Perception of relative pitch with different references: some absolute-pitch listeners can't tell musical interval names

Journal/Book: Percept Psychophys. 1995; 57: 962-70.

Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of absolute-pitch possession on relative-pitch processing. Listeners attempted to identify melodic intervals ranging from a semitone to an octave with different reference tones. Listeners with absolute pitch showed declined performance when the reference was out-of-tune C, out-of-tune E, or F#, relative to when the reference was C. In contrast, listeners who had no absolute pitch maintained relatively high performance in all reference conditions. These results suggest that absolute-pitch listeners are weak in relative- pitch processing and show a tendency to rely on absolute pitch in relative-pitch tasks.

Note: Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities Niigata University Japan.

Keyword(s): Music|. Pitch Perception|

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