Quote from Forum Archives on November 26, 2003, 6:11 pm

Posted by: wulf <wulf@...>

Related to this subject, there's been some interesting
research that suggests speakers of tonally sensitive
languages, such as Mandarin and Vietnamese, have a
much better awareness of pitch - both relative and
absolute. For example, see:

www.acoustics.org/press/138th/deutsch.htm

It is theorised that this is because they need the skill in
order to communicate and thus get plenty of practise
from a young age. It well be that most people are born
with the ability but most people don't develop and refine it.

It certainly fits in with what Josh
<jkarnes1@austin.rr.com> was saying about learning the
skill. I certainly find that I've got a reasonably good sense
of pitch now whereas that used to be something I really
struggled with when I took up bass 15+ years ago.

Wulf

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Wulf Forrester-Barker <//<
NB. new preferred address: wulf@web-den.org.uk
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