds. In other words, the pitch sensitivity according to absolute pitch is at least 2 times lower than the sensitivity to real sounds. This is on average. In the same individuals, the difference can be even greater. So, in O. Abraham, the sensitivity of absolute pitch is 8 times less than his own sensitivity to two real sounds.
Physical sound-frequency hearing in all people, from the point of view of the receptor concept of G. Helmholtz, is absolute. The lack of absolute ear for music in many people was explained by the high threshold of their sound-altitude distinctive sensitivity, that is, insufficient hearing acuity.
The unexpected fact of the extremely low pitch sensitivity of absolute pitch forced N. A. Garbuzov to admit that the very term "absolute pitch" did not correspond to reality. B. M. Teplov formulated the following conclusion: “It is clear that the accuracy of absolute pitch<...>is within other limits than the accuracy of pitch discrimination” (68, 66).
If we assume that the recognition of sounds by absolute hearing is based on the sensory reflection of a sound point in the pitch scale, then with discrimination thresholds of 32-80 cents, there can be no question not only of ease and speed, but also of the very possibility of recognition. Just like relative pitch, absolute pitch has a zone nature. It is not sound points that differ and are recognized, but quality zones. “Absolute pitch as a “musical ability” is developed as the ability to recognize “zones” of a certain width in the pitch range, and not separate “points” of this series” (27). Distinguishing, memorizing and recognizing each of the 12 zones-steps of one tempered octave is possible only on the basis of modal feeling. Absolute pitch does not require special subtlety of pitch discrimination. He needs a special quality of perception of each of the 12 zones of the temperament scale. Such a special qualitative perception for the owners of absolute pitch is the mono-tonal step perception of 12 sounds of the octave scale.

7. Identification standards of absolute hearing

The identification standards of absolute pitch are the sounds of the chromatic scale of the temperamental system. There are 12 such standards, according to the number of sounds of a tempered octave.
O. Abraham indirectly pointed this out for the first time, proposing as a criterion for absolute pitch to consider the ability to name the steps of recognizable sounds. B. V. Asafiev (5) pointed directly to the connection of absolute pitch with the perception, memorization and recognition of the sounds of a tempered system. B. M. Teplov characterized absolute pitch as the ability to recognize sounds that are a tempered semitone apart and “recognize the height of all steps of the musical scale.” A. Rakovsky experimentally proved that the pitch standards for those with absolute pitch are the sounds of the 12-step tempered system (99). Moreover, as already mentioned, before the appearance of the temperament scale, when the standards for the tuning fork of musical instruments had not yet been established and the names of the notes were not tied to certain pitches, absolute pitch in the modern sense did not exist. The emergence of absolute pitch as a musical ability is due historically to the establishment in musical practice of a 12-step equal-tempered scale (53).
The essence of absolute pitch, hidden from observation, is perhaps most clearly revealed in the identification standards. The musical practice reduced the infinite variety of frequency variants of sounds to 12 semantic units. Their musical meaning lies in the characteristic modal quality, which, when perceived, causes a certain emotional-sensual experience. To understand the musical meaning of each of the 12 sounds means, on the basis of a modal feeling, to experience the modal quality characteristic of each of them, individualizing them. How can one learn to unmistakably and unmistakably perceive and recognize the absolute individualizing quality of each of the 12 sounds, all the time appearing in different "faces"? There is only one way: to remember, consolidate and preserve in the representation of one sound only one of its modal qualities. And this is possible only under those conditions under which the sounds do not change their modal portrait, under the conditions of one mode and one key, that is, monotonality.
Identification standards not only reveal the musical conditionality of absolute pitch, but also reveal its modal essence.
So, the analysis of the material presented in this chapter shows that the characteristic features of absolute pitch are explained only from the standpoint of its mono-tonal gradation nature and its mono-tonal gradation essence is revealed.

