I was always told this definition: perfect pitch Noun1. perfect pitch - The act of tossing a Banjo, Oboe, Bassoon, Accordion, etc.. into a dumpster without hitting the sides. - see also: relative pitch More seriously though, I always wondered which standard a person was referring to when describing their perfect pitch. Pre 1920's A-435? Post 1920's A-440? New a-442? 443, 445? European? Eastern? Other? I'm on the side of relative rather than perfect. Another though to add to the hopper (dumpster)... US electrical standards, the frequency of the AC voltages which cause lights, motors, transformers etc to hum, is 60hz. Would that officially be a B or Bb? Outside of the US there are different Voltages and AC frequencies. Most of the rest of the world is based on a 50hz grid. Again an offset pitch frequency. I would think that IF one had "Perfect Pitch" the noise presented by these, (not quite "on perfect pitch" frequency hums), might have the potential to drive one insane. Kind of like old wives tales. =) Gerry Cousins From: Tom Servinsky [mailto:tompiano at bellsouth.net] Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 9:17 PM To: ilvey at sbcglobal.net; Pianotech List Subject: Re: Wives tales ... violin tuning David The true definition of relative pitch refers to one's ability to have close to good pitch, but needs a familiar anchor pitch to reference by. Which is me. For example, I learned Bb like the back of my hand early on in high school. Several of my favorite jazz tunes started on a Bb note plus our door bell was a Bb, so it became pretty in-grained in my head. From there I grew more familiar with other tricks and before I knew it I had a full command of the full octave. Was I born with this? No, but I probably had an acute sensitivity towards pitch and always had a curiosity towards it. Which came first the chicken or the egg. Are you born with it or not. Who knows. Who cares. Tom Servinsky ----- Original Message ----- From: David Ilvedson <mailto:ilvey at sbcglobal.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:37 PM Subject: RE: Wives tales ... violin tuning I've always considered being able to name the notes someone plays as being "perfect pitch". Relative pitch is being able to discern if a note is out of tune compared to another note. David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 _____ Original message From: "Matthew Todd" To: "Pianotech List" Received: 6/30/2008 9:42:20 AM Subject: RE: Wives tales ... violin tuning Alicia, Perfection is not in the eyes of the beholder, sorry. You are perfect, or you are not. Saying "no one is perfect" is safe to say for everyone in this world, including you Alicia. Knowing what people can and cannot do has nothing to do with this. People have different talents. I can operate a skil saw very well, but I still have to use a guide to get a perfectly straight cut. The most amazing concert pianists practice ALL day. If they were perfect, there would be no need for them to practice. You naming the notes as your friends played it is still relative pitch. As for your friend...telling you how sharp or flat a note within 1 to 2 cents is still not perfect. Matthew A E <eve_ane at hotmail.co.uk> wrote: I messed around with my friends before who are tied down in musical field, they randomly pressed keys on my piano and 9 out of10 i got it spot on... a few years ago i had a friend (may he rest in peace) who could tell u exactly how sharp of flat the note was, and get it withing 1-2 cents.... there is such a thing i think.... it comes with experience, and knowing ur instrument... or in my case probably sheeer dumb luck...! U cant speak for everyone in this world Matt, u dont know what people can and can not do.. as for human perfection... well in that case, perfection is in the eyes of the beholder, and no one else matteres... Alicia _____ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:57:58 -0700 From: toddpianoworks at att.net Subject: Re: Wives tales ... violin tuning To: pianotech at ptg.org There is no such thing as PERFECT pitch, only relative pitch. It someone had perfect pitch, it would mean it would have to be perfect, and besides Jesus Christ, I have yet to see a human that was perfect. If indeed this customer had perfect pitch, they could be able to tell you that the note was four cents flat. But because she said the note sounded like a "d", it is relative. Matthew Richard Brekne <ricb at pianostemmer.no> wrote: Yes... a good sense of relative pitch memory is an interesting thing indeed. Its just that it would be best for all concerned if it were kept better in perspective... i.e. words like Perfect and Absolute left out of it. Severely extreme cases of pitch sensitivity are more a handicap then an asset. Fortunately... there are very very few on this planet that actually suffer to that degree....and correspondingly few that could with any hint of justification fnyss at someone else for erring <> pitchwise. Cheers RicB I had a customer a few days ago, whose piano I tuned 2 years ago. She played some notes and said how flat they were...the piano in general sounded reasonable. I got started and the piano was indeed about 4 cents flat and 7 in the treble. When done I asked her if she had perfect pitch...wasn't sure. I played a D and she said that sounded like a D...pretty cool... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 _____ Miss your Messenger buddies when on-the-go? Get Messenger on your Mobile! <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000001ukm/direct/01/> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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