Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body, & Brain, Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
PLoS One. 2024 Oct 3;19(10):e0306974. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306974. eCollection 2024.
While absolute pitch (AP)-the ability to identify musical pitches without external reference-is rare even in professional musicians, anecdotal evidence and case-report data suggest that some musicians without traditional AP can nonetheless better name notes played on their musical instrument of expertise than notes played on instruments less familiar to them. We have called this gain in AP ability "instrument-specific absolute pitch" (ISAP). Here, we report the results of the first two experiments designed to investigate ISAP in professional oboists. In Experiment 1 (n = 40), superiority for identifying the pitch of oboe over piano tones varied along a continuum, with 37.5% of oboists demonstrating significant ISAP. Variance in accuracy across pitches was higher among ISAP-possessors than ISAP-non-possessors, suggestive of internalized timbral idiosyncrasies, and the use of timbral cues was the second-most commonly reported task strategy. For both timbres, both groups performed more accurately for pitches associated with white than black piano keys. In Experiment 2 (n = 12), oboists with ISAP were less accurate in pitch identification when oboe tones were artificially pitch-shifted. The use of timbral idiosyncrasies thus may constitute a widespread mechanism of ISAP. Motor interference, conversely, did not significantly reduce accuracy. This study offers the first evidence of ISAP among highly trained musicians and that reliance on subtle timbral (or intonational) idiosyncrasies may constitute an underlying mechanism of this ability in expert oboists. This provides a path forward for future studies extending the scientific understanding of ISAP to other instrument types, expertise levels, and musical contexts. More generally, this may deepen knowledge of specialized expertise, representing a range of implicit abilities that are not addressed directly in training, but which may develop through practice of a related skill set.
虽然绝对音高（AP）——即无需外部参考就能识别音乐音高的能力——即使在专业音乐家群体中也很罕见，但轶事证据和病例报告数据表明，一些没有传统 AP 的音乐家在识别他们精通的乐器上演奏的音符时，表现优于识别他们不太熟悉的乐器上演奏的音符。我们将这种 AP 能力的提高称为“乐器特定绝对音高”（ISAP）。在这里，我们报告了旨在调查专业双簧管演奏者 ISAP 的前两项实验的结果。在实验 1（n = 40）中，识别双簧管与钢琴音的音高的优越性沿着一个连续体变化，37.5%的双簧管演奏者表现出明显的 ISAP。在具有 ISAP 的个体中，音高准确性的方差高于不具有 ISAP 的个体，这表明存在内在的音色特质，并且音色线索的使用是第二常见的任务策略。对于两种音色，具有 ISAP 的个体在识别与白键相关的音高时比与黑键相关的音高更准确。在实验 2（n = 12）中，当双簧管音被人为移调时，具有 ISAP 的双簧管演奏者在音高识别方面的准确性降低。因此，音色特质的使用可能构成 ISAP 的一种普遍机制。相反，运动干扰并没有显著降低准确性。这项研究首次在经过高度训练的音乐家群体中发现了 ISAP，并且依赖细微的音色（或语调）特质可能构成专家双簧管演奏者这种能力的潜在机制。这为未来的研究提供了一条途径，将 ISAP 的科学理解扩展到其他乐器类型、专业水平和音乐背景。更普遍地说，这可能会加深对专业技能的理解，代表了一系列在训练中没有直接涉及但可能通过相关技能集的练习而发展的隐性能力。
