Preserving natural abilities boosts creativity and peace
by Peggy Seehafer, Anthropologist


Babies have the absolute pitch.
Absolute pitch is innate to all human beings and not a giftedness reserved to few people only. This assumption is supported by an examination of Jenny Saffran of the Wisconsin-Madison University, 2001. In her examination she could prove that all babies have the same acute sense for acoustics. Unlike adults who tend to memorize relative pitches, the babies were able to remember the absolute pitches of the melodies she had composed. The absolute pitch is also called pitch memory.

If this innate ability is not made use of, e.g. by learning how to play an instrument early, it will get lost. Children usually have the absolute pitch, if they learn how to play an instrument before they are four years old.
Many talented musicians like Mozart have preserved their absolute pitch. This is due to the fact that they were introduced to music very early.

Aural training makes learning easier
For the most part, musicians who have the absolute pitch are able to play instruments they have never before learnt to play. It can be an advantage to have the absolute pitch, e.g. regarding practicing new pieces of music. While listening to the music they already take in the tone pitches, and then they play the melodies according to their sense of hearing. This means that the absolute pitch includes the special ability to keep these pitches in memory and retrieve them on demand. A disadvantage of the absolute pitch is the painful perception of every single tone played incorrectly.

Music boosts soft skills
Being engaged in music also sharpens all other senses. Making music is a key to efficient brainpower. Enforced music lessons demonstrably result in an augmentation of the I.Q., in compensating poor concentration, in fortification of creativity and in a significant improvement of soft skills.

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March 23, 2005