Klarinet Archive - Posting 000375.txt from 2003/08

From: "James Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] key of C ear training
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 22:50:45 -0400

A couple of points.

First, everyone I've known that had perfect pitch (an obviously small
number) has found it to be more of a problem than a help. If you have
perfect pitch, the note you see is the note you hear. So if you're playing
Bb clarinet, your eye and your ear "see" two different pitches. This is
amplified if you play A or Eb clarinet. Only if you play C clarinet would
the written note and the heard note be the same.

As far as learning perfect pitch, IMO, forget it. You may develop
relatively good relative pitch. I would believe that anyone suggesting s/he
can teach you perfect pitch is selling snake oil. I went to university with
a boy who intended to "teach" himself perfect pitch. He would lie in the
floor of a bathroom in the music building, listening to a tone generator
playing A-440 for hours, for four years. If anything, he got worse than
better. Even the faculty considered him a bit strange. (Of course, he was
a percussion major, so it didn't really matter, I suppose.)

Jim Hobby

>From: Crobar123@-----.com
>
>Hi again O,
>
>If you had perfect pitch, wouldn't it help with intervals (regardless of
the
>instrument being used) when trying to find the right note when improvising?

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