Perfect Pitch

[cephus]

Day tripper=E

Wait a minute. When I was a kid, didn't the English tune to A=442?

Relative pitch is handy and I don't see how you can play for 25 years and not develop it accidentally. I am wondering how perfect pitch would be so useful to musicians. I have known a few people with perfect pitch and they always bitch about the vacuum cleaner being off key and car horns bug then and dogs barking. I have enough shit to get bent about.

 

[andydeedpoll]

i've been playing trombone for 7 years - the tuning note for a trombone is a Bflat. i couldn't sing it to you, but if someone played it (on a trombone) i could tell you when it was sharp or flat, as i could with the majority of the notes on the instrument. it just sounds 'right' eventually.

and a singer i know can approximate a top D by singing her highest comfortable note. she can't necessarily do it in tune, but i've seen her do it enough times to trust her to be right



Andy

 

[Cyrokk]

I read an article once on what the author refered to as "relative perfect pitch" where he suggested you memorize moments in famous works that illustraites the pitch you are looking for, such as the Jaws theme or something and use that as a jumping off point for identifying "pitches."
I have always assumed those lessons are just a variation on that idea, though I could be wrong. It is probably better to spend $140 dollars on theory lessons, pitch identification will come (while probably not perfect pitch) with practice and time.

I took the relative pitch course and can attest that it works and is probably more effective than any interval training or basic theory you would learn from a college course. It takes quite a bit of work, but you will have a much more refined ear and will be able to sing in pitch, write down music that is in your head, and easily pick up music you hear on the radio or other audio source.

However, like every skill, you have to use it routinely or you will lose it. Having the CD's (or cassettes like I have) allows you to come back to refresh your memory of course.

And despite what people you say, you CAN learn perfect pitch, but it's not as good a skill to have as you might think. All you are learning is pitch color, which really does nothing for you in a musical setting.

Also, as you get older, pitch color turns sharp.

Cite

If you really want to get an advantage over other musicians and make your musical life easier, I suggest you learn how to read music (not just notes, but rhythms and dynamics. Learning these skills allow you to communicate effectively to other bandmembers), learn relative pitch, and take lessons from someone who can make you aware of the details necessary in making a tight performance.

 

[Supercreep]

On a guitar at least, each open string has a certain sound to it. I can't explain, but I can "picture" an A 440 and earball it pretty close. Maybe each note has a "certain sound". Sounds like a hassle to me when you can just use a tuner.

 

[dgatwood]

Your highest and lowest note will probably vary according to the time of day and how long you've been up and using your voice.

The trained vocalists that I've spoken with say that your voice is in it's prime in the evening.

I'd say your voice has the most power in the evening. That's not necessarily the best time to record, though it usually is. If you're trying to sing something that's low for your range, the best time to sing it is early in the morning.

 

[mshilarious]

Cite

That's a cool article, but I have to take exception with a couple of points:

One University of Chicago music professor said he could conjure up an entire orchestral piece in his mind strictly from having read the sheet music. It was like reading a book to him.

That's not a skill necessarily restricted to those with perfect pitch. In fact, it is just a highly developed form of sight singing (which usually starts with a reference pitch). Many, if not most, of the great composers (and probably even most of the minor ones) could do it.

One storied hacker was a blind kid named Joe Engressia. Most phreaks needed elaborate equipment to create the precisely pitched Touch-Tones necessary to operate the switching equipment. Not Engressia. Blessed with perfect pitch, he could whistle them.

OK I have to potentially call BS on that. First off, you didn't need elaborate equipment, you just needed a Red Box, which was a simple mod of a Radio Shack tone dialer. Second, the ability to recreate those tunes with your voice requires not only perfect pitch, but a very unusual penchant for whistling/singing unrelated tones in harmony. The "throat" singing I've heard only generates overtones of the fundamental, but touch tones are a combination of two frequencies that are not usually closely related.

So if he could do it, I wouldn't chalk it up to perfect pitch.

 

[Lt. Bob]

I've been playing music for 42 years and tuning pianos for 28 ....... I've literally worked with thousands of musicians and in all that time I've only met one person who truly had perfect pitch. Yeah, tons of people claim to have it or say that their cousin has it but they don't.
It's certainly possible that for some period of time you might memorize a note or two and be able to mostly correctly identify them but: people with perfect pitch don't lose it or forget it ..... it's there forever .... whether they want it or not ..... and certainly doesn't depend on memorizing a note and furthermore, they hear all notes ..... they don't need to go, "Ok ..... there's my memorized note ....hmmmm ... up 4 1/2 steps .... so that must be an F"
Any note is instantly recognized for what it is.

Now interval training is a whole different thing ..... it trains you to recognise intervals and absolutely can be learned and that's what most people who think someone has perfect pitch are actually experiencing, someone who has good relative pitch which is much more useful.

That perfect pitch term gets thrown around a lot but it's actually extremely rare. Most people that say they or someone else has it are actually talking about very good relative pitch.

I can go into any band situation with absolutely anyone playing anything and pick up my horn and immediately play in the right key or double someone else's part but I do not have perfect pitch although many people say I do. But I don't ....... I do, however, have extremely good relative pitch and that's what's useful to a musician. After all ..... if you actually have perfect pitch ...... you can't stand anything that's off pitch which is almost everything. Very few pianos, for instance, are dead on pitch and all Hammond organs are a few cents sharp. The one person I knew that had perfect pitch, it destroyed her ability to have fun playing because she was always bothered by tuning issues ...... and I mean always