Performance at a Transposed Keyboard by Possessor and Non-Possessor of Absolute Pitch
Hiromichi Mito · Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education · 2003
This experiment was conducted to examine the ability of relative pitch for absolute pitch possessors with the use of a transported keyboard instrument. Transportation was intentionally set to make the perception of absolute pitch more difficult. In this manner, the observation of relative pitch ability was able to be observed. Twenty university music majors participated in the experiment. Half possessed absolute pitch and the other half lacked absolute pitch prior to the experiment. Participants were requested to play the first 16 bars of Bach 's Partita No.4 Aria and Chopin 's Mazurka Op.50-3 by sight-reading with either the transported or ordinary keyboard. In the performance of absolute pitch possessors, the total and the uncorrected errors were much more noticeable in the transposed condition than in the ordinary condition. In contrast to absolute pitch possessors, non-absolute pitch possessors did not show significant differences between the ordinal and the transposed condition. These results indicated that pitch perception by absolute pitch possessors in this experiment was carried out mainly by relying on absolute pitch perception even in the transposed condition. Also, the results suggest that absolute pitch possessors have weak relative pitch perception.