Perfect Pitch

[Clive Hugh]

We are all born with "perfect pitch" otherwise we would not be able to talk as we use inflections and pitches to convey meaning. I did the course or rather started it many years ago and it worked, one thing that I found out was that Eb is an unpleasant pitch to my ears, it actually causes discomfort, so my advice is try it if you feel you have a need. I found it useful at the time.

 

[ggunn]

When I want to try and pitch something I think of a song with an obvious use of that note/chord. I think Ziggy Stardust opens with a big 'G' chord for instance. The riff from 'Smoke On The Water' also starts on a 'G'.

Also try and learn how different intervals sound. Become familiar with every interval in the diatonic scale. I also use music I already know to remember intervals. For instance 'Song For My Father' by Horace Silver starts off with a bass riff that just alternates between a root and 5th.

When I was starting guitar, I used the opening of "Dead Man's Curve" to find the 4th interval to tune by. I still do. Please help me.

 

[Zaphod B]

Well i was not able to hear intervals and sing them untill i started taking ear training and sight singing for my music degree, so i believe that can be taught

OK, I stand corrected.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Could you derive perfect pitch using the limits of your singing range? I've often pondered whether you could exactly identify the highest or lowest note you can sing and figure out other notes using relative pitch.

 

[mshilarious]

When I was starting guitar, I used the opening of "Dead Man's Curve" to find the 4th interval to tune by. I still do. Please help me.

It's OK, I use "Pinball Wizard" for the fourth, and "Touch and Go" for the fifth


















Oh yeah, and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the seventh





And the NBC chime for the sixth

 

[InTheFire]

Could you derive perfect pitch using the limits of your singing range? I've often pondered whether you could exactly identify the highest or lowest note you can sing and figure out other notes using relative pitch.

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 suppose if you sang the EXACT same pitch every time you could.

 

[Elmo89m]

Could you derive perfect pitch using the limits of your singing range? I've often pondered whether you could exactly identify the highest or lowest note you can sing and figure out other notes using relative pitch.

IMO your voice limits may be different in as little as a year from now based on you lifestyle and growth factors. good idea though

 

[ggunn]

Could you derive perfect pitch using the limits of your singing range? I've often pondered whether you could exactly identify the highest or lowest note you can sing and figure out other notes using relative pitch.

I sort of do that to get a "close enough" guitar tuning if there's no tuner handy.

I can find a close approximation to a low E by the lowest note I can comfortably sing, and then it's "Dead Man's Curve" to get the A, D, and G. A fifth up from the octave chime on the low E (I'm afraid what I hear is "B. O." sounding like a foghorn [BEEEE-YOOOHH] from an ancient deodorant commercial, or was it an old Bugs Bunny WWII propaganda cartoon?) gets me the the B, and then "Dead Man's Curve" again for the high E.

I can usually get within a quarter tone of concert that way.

 

[Sirnothingness]

Our guitars aren't tuned perfectly, so why bother learning perfect pitch?

Save you money and buy an Esteban guitar.

 

[invisiblenemies]

Save you money and buy an Esteban guitar.

Esteban is a musical genius.

And I hear Jesus told him to make a quality instrument that is affordable.

 

[mjm620]

My friend used it and developed perfect pitch. I agree it is one of those things that can be born easier than developed, but both are just as possible.

 

[MCreel]

everyone has different tricks. One thing I have noticed is that c# rings through other mediums a lot more noticeably than other notes. I can feel it in my head (sinus cavities) when I sing that pitch. So I could essentially sing pitches until I felt that vibrating and know I'm on c# (or c, I forgot which one b/c I never use this method).

Your vocal range does vary according to a lot of things, but if you're talking pure tone then you have very noticeable maximums and minimums. Your lowest note will probably be about a step, maybe even 2 steps lower in the morning than the afternoon or evening (unless you don't use your voice all day long). You can guage it by how well you feel and how long you've been awake, etc.

Shouldn't be hard to do. Usually its just a matter of paying attention to your surroundings.

 

[travelin travis]

I bought that course back when it was on tape. It does work, but I got bored after a while and stopped the exercises. Some of the concepts were influential on me, but I can't identify C and D and F# anymore (that was as far as I got )

I bought it too when I was about 16 years old. Man I caught some flack from my friends, "Who's that gay lookin dude?". Any way, back then I had a strong desire for learning anything I could about music. I used the whole trial period listening to the tapes. Nothing ever started clicking for me. Basically you're allowed to listen to a couple of the tapes within the free trial period. If you open more of the tapes, you don't get your money back. Since it did'nt seem to be working for me, I got my money back.

