Perfect pitch

[JBLoudG20]

That means you dont have it.

I'm not directly arguing that I have it.. I'm throwing a what if out there.

And how does that conclusion get made. I don't know I have it therefore I must not have it. Aerius is probably covered from his aids then.

[aardvark baguette]

When someone plays an A chord, do you immediately recognize it to be A? When someone plays an A note, do you immediately recognize it to be A?

To me it seems like you either know it or you dont.

[Pars]

If he's not musically trained, he won't know what an A major or minor or whatever chord is. So of course not. That doesn't mean that he could not have perfect pitch however.

[JBLoudG20]

If he's not musically trained, he won't know what an A major or minor or whatever chord is. So of course not. That doesn't mean that he could not have perfect pitch however.

Exactly.

[aardvark baguette]

I dont see it that way.

OK, he may not be able to name the note, but to have perfect pitch, shouldn't he be able to tell if it is 'correct' or not?

[JBLoudG20]

I dont see it that way.

OK, he may not be able to name the note, but to have perfect pitch, shouldn't he be able to tell if it is 'correct' or not?

How would I know? I can listen to a song and tell if the note is off in relation to others, but how would I have any idea if its perfect? Musically trained is more than naming a note, in addition. Unless I was trained to know what a note is supposed to sound like, I'd have no idea.

Again, I'm not saying I have it. Judging by my superb lack of musical ability I highly doubt I have it.

[aardvark baguette]

Im not saying you're wrong, just how I interpret perfect pitch.

I dont know, it just seems like you would pick up what the right notes are by listening to music over time, and recognize the incorrect ones.

Its not like I'm talking about having lived in a vacuum and suddenly being exposed to music for the first time.

I guess I'm saying that, if you have perfect pitch, you should be able to learn what the right notes are without musical training.

[JBLoudG20]

Im not saying you're wrong, just how I interpret perfect pitch.

I dont know, it just seems like you would pick up what the right notes are by listening to music over time, and recognize the incorrect ones.

Its not like I'm talking about having lived in a vacuum and suddenly being exposed to music for the first time.

I guess I'm saying that, if you have perfect pitch, you should be able to learn what the right notes are without musical training.

But isn't that a relation thing, not a perfect pitch thing? I thought Jacob was saying something similar. I have listened to music all my life, and I can tell when someone is butchering the Star Spangeld Banner, but that doesn't mean I have perfect pitch. That means I know what its supposed to sound like.

[Dusty Chalk]

No, perfect pitch is absolute. If someone were to play an F# on a piano hidden from view, you should be able to -- without floundering around -- hit an F# on a neighboring piano, merely by hearing the first one. That's perfect pitch. So it does require enough musical training to know what the notes are. Being able to identify which note it is by trying different notes -- I.E. establishing that it is higher or lower -- only means that you're not tone deaf.

[thrice]

i know A440 by heart (if you sit in enough orchestra rehearsals you learn it), and am able to figure out pitches in my head around that. not the same thing, of course.

Oh god, sometimes I hear concert A's as I'm waking up in the morning.... still. At one point I dated the concert master (oboist, never date an oboist) and that's what really drilled it in.... I was not just paying attention to the note, but to her too.

the vast majority don't.

Nope, but from teaching a sightsinging class for two years I found that pianists and violinists tend to have better aural skills when they arrive in college than other musicians (in general, not a scientific survey, just observation and obviously there will be exceptions).

I suspect it is because these folks probably started playing a lot earlier than others.

[atothex]

I'm not sure I would want perfect pitch. I hear stories about people who have it, and some can't stand hearing stuff that isn't perfectly tuned. A lot of my favorite music isn't tuned to concert pitch, so...

[archosman]

Some people have this ability naturally, others don't and scientifics still don't have solid evidences about the cause of this.

I do. Just about everyone on our side of the family does too.

[Sherwood]

I have relative pitch, like Reks. Relative pitch is not telling whether a note is right from other notes, but being able to "find" other pitches from one pitch.

I taught myself concert E, and I can find any other pitch from that.

For what it's worth, concert E is the first note from the song "Airbag" on Radiohead's Kid A. That's how I learned it.

My understanding is that perfect pitch is much more common in societies that have a pitch-based language, which leads me to believe that it is not totally nature (as opposed to nurture).

[Fungi]

You should teach yourself the first note of Wouldn't It Be Nice