8. Absolute pitch and musicality

As noted above, the prevalence of absolute pitch among musicians is low and amounts to 6-7%. At the same time, there is a significant increase in the proportion of absolute pitch holders among outstanding musicians. It is also known that almost all great composers, conductors, performers had perfect pitch. These facts indicate that absolute pitch is not a factor that is indifferent to the development of musical and auditory abilities, musicality in general, and to achieve high creative results in the art of music.
K. Stumpf, the first researcher of absolute pitch, directly associated this ability with an outstanding musical talent. N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov also believed that the highest auditory abilities "usually, or at least very often coincide" ... "with absolute pitch" (62, 40-59).
However, negative assessments of the importance of absolute pitch for musical activity and the prospects for professional musical education of its owners are more often expressed. A number of authors recognize the manifestations of absolute pitch as an obstacle and a brake on musical development, an obstacle to a full-fledged emotional experience of music. An analysis of their arguments shows that such assessments are based on the understanding of absolute pitch as the ability to fix and memorize the frequency or timbre characteristics of sounds, in which "sound with all its spectral components - harmonics and non-harmonic overtones - is firmly remembered precisely in these specific frequency characteristics" (53, 78-79). Absolute pitch is characterized by them as “pointillistic”, “dodecaphonic”, “abstract-timbre”, “non-intonation” pitch, as “tuner's pitch”. Indeed, such a rumor reflecting physical properties sounds, can be an obstacle, a brake and a disservice to the musician. But absolute pitch is not physical frequency or abstract timbre, but modal pitch, just like relative pitch. And with such an understanding, the question of its value and significance for musicality can only be resolved positively.
A scientific solution to the question of the relationship between absolute pitch and musicality was given by BM Teplov (67, 151-159). Absolute pitch allows you to directly hear the musical quality of individual sounds and the nature of keys. This facilitates the awareness of modulations, contributes to the development of harmonic hearing. Absolute pitch facilitates the learning of musical notation, increases the amount of musical memory, greatly facilitates the recording of musical dictations and sight-singing, and qualitatively improves musical performances.
“The main thing that absolute pitch gives,” noted B. M. Teplov, “is the possibility of a more analytical perception of music” (67, 157). “Absolute pitch facilitates any general analysis of music” (67, 159). At the same time, absolute hearing not only leads to “the emergence of other characteristics of musical sensations, musical perception, musical performances and musical memory, but also contributes to the deepening of musical experience” (27, 19).
All this indicates that absolute pitch is widely used in musical activity, facilitates music learning and solving complex professional problems, contributes to work productivity and the achievement of high creative results.
Musical ear includes intonation, melodic, harmonic components. Let us consider in what relation absolute pitch is to them.
Intonation hearing, manifested in sensitivity to accuracy and purity musical intonation, is based on the modal feeling as the ability of a subtle emotional experience and discrimination of the modal functions of sounds. There is no reason to agree with the statements about the intonational deafness of the owners of absolute pitch, just because the emotional experience of the modal qualities of sounds, which made it possible to distinguish, remember and recognize them, is in no way weaker than the modal sense of the owners of relative pitch. The brightness and strength of the emotional experience of the modal qualities of sounds is the main condition for the natural formation of absolute pitch and the most important basis for intonational pitch.
Melodic ear is manifested in the ability to perceive and experience the expressive content of the melody, to recognize and reproduce it. The basis of the development of melodic hearing, as shown by the studies of B. M. Teplov, is not an interval feeling, which itself develops on the basis of melodic hearing, but a modal, that is, a step feeling. "Melodic ear has<...>two bases - modal feeling and musical auditory representations ”(67, 182).
A well-developed modal sense and the ability for auditory representation, leading to the distinction, memorization, recognition and reproduction of individual sounds, exclude the recognition of objective prerequisites that impede the development of melodic hearing in absolute pitch owners. On the contrary, absolute pitch provides an additional advantage, extremely useful in many types of educational work - to hear the absolute tonal quality of both the individual sounds that make up the melody and the tonality of the perceived melody. True, the development of the ability of interval perception and experience of the expressive content of melodies in those with absolute pitch may be delayed due to its replacement by the ability of discrete perception of a melody as a series of sounds. “Absolute ear can delay the development of other aspects of musical ear insofar as it replaces them and removes the practical need for them,” wrote B. M. Teplov (67, 153). However, there is no reason to attribute this shortcoming directly to absolute pitch. Underdevelopment of melodic ear is noted regardless of the presence or absence of absolute pitch. Absolute pitch contributes rather than hinders the development of melodic hearing, since its carriers have an increased emotional sensitivity to the modal qualities of sounds and, in the auditory representation, when playing melodies, are not bound by the need to rely on previous sounds.
