Criteria for tonal judgments Writer

Criteria for tonal judgments Writers are agreed that frequency of hearing certain notes can not alone be made the basis for tonal memory. The results of special practice are held to be important by some writers and negligible by others. Many different theories have been advanced to ex- plain the type of association involved in the identification of notes. Practice and memory plus an individual coefficient are made the basis for correct identification by Stumpf. A kind of limited association with particular pitch-blends is re- sponsible according to von Kries for memory for pitch, because the instruments most frequently heard are not invariably the ones remembered. The ability is attributed by Abraham to associations of pitch built up in the auditory realm. In some people the sensory equipment may be finer so that finer differences of tone quality are recognized, or certain association paths in the brain may be more numerous or more closely knit together than in other people. The mechanism of the instrument producing the sounds may be such as to give to the different notes definite coloring which becomes associated with them, or the structure of the ear itself may affect the character of certain notes.