Perfect Pitch

[Tom Dickson]

Hi, Bill!

   I read your recent post regarding "perfect pitch" and, once again, I 
appreciate your comments very much.

   Just a small recommendation:  To be politically correct in today's world 
( and I appreciate the fact that you are not overly concerned with this )  
you may wish to say that you experience a paradigm shift (instead of a pitch 
shock)when coming to pianos that are out of pitch.


   This is only a lurker's perspective.  Please be advised that I look for 
and appreciate all of your posts.


                                                Sincerely,
                                                  Tom Dickson





>From: Billbrpt@AOL.COM
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: pianotech@ptg.org
>Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch
>Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 23:41:29 EST
>
>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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