ABSOLUTE PITCH - AN APPROACH FOR IDENTIFICATION OF GENETIC AND NONGENETIC COMPONENTS

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to recognize a pitch, without an ex ternal reference, By surveying more than 600 musicians in music conser vatories, training programs, and orchestras, we have attempted to diss ect the influences of early musical training and genetics on the devel opment of this ability. Early musical training appears to be necessary but nor sufficient for the development of AP. Forty percent of musici ans who had begun training at less than or equal to 4 years of age rep orted AP, whereas only 3% of those who had initiated training at great er than or equal to 9 years of age did so. Self-reported AP possessors were four times more likely to report another AP possessor in their f amilies than were non-AP possessors. These data suggest that both earl y musical training and genetic predisposition are needed for the devel opment of AP. We developed a simple computer-based acoustical test tha t has allowed us to subdivide AP possessors into distinct groups, on t he basis of their performance, Investigation of individuals who perfor med extremely well on this test has already led us to identify several families that will be suitable for studies of the genetic basis of AP .