Cognitive control in music: adaptive strategies for relative pitch across the absolute-pitch proficiency continuum

Absolute pitch (AP) is often regarded as a rare gift, yet Western tonal music relies more on relative pitch (RP), which encodes meaning through intervals to the keynote (tonic). This contrast offers a natural test bed for cognitive control: AP functions as an automatic, stimulus-bound code, whereas RP demands context-dependent computation. We tested 50 non-music-major students spanning the AP continuum on a movable-Do solfa-naming task under three tonal contexts of increasing difficulty (C major, B major, randomly shifting keys). AP conferred overall advantage, but error patterns revealed adaptive strategy shifts: (i) direct AP use in C major, (ii) transposition of pitch names in B major, and (iii) chord-component listening in random keys, with individual variability. Non-AP participants relied consistently on RP. Thus, scale-note identification involves flexible strategy selection shaped by AP proficiency and tonal context, demonstrating cognitive control in a naturalistic musical setting and motivating tailored ear-training in education.