Perfect Pitch

[Tom Myler]

> From: Phil Bondi <tito@peganet.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Perfect Pitch
> Date: Thursday, July 10, 1997 3:56 PM
> 
> ..i'll keep it short..

SNIP
 
> ..if someone asks me to sing a *A*, i can, in *reletive* terms..if
someone
> asks me to name the 4-5 notes in that chord, i can..if someone asks me to
> tell them what key this song is in, i can..
> 
> ..if it ain't perfect, then what should we call it..relative?..can
someone
> with *good* relative pitch sing an *A* on command?..i don't think so.
> 
> ..i invite your comments..publicly or privately.
 

To paraphrase one of my mentors:

A person who "knows an F when I hear one",  (or who demonstrates the talent
you've described in your letter), has "relative pitch".

This ability, while a blessing for a musician, is nonetheless useless to a
piano tuner.  Any given note has a wide range of "correctness";  435Hz is
obviously a "middle A", as is 444Hz.   Piano tuning involves much more
precise tolerances.  (My apologies for overstating the obvious here.)

Strictly speaking, "perfect pitch"  is the ability to recognize and/or
produce a specified *FREQUENCY*.     

At the very least, a person with this ability would, for example, be able
to hear a "middle A" and tell you if it's sharp or flat of 440Hz.   A more
stringent test would be this:  the subject awakens from sleep,  and without
listening to any possible reference standard, sings/produces (pulling up a
slack string, for example) a *specified pitch* such as a 440 A.    

This vastly less common ability would also be useless for piano tuning,
again for obvious reasons.   Even if a given piano happened to conform to a
theoretically correct frequency "blueprint" in the temperament areas, 
octave stretching in both directions would drive our perfect pitcher to
distraction. 

---

I've had only one client  who seems to have pitch discrimination that may
approach this level, and oddly enough,  the two times I remarked on her
extremely accurate ear, she matter-of-factly insisted "Oh no, *I* don't
have perfect pitch".

At least once or twice a month I encounter a new customer who informs me
that they "have perfect pitch", and it never seems to fail, they're the
ones who didn't know their piano was 16 cents flat.  

---

> ..until someone comes up with a better *term* for what some of us are
> blessed with, it will always raise questions..perhaps Relatively Perfect
Pitch?
> 

I agree with Guy Nichols;  I'd call it "a good ear".   

I too would be interested in others' comments and opinions about
this, and as always, I reserve the right to be wrong.



Regards,

Tom Myler

"Perhaps the greatest knowledge is
 the awareness of our own ignorance."

                                       (John Steinbeck)