Polyphonic, harmonic and functional components of musical ear are united under the general concept of "harmonic ear".
Polyphonic hearing is manifested in the ability to recognize and reproduce several simultaneously sounding melodic horizontal lines, as well as perceive the expressive content of each of them separately, as well as the qualitative originality of their combination.
Harmonic hearing is the ability of analytical auditory perception and reproduction in a separate consonance of the sounds that make it up vertically and experiencing the qualitative originality of their combination.
Functional hearing is the ability to perceive and experience the modal qualities of consonances.
Studies have shown that harmonic hearing is a manifestation of melodic hearing in relation to consonances and, in general, to any polyphonic music. Harmonic hearing has the same foundations as melodic hearing: modal feeling and musical auditory representations. It develops under the condition of a well-developed melodic ear and represents the next, higher stage in the development of musical ear. “This stage is associated with a qualitative restructuring of those basic abilities that underlie musical ear.<...>but it does not require any fundamentally different abilities” (67, 223).
The development of harmonic hearing is directly related to the task of auditory pitch analysis. Auditory analysis of consonances, especially individual, taken outside musical movement, is greatly facilitated by the possession of absolute pitch. Thus, together with B. M. Teplov, we can admit that “the development of harmonic ear to a greater extent than the development of melodic ear is facilitated by the presence of absolute pitch” (67, 224).
At the beginning, we noted that both relative and absolute pitch have a modal feeling as their source. We can also say that the improvement of both relative and absolute pitch is closely connected with the development of strength, brightness, liveliness, arbitrariness and mobility of musical and auditory representations. And the owners of absolute pitch have obvious advantages in this, since the ability to arbitrarily operate with musical images is obviously facilitated by the presence of absolute pitch, which, as noted, is not bound by the need to rely on the previous sound.
AT in a certain sense it can be said that absolute pitch is both a consequence of the child's early musical inclinations and a factor in the success of their development. It has already been pointed out that absolute pitch is not sufficient for the true perception and reproduction of music. Only in combination with relative absolute pitch provides a high development of musical-analytical ability, which also requires sufficient theoretical knowledge and developed musical-theoretical thinking. For other types of musical activity, for example, performing, a whole range of abilities is also needed, such as performing technique, performing will, the ability to creatively interpret the composer's intention, as well as the so-called general abilities noted by B. M. Teplov: the strength, richness and initiative of the imagination , concentration of attention, intellectual and emotional content of the personality, etc.
Having perfect pitch does not mean having perfect pitch. Just as having relative hearing does not mean having bad hearing. Absolute or relative hearing indicate the special psychophysiological mechanisms of perception and reproduction of individual sounds that distinguish them, and not the levels of hearing development. The level of development of hearing, both absolute and relative, is determined by two main musical and auditory abilities: modal feeling and auditory representations, and the ability to recognize and reproduce a single sound is only a factor conducive to the development of musical ear and, in general, musicality.
By itself, the possession of absolute pitch does not yet guarantee a high level of musical development and, of course, it is not limited to it. There are known examples of achieving high degrees of musicality by persons without absolute pitch. But in combination with other special and general abilities, the possessor of absolute pitch, all other things being equal, has a significant advantage in musical development and in musical creativity. And the fact that great musicians have almost 100% perfect pitch confirms this. The same fact confirms that only absolute or only relative pitch by themselves are not sufficient for successful professional musical activity. A good professional musical ear can only be called such an ear that combines its absolute and relative components.

