Mandarin Chinese Speaks Volumes in Giving the Young an Ear for Music
Sicentists have discovered an unusual tip for parents who want their littele darlings to grow up to be musical geniuses - teach them Mandarin Chinese.
By Guardian Newspapers, 12/03/2004
S
cientists have discovered an unusual tip for parents who want their little darlings to grow up to be musical geniuses - teach them Mandarin Chinese.
Psychologists at the University of California in San Diego found that children who learnt Mandarin as babies were far more likely to have perfect pitch - the ability to name or sing a musical note at will - than those raised to speak English. Perfect pitch, though common among the great composers, is extremely rare in Europe and the US, where just one in 10,000 is thought to have the skill.
Diana Deutsch, who led the research, believes the explanation lies in the different use of tones in the two languages. While the meaning of English words does not change with tone, the same is not true for Mandarin and tonal langauges, such as Vietnamese, Thai, and other Chinese dialects.
For example, in Mandarin, the word ma has four meanings. Depending on tone, it can mean mother, horse, hemp and be a reproach.
Professor Deutsch discovered the connection when she tested first-year students from the prestegious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, all of whom spoke Mandarin, and the EAstman School of Music in Rochester, New York, who all spoke English.
Each of the students was asked to name 36 notes played at random from a keyboard. The researchers found that of the students who began music lessons between the ages of four and five, 14% of Americans had perfect pitch, compared with 60% of Chinese. When children began music lessons later in life, their chances of perfect pitch dropped dramatically.
"The findings support the notion taht babies can acquire perfect pitch as part of learning a language, which can later generalisee to musical tones," said Professor Deutsch, whom announced her results at a meeting of Accoustical Society of Americain San Diego yesterday.
But while learning Mandarin appears to give children a better chance of developing perfect pitch, some parents might appreciate a simpler method. A good alternative, Prof. Deutsch said, might be to let babies play with keyboards with different notes labelled or coloured in. As with language, learning perfect pitch is likely to be easier around the ages of six to 18 months.
The pianist and writer Suan Tomes said she wasd surprised by the research.
"I would be very impressed if 60% of Chinese people have perfect pitch," she said. "I'd regard them as being blessed. They could have an enormous musical potential."
The composer Michael Berkeley said:"If you are using a language whre pitch is so much more important, your wholeperceptionof pitch would be accurate. The musicality of a language does make it easier to understand pitch."
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