In a message dated 12/13/99 7:35:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, Mark Potter bases-loaded@juno.com writes: << The musicians I know who have this gift are either singers or violinists, with one exception - and he's a drummer. He can hear a 4-5 note chord and tell you all of the pitches immediately. This is an extremely useful gift, in my opinion! However, it would be of no use whatsoever in tuning a piano.... >> I read all the responses to this perennial question. They were all good and right on their marks. But I liked Mark's reply the best except to take issue with the final remark. I never claim to anyone that I have perfect pitch. Yet even as a child, I knew one note from the other on the piano and still do, whether it is in tune or not. I don't see anything perfect in that. When I come to a new customer's piano and try a few keys before even opening it, I know right away what I am in for. That doesn't limit itself to tuning either. Some people have a predisposition to awareness of certain qualities that other, if not most people are completely oblivious to. A retired itinerant tuner in our area used to say, "You don't hear what I hear and I don't hear what you hear". I played bass professionally, both orchestra and jazz/pop for many years and have also been an avid and semiprofessional singer for many years. I also played violin and trumpet in my youth. You must have some kind of sense of pitch and be able to know one note from the other to be a musician. I can always give a workable and mutually agreeable pitch to other singers if there is no pitch pipe or other source available. To me, it seems obvious. But I wouldn't know if it were "perfect" or not because I don't really know what that means. I always use a pitch reference to tune the piano but if you asked me to tune A4 without one, I would probably fall well within "passing" on the PTG RPT Tuning Exam. On a good day, I might even be within one cent. But as others have said, I believe that would be due to a good pitch *memory*, not some inborn, natural ability. If I were born, deaf or even hearing impaired, or even became so incidentally shortly after birth, I would not be able to do it. Perhaps, If I did not have the opportunity to learn the violin and piano at an early age, I would have never been able to do any of the things that I do now for both pleasure and to earn a living. I wouldn't have "perfect pitch" in such a circumstance. I hear the sound of A4 at A-440 every day many times. It is also a part of the dial tone you hear when you pick up the telephone. Some people can selectively remember pitches easily while others cannot. I think it may have a lot to do with whether one even thinks about such things. I remember the admonition of the local Symphony Orchestra and Opera director saying, "It is important to *always* have our rehearsal at Standard Pitch (A-440) so that we can recognize it when we hear it. Otherwise, if we have a *different* pitch every time, we could never know the difference." If I have to tune a piano at nonstandard pitch, once I have accepted that fact and the pitch, I immediately adjust to it and it does not bother me at all. I would say that I experience what I would call "Pitch Shock" when I first hear nonstandard pitch but once I get accustomed to it, which takes very little time, a second or two, I have no further problem with it. One skill that certain musicians must possess is to be able to transpose. I think of nonstandard pitch the same way I do transposing, it is just an amount less than a half step. I also played French Horn and had to learn to transpose as a requirement of the set of skills expected of that kind of musician. I think orchestra trumpet players and other Bb wind instruments have to learn that too. As a singer, I do it all the time, no problem at all, any amount, from a little to a lot, it makes no difference. But I do not have perfect pitch. No one does, in my opinion. It's one of those terms that deserves to have the words, "so-called" always added to it when discussing it with any seriousness because you really can't prove that there is in fact, such a phenomenon. Respectfully, Bill Bremmer RPT Madison, Wisconsin
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