perfect pitch

[Dave Nereson]

<< This reverberates with my
gut feelings on the subject, that it is something you are born with.  I did
nothing to develop this ability.  I never practiced humming A's or tested
myself as your grade school conductor tested your orchestra.  And I have to
wonder: does every member of that grade school orchestra now have "perfect
pitch"?  If not: why you, and not the others if it weren't due to some
innate
ability that you possessed and the others didn't?  If that's all it took to
have "perfect pitch", (humming A's) then every musician would have it.
    I'd be interested to know your opinions of those ads in music magazines
which
claim you can learn to have "perfect pitch", for only $49.99?  (I love the
"enlightened" look on that guy's face, as he balances the tuning fork on his
index finger!  Have you seen this ad?)  Has anyone out there had any success
with this or any other similar program?
Interested to know,
Tom Sivak>>

Yes, one is probably born with the ability.  But it's not perfect.  And
there's no "standard" A or C or any other note in your brain when you're
born, because those pitches and note names are invented by man, not the
cosmos.   And no, everyone in that school orchestra probably does not now
have "perfect pitch", but if they kept playing all their lives, they can
probably tell an A from a C.  There are days when I'll hum what I think is
an A, then go to the piano and it turns out to be A flat or A sharp, kind of
like getting screwed up with your biological clock when the time changes
from daylight saving to standard or vice versa, or when you stay up all
night, sleep all day, then forget what day of the week it is.  But after
hearing a reference, I'm good again.
    Yes, I've seen the ads for that pitch learning program and a local jazz
singer friend of mine bought it.  I don't know if she finished it yet or
not.  I'll have to ask her if it worked.          --Dave Nereson, RPT