More about music teaching:
Scientists 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 other tonal languages, 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, or be a reproach.
Interesting. Which by the way is another word that means lots of different things, depending on how you say it.
Weird. After all, tone is not pitch; things like rising, falling, trills, etc. are important, but not the absolute pitch.
English has its own form of stress, of course.
I am skeptical. The article you linked to doesn't say anything about the alternative hypothesis: Music education is rarer in China, as a result the students in the Chinese schools are "better" quality.
Perfect pitch does not automatically make a good musician. Conversely, being a good musician does not depend on perfect pitch (perfect pitch can even be a disadvantage), it depends on good relative pitch. However I have a feeling that in the Chinese school system perfect pitch automatically qualifies you for top-level music education, which is in general hard to get.
