The difference in musical pitch between well-trained and self-taught music students

Abstract

Perfect pitch (absolute pitch) and relative pitch are two separate hearing skills. This study aimed to investigate the existence of the difference in musical pitch between two groups, music students who are well-trained and students who are self-taught. The research involved 25 respondents for each category. Each of the respondents were given a questionnaire, asking for their personal information. Respondents were required to listen to an unfamiliar melody, composed of a flute tune accompanied by the piano. After listening to the melody twice, respondents were asked to copy the previous tune of the flute by humming while listening to another track with only the piano background. Results were recorded and pie charts for each group were created. At the end of the research, the students with proper music training showed more significance in possessing better musical pitch if compared to those who are self-taught.