Perfect Pitch

[Carl Teplitski]

" Very well put Dave."  I have a cousin who has never had a vocal lesson, but
sings
very well. She made a demo CD ( in fact 2 ) where she sang 6 well known country
songs, which I thought were quite good. She also made a short demo of 4 songs
which she wrote. These in my opinion, were not so great,  but her singing was
every
bit as good.  She asked my opinion of what she had done, and I tried to be
tactful with
my answer, but asked her if she had perfect pitch. She didn't know what I meant,
so
I asked her if she would let me test her, and she agreed. Well, she doesn't have
it, but
has excellent relative pitch, and could easily duplicate aurelly all notes
played, not right
after, but within a reasonable time, such as 10, 15 seconds.  Of course, she
didn't know
the names of the notes. I've encouraged her to study, but she's reluctant , as
she is 35 years old.
I have also met several people who did have actual perfect pitch, and I found it
uncanny
how accurate they are, but as you  said Dave, they are not dead on, but in the
range of a
particular note.  I find this to be a fascinating subject, and don't get tired
of reading, or hearing
about it. I've used this reasoning before on the list, but I think it's valid. I
think people who have
perfect pitch can distinguish frequency, the same as most of us can distinguish
colors. There are
people who are color blind. Most of us are pitch blind.

Carl / Winnipeg



Dave Nereson wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joe Garrett" <joegarrett@earthlink.net>
> To: "pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 9:35 PM
> Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch
>
>  > Matthew,
> > The piano is NOT TUNED PERFECTLY! IMO, anyone who espouses to have perfect
> > pitch, actually does not, otherwise they could not stand to listen to
> > tempered intervals.
>
>     Why would tempered intervals bother someone with "perfect pitch" (very
> good pitch recognition)?  Some people are very adept at being able to tap
> their finger or foot once per second, i.e., after 60 taps, they've marked
> off almost exactly one minute (they're probably never exactly "dead nuts
> on").  Others may have a propensity to be able to recognize when two marks
> on a piece of paper are exactly one inch apart.  And others may be able to
> see or feel when a piece of material is exactly .035" thick.  But none of
> these people are bothered when in everyday life they:  hear things clicking
> at intervals other than exact seconds;  or see things marked off at
> other-than-exact one-inch intervals; or see or feel pieces of material that
> aren't .035" thick.
>     I happen to have what my piano teacher and cello teacher called "perfect
> pitch," but what I, as a piano tuner, would call only "very good pitch
> recognition."  I'm never "dead on," just "very close" most of the time.  But
> it doesn't cause any mental anguish for me to hear out-of-tune pianos or old
> recordings that aren't at A=440, or pianos or guitars or whatever that are a
> quarter- or half-step flat; I just recognize them as such.
>     --David Nereson, RPT
>
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