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Location: atlanta | Apparently it's in your genes:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN2743451120070827?sp=...
Best to all--
Dave King |
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Location: NJ | I thought Perfect Pitch was landing the banjo into the dumpster without hitting the sides . . . |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I knew a couple of people with perfect pitch in college. One in our choir could identify the pitch of the flourescent lights. One in a music theory class didn't know she had perfect pitch until she found out in the class. She kind of blew the curve for schmucks like me that were trying to identify various scales by ear on the final exam.
I also sang with a guy who had "relative pitch", where he could identify any sound after getting a reference note. He'd mess around trying to see if he could get a 60 person choir to go a half step sharp or flat during an a capella number. Those music majors sure knew how to have fun. |
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| Perfect/Absolute pitch without a reference tone is a contradiction in terms. They would have to have an original point of reference. To say they had perfect pitch would mean they knew what 'middle C' sounded like before they ever heard the note sounded. It would be more accurate to say they had perfect pitch once they had an initial point of reference as a young child. (and banjos give me a headache...) |
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Location: Tampa, FL | Originally posted by Steve:
Perfect/Absolute pitch without a reference tone is a contradiction in terms. They would have to have an original point of reference. To say they had perfect pitch would mean they knew what 'middle C' sounded like before they ever heard the note sounded. It would be more accurate to say they had perfect pitch once they had an initial point of reference as a young child. (and banjos give me a headache...) Arguing semantics but what the heck. I think, Steve, that the ability mentioned, that of being able to discriminate and identify a particular note, without benefit of some comparative reference, likely stands as an independent talent. What you refer to is the ability to name it according to some external standard which might be considered something different. It is the ability to hear and identify the tone that is remarkable. Do you think this ability would disappear if one were to adopt some alternative scale system? |
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Location: East Tennessee | Originally posted by cliff:
I thought Perfect Pitch was landing the banjo into the dumpster without hitting the sides . . . 
"The best sound a banjo makes is when the accordion lands on it in the dumpster |
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| Hi Chat,
I understand what you are saying, basically the 'man created the piano' and not-vice versa perspective. What I was wondering is what would you identify a musical sound that was a 'middle C' before the middle C existed? I knew people in college that had perfect pitch, and their point of reference might have been 'concert A', unless of course the piano was out of tune, and that drove them crazy... :) because they already had perfect pitch, which means they never had to tune themselves, as it were, because they were always in tune. Our chorale would rehearse 4-part arrangments a cappella, then the pianist would play the tonic chord at the end of the piece to show if we maintained pitch throughout. Sometimes we were true to pitch, sometimes we were flat, almost never sharp. But the students with perfect pitch were pulling their hair out trying to keep us all 'on note'. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Cliff is right. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | That's a first. |
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Location: SoCal | Double check it. It can't be true..... |
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Location: South of most, North of few | love the banjo/dumpster thing! Thanks Cliff! |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | I do n`t think it matters...if it was ,than it would be crucial for a guitar to be in tune ,period !...however,it `s much more important that it`s in tune with it self :)
Vic
..theoretical tuning frequensies..
http://www.uk-piano.org/history/pitch.html#Frequency |
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Location: Tychy, Poland | http://tonometric.com/adaptivepitch/
funny test |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I suppose I learned this from listening to Johnny Cash. If you listen carefully to some of his songs, at the beginning, sometimes he starts of slightly flat, than brings up his voice to pitch. These perfect pitch people are pretty rare birds. I've never had the fortune to meet one, though I heard Beethoven was one of them. |
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| I would imagine the best use for 'perfect pitch people' would be as vocal/voice teachers. They can be quite eccentric, but excellent in the art. I had a voice teacher in college who was an excellent tenor, voice instructor. On one breath he could sing a perfect tone almost endlessly. He wouldn't let any of us get away with 'sliding up to the note' like some of the pop singers do. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Little Boy Jefferson,..I took that test,.and failed miserably.. :)
Vic
..I`m proud of myself..failed the exam and yet I`m somebody anyway.. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Little Boy Jefferson,..I took that test,.and failed miserably.. :)
Vic
..I`m proud of myself..failed the exam and yet I`m a somebody anyway.. |
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Location: Arizona | Originally posted by Steve:
Hi Chat,
I understand what you are saying, basically the 'man created the piano' and not-vice versa perspective. What I was wondering is what would you identify a musical sound that was a 'middle C' before the middle C existed? 261.626 Hz?
I don't think perfect pitch, as the term is usually used these days, is necessarily tied to a scale.
A relevant analogy is color. You know "red" as a color, and you know it's name. And some people can discriminate "fuscia" and crap like that, too. It's the same idea, color is light frequency and some people can identify color very accurately. Doing it with sound frequency is "perfect pitch". Being able to recognize that a particular frequency has a particular name, like 261.626 is "middle C" or 440Hz is "A above middle C" isn't any different than learning the names of the colors.
Somebody else uses A = 400Hz so it's a different tone, but people with perfect pitch can learn those, too, just like you can learn to recognize a particular color with a different name.
That's my take on it, anyway. |
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| That makes great sense. No doubt the people who originally created stringed instruments had their musical point of reference on the inside of them, so to speak. We've just been able to create audio devices to identify what was there all along. A local veteran piano tuner told me there is no such thing as perfect tune over the entire range of the piano scale...interesting.. |
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | I wonder if having the ability to hear "perfect pitch" makes it difficult to perform music that can be listened to. Since the art of music, is arranging notes and rhythms based on the relevant key note, hearing perfect pitch would detract the performer. Maybe that's all the great musical creators and produces have relative pitch abilities, and not perfect pitch. I wonder. |
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Location: atlanta | If anyone really, really wants to know more about the subject, go here:
http://www.zlab.mcgill.ca/docs/Zatorre_2003.pdf
Dave K. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I tried an experiment this morning (while waiting for the garage door repairman to show up). I removed all the strings on my ES-335 then installed a new set. With nothing for reference, I tuned the A string to what I thought was the right note, then tuned the rest based on that note. When checked against a good tuner, I discovered that I was slightly flat, but not by much. Instead of A at 440, I had tuned it by ear to 437. Lucky at best. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | That's impressive. I'm not sure I could get within an octave. I'm not sure about the genetic component of the study, although it's interesting. It seems like most of the people with perfect pitch have been exposed to a ton of music during their lives, but maybe they gravitated to music because they were born with perfect pitch. There are plenty of others who are tone deaf and shouldn't try to sing or play anything. I wonder if they can be taught or if they are hopeless because of genetics. |
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Location: Southern California | those tests were very cool! I was in the normal range for all of them, although I would've liked to have done better I am oh so grateful I didn't bomb them, LOL!! |
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Location: Tychy, Poland | it's good to take test on different hours.
my best was 0.51 hz and now (it's 00:20 in poland) i've had 1.1 hz, but normally my results are around 0.8 hz, and my best results are coming usually on about 4-5 p.m.
now i'll try to make this test with my headphones on;] |
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OT--perfect pitch
