Can Adults Learn Absolute Pitch? Evaluating the "Melody Triggers" Method
type: CreativeWork
description: Despite over a century of research into absolute pitch (AP), musicians and scientists alike still cannot agree on what it is or how it develops. Some researchers maintain that it is innate, although there is little compelling evidence to support this. Many studies suggest that it can be fostered through early musical training. Deutsch (2013) proposes that AP learning is subject to the same critical period as phonological development and is supported by the same neural mechanisms. However, evidence suggests that maturational constraints on phonology acquisition are considerably less rigid than those on syntax (Curtiss, 1977; Fattal et al., 2011; Friedmann & Rusou, 2015), and that in the presence of a native language adults can attain nativelike phonology under special conditions (Bongaerts, 1999; cf. Reetzke et al., 2018). As such, AP acquisition should likewise remain possible under this hypothesis. Yet a clear disparity remains in ultimate AP attainment between adults and children. This thesis therefore proposes an alternative account: the AP Fundamental Difference Hypothesis. According to this view, AP develops primarily through procedural memory in childhood, whereas adult acquisition relies more heavily on explicit memory. Although adults can proceduralise pitch associations that initially require conscious retrieval, what becomes proceduralised is typically less complete and is consolidated through less reliable processes, reflecting learner-specific strategies and goals. Importantly, this suggests that although adult learners can achieve very high levels of proficiency, attaining truly "native-like" AP is—if possible at all—extremely difficult and exceptionally rare. This perspective accounts for possessors who exhibit only partial AP, usually restricted to particular timbres or pitch ranges and often aided by motor memory (Ross, 2004; Ross et al., 2005). Rather than reflecting a fundamentally different capacity from "true AP," such cases represent lower profi…
abstract: Despite over a century of research into absolute pitch (AP), musicians and scientists alike still cannot agree on what it is or how it develops. Some researchers maintain that it is innate, although there is little compelling evidence to support this. Many studies suggest that it can be fostered through early musical training. Deutsch (2013) proposes that AP learning is subject to the same critical period as phonological development and is supported by the same neural mechanisms. However, evidence suggests that maturational constraints on phonology acquisition are considerably less rigid than those on syntax (Curtiss, 1977; Fattal et al., 2011; Friedmann & Rusou, 2015), and that in the presence of a native language adults can attain nativelike phonology under special conditions (Bongaerts, 1999; cf. Reetzke et al., 2018). As such, AP acquisition should likewise remain possible under this hypothesis. Yet a clear disparity remains in ultimate AP attainment between adults and children. This thesis therefore proposes an alternative account: the AP Fundamental Difference Hypothesis. According to this view, AP develops primarily through procedural memory in childhood, whereas adult acquisition relies more heavily on explicit memory. Although adults can proceduralise pitch associations that initially require conscious retrieval, what becomes proceduralised is typically less complete and is consolidated through less reliable processes, reflecting learner-specific strategies and goals. Importantly, this suggests that although adult learners can achieve very high levels of proficiency, attaining truly "native-like" AP is—if possible at all—extremely difficult and exceptionally rare. This perspective accounts for possessors who exhibit only partial AP, usually restricted to particular timbres or pitch ranges and often aided by motor memory (Ross, 2004; Ross et al., 2005). Rather than reflecting a fundamentally different capacity from "true AP," such cases represent lower profi…
author: Leak, Samuel
language: eng
keywords: Absolute pitch training, Melody Triggers, Absolute pitch Fundamental Difference Hypothesis, Ecological Validity of Absolute Pitch Testing, Absolute pitch acquisition
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/a9a46f0f-c5bc-46d8-9d00-d37ecf85dca3/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2023-08-07
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:23Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.123873