9. Criteria for the authenticity of absolute pitch

The problem of the authenticity of absolute pitch, which was solved long ago in practice, remains open in the theory of musical abilities. Such ambiguity is explained, on the one hand, by the obviousness of the practical manifestation of absolute pitch, and on the other, by its hidden essence and nature.
As already mentioned, as the main, and more often the only criterion for the authenticity of absolute pitch in its detection and experimental formation, its accuracy, expressed as a percentage of correct recognitions to the total number of sounds presented, was recognized. However, the percentage of sound recognition accuracy does not allow one to separate absolute pitch from pseudo-absolute pitch and other manifestations of false absolute pitch.
BM Teplov already defined the outlines of the criteria for absolute pitch. Analyzing the results of previous studies, B. M. Teplov comes to the conclusion that “the accuracy of recognition, obviously, cannot serve as a criterion for absolute pitch,” and that “first of all, a sharp difference in the duration of the recognition reaction is striking. In persons with absolute pitch, the reaction time of recognition is very short" (67, 127), and "the process of recognition of sounds, as a rule, is not based on a sense of intervals and does not include "inner singing" (67, 128). BM Teplov notes one more feature of absolute pitch. “True absolute pitch develops and is maintained in the course of ordinary musical activity, without requiring any special extra-musical exercises” (67, 147). The latter requires clarification. Indeed, having reached a certain degree of internalization and a level of development in monotonal activity, absolute pitch is further maintained and preserved in ordinary musical conditions, without requiring any extramusical exercises. And this is evidence of the musical conditioning of absolute pitch. But its further development can be slowed down or stopped in an interval-polytonal musical environment. The usual intonation-interval and polytonal nature of the music surrounding us only maintains the achieved level of absolute pitch and develops relative pitch. And this is precisely what explains the numerous examples of the existence of not fully developed absolute pitch, noted by many researchers, for example, A Wellek (13, 19), M. V. Karaseva (34, 113), B. I. Utkin, who wrote: “Absolute Hearing occurs at different levels<…>Among the “absolutes” there are students with the usual shortcomings: they do not hear intervals, chords, the lower voice in two-voice dictations, confuse the timbres of instruments, impure intonation, etc., etc. ” (70, 15).
With this clarification, the conclusions of B. M. Teplov are fully consistent with the position we are defending about the monotonal gradation essence of absolute pitch and completely exhaust the list of criteria for its authenticity. The conclusions of B. M. Teplov are also consistent with musical and pedagogical practice, which has long decided on the choice of criterion and unmistakably uses it in diagnosing and assessing the prospects for the auditory development of absolute pitch owners.
Thus, the criteria for the authenticity of absolute pitch are:

• short reaction time for recognition of sounds;
• the immediate and irrelevant nature of their recognition;
• preservation of absolute pitch in ordinary musical activity.

AT music encyclopedia the following definition of absolute pitch is given. “Absolute pitch is a special kind of long-term memory for the pitch and timbre of a sound: the ability to recognize and determine, using the names of notes, the pitch of individual sounds of a melody, chord, even non-musical sounds, reproduce in a voice or on an instrument with a non-fixed pitch sounds of a given pitch, without comparing them with others, the pitch of which is known ”(60, 103).
The above formulation only describes the manifestations of absolute pitch and is not meaningful enough for the following reasons.
First, absolute pitch is not special kind memory." It is not just a kind of memory either. Absolute pitch, as shown, only manifests itself in the properties of memory, but its essence remains the special quality of perception of individual sounds.
Secondly, a useful sign in recognizing sounds by absolute pitch is not the height, understood in acoustics as the frequency of vibrations, and not the timbre, but the modal quality of the sounds.
Thirdly, this formulation mixes indicators of authenticity (recognition of individual sounds) and the level of development (recognition of chord sounds, non-musical sounds) of absolute pitch.
Fourthly, the true absolute pitch in this formulation not only is not separated, but is even identified with the false absolute pitch, based on the recognition of sounds according to the timbre criterion.
Finally, the above formulation does not reveal the essence and does not contain criteria for the authenticity of absolute pitch.
Solving the problems of essence, psychological nature, genesis and criteria allows us to give scientific definition absolute hearing.
Absolute pitch is an internalized ability to perceive the monotonal step qualities of individual sounds, which manifests itself in a short reaction time and the irrelevant nature of their recognition and is supported under normal conditions of musical activity.

Many people strive to join the art of music, if not on a professional level, then at least on an amateur level. However, this cannot be done without the presence of hearing. Absolute refers to one of several types of musical ability and causes a lot of controversy about the nature of its formation. Is it possible to develop it? Let's try to figure it out.

General and special abilities

General abilities, without which it is impossible to even begin music lessons, are musical memory and healthy psychomotor skills. Under musical memory several types of memory are implied, allowing in one form or another to memorize and reproduce musical works- by ear or visually remembering the location of notes on the keyboard, visually “photographing” the musical score, etc.

The core of musicality also consists of:

• modal feeling, which allows a person to distinguish between the emotional coloring of music and its harmony;
• musical and auditory ideas about the height of sounds, the nature of their reproduction, the order of movement (this also includes the ability to reproduce what is heard by ear);
• perception of rhythm and the ability to work in a given rhythmic pattern.

Special abilities include those required for a particular performing activities(for example, a violinist has a number of requirements that are different from the requirements for a vocalist or pianist), as well as the abilities necessary to carry out composing activities.

