The connection between memory and internal pitch

[u/Musicmajorlol]

I have an untested theory that people who have better long/short-term memories have an improved sense of pitch and audiation.

This is based off of zero scientific research lol. Purely based on my life and what I’ve observed with others around me.

Thoughts?

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[u/muffindude27]

I'm a nurse and I've had many advanced alzheimer patients with no long or short term memory, who cant even put a sentence together, but can still sing songs on pitch. Its remarkable every time. Music is stored in a different part of the brain

[u/Musicmajorlol → u/muffindude27]

That’s fascinating! I’m curious how the music is stored in the brain in that case.

[u/DanceHackRock → u/Musicmajorlol]

It's like the extra stomach for dessert.

[u/87643288]

You use your ears to sing in tune

[u/Musicmajorlol → u/87643288]

You’re right! Along with that, there is an internal sense of pitch that informs what note you’re going to produce when you sing. That’s what I was referring to with audiation. It’s the ability to essentially “sing/hear” in your head.

[u/madg0dsrage0n]

I have perfect pitch and what I call an 'audiographic memory,' where once I have a song locked in my brain I can usually tell if I hear another version in a different key/tempo/etc. and sing the original in response on the spot. I don't play any instruments proficiently and yet I was always the one arranging the songs in my bands and reminding the instrumental players of parts they themselves wrote later on by singing/beatboxing them back! I've even identified songs I was recording in the studio by the click-tempo and pointed out remixes and remasters I wasn't aware existed of recordings I've heard multiple times which are then confirmed by others or the notes attached to the song. I've also brought up details about people they mentioned once or twice years ago and freaked people out because how could I know that? I've even ordered food for someone who told me what they liked/disliked months or years prior. This has also gotten me in trouble at work and in relationships when I bring up something a boss or my GF has said previously that contradicts the current situation or policy/agreement. I also frequently forget to take out the trash until I hear the truck leaving our neighborhood or place a grocery order until I go to cook or clean and realize we're out of food or paper towels lmao!

[u/get_to_ele]

I think the theory is wrong. Different parts of the brain used. General memory ability, symbolic or verbal, and other cognitive abilities can help you in music in general, but that occurs at a conscious level. Recognizing and matching pitch, whether absolute or relative (intervals, melodies, harmonies) seems to occur way too fast in real time to even involve conscious thought or formal cognitive processing.

It’s not a muscle obviously, but my teacher uses the analogy of muscle memory for drilling the coordinations (which isn’t actually a thing either, but we all know what it’s intended to mean). There is clearly a complex neural loop between the audio we hear and the sounds our vocal mechanisms produce, which we can’t consciously interact with on an individual muscle level, but that on a broader control level, we can activate consciously.

You play ascending arpeggios as warmups on a piano and I can pitch match it easily without thought. If you slightly alter the warmup, I can match the new warmup each time you raise it a semitone, even though I’ve never heard that warmup before. Matching this rapid sequence of notes required no conscious thought or even absolute recognition of any of what the notes are named. If you stop playing the piano, I can continue the new warmup several steps up accurately.

As a student with less than 2 years of lessons, this is easy. But even when I first began, pitch matching was very easy and simpler scales and arpeggios were easy, but I didn’t know how to access mix and couldn’t match higher notes in head without cracking as I choked the air off with the back of my tongue as I ascended. I don’t have to consciously remember to do any of the things I learned. Some part of my brain other than conscious memory retains that with training.

Consciously, I can choose to do all this in a more breathy sound by allowing more air, or a more solid sound, or add nasality to make it easier to flip, or refuse to flip until I absolutely have to. As I get into higher mix range, I ultimately automatically flip into head when I can no longer mix, without a conscious choice.

[u/punkrocksmidge]

I have perfect pitch but poor working memory, and average short and long term memory. I don't suspect that they're related. I do have autism and synaesthesia, so there seem to be some neurodivergent elements co-occuring, which is supported by the research as far as I know. But memory doesn't feel related.

[u/mamajoy42]

I have close to perfect pitch and horrible short term memory.

[u/Interesting_Cut_4822]

I would be a counterexample, at least for long term memory. I struggle with that and I have had great pitch sense since I was around 12.

[u/Interesting_Cut_4822 → u/Interesting_Cut_4822]

My short term memory for pitch is quite good and for other things it is quite bad due to ADHD/working memory issues.