My thoughts on it..........put in some time learning intervals by ear. You probably already know half of them, wether you realize it or not. Really, what would perfect pitch do for you? Perfect pitch is'nt going to magically open your ears so that you can instantly recognize every note in a fast guitar lick. You have to have the ability to hear intervals to do that and the ability to hear a fast flurry of notes. You also have to be able to hear the difference in timbre and tone for different instruments if you're trying to learn lines created with other instruments. For example, I can hear an open E on a guitar instantly. That's because I know what the timbre of a guitar's open E sounds like. On piano, I have to hunt thru a couple of notes to find E by ear.

If you're leaning toward trying the perfect pitch thing, I think you should learn intervals by ear first and see what that does for you. Also, define how perfect pitch would help you as a musician, listener, or engineer. What will it allow you to do that you can't do now?

 

[travelin travis]

Our guitars aren't tuned perfectly, so why bother learning perfect pitch?

Save you money and buy an Esteban guitar.

So that you can go even crazier over your guitar's intonation.

 

[dementedchord]

fwiw

pp can be developed over time i have my self done it to a large degree... ( a particular tune that i do in that key all the time and i can derive the rest from relative) but what i really question is why would ypu want to ultimately????
i remember this guy in college that if the piano was a-442 would drive him NUTZ !! i dont need to go there.... whew... just be glad if you have good relative pitch cause you'ld be surprise to find out how rare that actually is....

 

[mshilarious]

The course equates perfect pitch to hearing in color rather than black and white . . . that's a bit dramatic from my point of view, but it does illustrate that's it's more than simply learning one pitch and using relative for the others. Tones really do sound different, so for me it adds a dimension in terms of selection of keys.

Continuing that analogy, I never understood the fellows who got annoyed when A<>440 (seems like everybody knows one of those). That's like saying an artist would get pissed off if somebody used chartreuse instead of green. That, and they must be woefully misinformed about the history of tuning, temperaments, and pitch I suspect those types are a bit autistic, perhaps.

I did know one kid who had perfect pitch and didn't care at all. He was in my theory class in high school, and he struggled to get an A (which pretty much everybody got ). He just didn't really care much about music or playing an instrument, and I never heard him complain about tuning, either.

 

[HapiCmpur]

i don't see how having perfect pitch would make an engineer substantially better.

I agree. And more to the point, I don't see how having perfect pitch would make an instrumentalist (even a vocalist) substantially better, either. Relative pitch, on the other hand, is an extremely useful skill, well worth developing. But perfect pitch is pointless -- unless, of course, you just really like demonstrating odd and esoteric skills for your friends.

 

[32-20-Blues]

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 think I do something like that - the opening note of Day Tripper by the Beatles is what I aim for when tuning the low e on my guitar from scratch. It works surprisingly well.

 

[TelePaul]

I'd like to meet the imaginary "Linda" in that Perfect Pitch ad - G#, Eb - how does she do it?

Yeah that dicked me off!! Stupid ads with their crappy cartoon! Linda clearly wore the pants in THAT pre-pubescent relationship.

 

[sweetpeee]

Hi all,

Well...I was actually thinking about this course myself and yeah...the pic of the curly haired guitar guy is pretty frightening. I use to tune up by thinkinging about "Ten Years Gone" by Led Zep. It's in A and the open A is repeated. Then while my sister was in college for music, we'd do this thing where she'd be playing piano and I'd guess what pitch she was playing. If I wasn't dead on, I'd be close but found that I was more comfortable guessing in my speaking/singing range,but anything about the three octaves got more difficult.I would end up guessing slightly sharp or flat.

Then I started listening to other guitar players, like Steve Howe and the Beatles, then, to my absolute horror I discovered the player like Randly Rhoads and Eddie VanHalen tuned either flat or slightly flat...there goes that idea.

I thought about that course and figured I could prabably do the same on my own and think anyone can if you listen to pitches without looking at them and guess what they are. Same thing with intravals. To my ears, perfect intravals sound easier to nail. I thought learning this might help out with figuring out complex or fast passages, but since you can slow CD's down, it's really not a problem anymore..


Anyone remember slowing turn tables down slightly to figure out LP's? I did this with Ozzy..what a friggen nightmare


J.P.