General and special abilities are not limited to the above components, moreover, the boundaries between these two groups are not entirely clear.

Types of musical ear

Musical-auditory representations are also called musical hearing in another way. There are several varieties of it:

1. External (perception of music in real time) and internal (the ability to reproduce music in the imagination).
2. Absolute (the ability to absolutely accurately recognize and reproduce individual sounds and melodies) and relative (the ability to build a melody or scale based on modal connections and harmony).
3. Harmonic (perception of polyphonic chords and parties) and melodic (perception of monophonic melodies).

What is absolute musical pitch

In turn, absolute ear for music is divided into 2 categories: passive and active. Passive - this is when a person can accurately name the pitch of the reproduced sound, recognize the taken chord, or even name the notes that make up the melody. Well-developed active absolute hearing allows a person to accurately reproduce preset melody, scale or chord.

Absolute ear for music refers, in theory, to the general musical ability, because musical-auditory performances are in this category. However, researchers are conducting heated discussions about this classification.

Firstly, it would be wrong to attribute absolute pitch to general abilities, because relative pitch is more important for any type of musical activity - the ability to build relative modal connections (this is what musicality is understood to be). Absolute pitch is a unique phenomenon. At the same time, its presence does not indicate a person's ability to understand music, but rather indicates a good auditory memory, which captures musical information with accuracy. Therefore, some researchers argue that absolute ear for music refers to special abilities. Again, it has not yet been established whether this ability is innate or acquired.

How to do an ear test

A test for the presence of musical ear is passed by students before enrolling in music school, students before entering School of Music etc. For people planning to play music professionally, such checks are a common thing. However, in order to turn music into a hobby, you also need to make sure that you have the ability. How to test your ear for music at home?

This does not require sophisticated methods - just complete a few simple tasks with the help of a partner.

Task number 1

It is advisable that the person taking the test should stand with their back to the instrument. The partner must take an arbitrary note on the keyboard. The subject is given a couple of seconds to remember its sound. Then the assistant should play the notes one by one, randomly, and the subject should recognize among them the note that he keeps in memory. The test should be repeated several times.

Task number 2

If the person who is taking the test knows the name of the notes, then you can try the same technique: the partner takes an arbitrary note - the subject sounds its name.

Task number 3

An ear for music also implies a good perception of rhythm. The assistant should tap a certain rhythmic pattern on a hard surface with a pencil, which will last 5-7 seconds. The subject must repeat it exactly.

It may not be possible to complete a thorough ear test the first time - this is normal even for people who have hearing. But if with multiple repetitions the number of correct answers is less than 20-30%, then most likely the ear for music is absent or very poorly developed.

How to develop absolute ear for music

Since absolute ear for music belongs to the still poorly studied sphere of human abilities, with a great desire, you can still try to develop it: even if the test was passed unsatisfactorily, this is not a guarantee that a person has no inclinations at all. Performing systematic exercises for the development of hearing can finally clarify the situation: confirm or refute the result of the first listening.

Exercises for the development of absolute musical ear

When the development of musical ear is carried out, exercises should be chosen to begin with the simplest. When they are mastered, you can complicate tasks. You will need an assistant for the training.

Exercise #1

The exercise as a whole repeats exercise No. 1 from the ear test. The only difference is that this time, when the student makes a mistake, he needs to be told the correct answer and once again be allowed to remember the sound of the note, as well as its name (if he knows Pedagogical research has shown that reporting the correct answer improves the results of further exercises by 25- thirty%.

Exercise #2

When the previous exercise is mastered, it is worth moving on to a more complex option - musical dictation. For him, you need to take the simplest melody - from a textbook for the 1st grade of a music school.

For the first dictation, the partner should slowly, observing the size and all the pauses, play only a few measures, and the subject should record the melody by ear with notes. From the melody, you can increase, try to write more complex dictations. Checking and working on errors is a mandatory component of this exercise.

Conclusion

An ear test can tell you a lot, but not everything. Some test subjects are too anxious, and this prevents them from showing their full potential.

However, if you have decided to develop an ear for music, you need to understand that doing the exercises should become, if not a daily activity, then at least 3-4 times a week. With non-systematic exercises, the result will be difficult to achieve, and in some cases it will have to wait years. The development of an absolute ear for music is not an easy task, it is necessary to arm yourself with patience.