 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Barbara
Date: 2000-07-02 14:31
I wonder how important perfect pitch is in forming a good musician? It would seem more important for singers than say keyboard players. I think most people get by with good relative pitch. On another note... how do people with perfect pitch respond to transposed music? After all, clarinets are transposing instruments, so when they finger C, doesn't it sound "wrong" when a B flat or A comes out? Also, any examples of prominent musicians with or without would also be appreciated.
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Author: William
Date: 2000-07-02 17:47
I think that is only advantagious (??) to have perfect pitch if you are a composer or a jazz musician, both of which have to pretty much "play it by ear." As a "legit" musician. I prefer my good sense of "relative pitch" so that I don't have to transpose when I read printed music for my transpoing instruments. A good friend of mine who is a fine symphony clarinetist, has (in her own words) been handicapped by perfect pitch her entire musical career having been forced to transpose everything she reads for the clarinet to "concert pitch" so that the sound she hears makes sense to her. My advice, if you don't have it, don't worry about it. If you do, compose, play jazz or simply learn to live with it. Good luck.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-07-02 20:00
One of the pianists who plays chamber music with my husband has "perfect" (fixed) pitch. She's fixed on a=442, the tuning of her family's Steinway piano. For her, fixed pitch is a mixed blessing. She finds transposing or playing on a transposing instrument unbearable, because the transposed pitches sound like wrong notes to her. She can't play antique instruments tuned to different standards than modern instruments. She told me she tried a beautiful replica of a Baroque mean-tone harpsichord once and couldn't stand to play it. The scales sounded all wrong and she coldn't get used to them. She can't play vintage pipe organs, for the same reason. IMHO, relative pitch is more practical.
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Author: Jonathan
Date: 2000-07-02 20:26
My son,who is a professional clarinetist with perfect pitch, has always said that it can be truly annoying at times. His fellow musicians with a strong sense of relative pitch, according to my son, are better off. Switching from Bb to A (or A to Bb) clarinet requires him to constantly transpose in his mind.
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Author: Jake Wallace
Date: 2000-07-02 20:42
Tell the pianist to pick up some recordings done by the LA Philharmonic. IIRC, they tune to A=442.
Jake Wallace
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Author: Allen Cole
Date: 2000-07-03 02:40
I don't think that perfect pitch would be good at all for a jazz musician. A reed player would be playing instruments in several different transpositions, and might be doing so from concert-key fake sheets. Relative pitch works better for me, and I think that this would be the case for most folks who play by ear.
A composer, on the other hand...
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2000-07-03 03:48
This page has several articles to respond to you:
http://www.music-cog.ohio-state.edu/Resources/information.html#Articles
My opinion: Do you remember a movie titled 'A Perfect World'? There is no such a world of course,and 'a' means that. Only relative pitch.
I play C flute and B flat clarinet and I imagine what tone should come next reading a note. They come in orchestra pitch for flute and one interval below for clarinet.
This is what I mean by relative pitch.
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Author: Robin
Date: 2000-07-03 05:22
It would be interesting to know of any musicians who've had to adjust their ideas of perfect pitch as they have travelled about the world. I can just imagine the frustration after having tried to play along with my recordings of German orchestras.
Also, is it true that our idea of A=440 has been moving up over the years? Is my A440 the same as yours?
Why do orchestras tune at such a variety of pitches?
Robin
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-07-03 05:28
Robin wrote:
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Also, is it true that our idea of A=440 has been moving up over the years? Is my A440 the same as yours?
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A=440 mean A=440 Hz (or cycles per second), and 440 cycles per second of course are the same everywhere. How many cycles per second <b>A</b> equals changes from place to place & orchestra to orchestra.
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-07-04 00:00
In the previous thread I wrote:
People tell me that I have perfect pitch. I can not specify perfect pitch myself and I don't care. I have never had any practical use of it as an orchestra musician.
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In fact, I just came to think of a practical use of "perfect pitch" in orchestra playing: Identifying the notes in complex harmonics. If I play a piece with complex harmonics, I identify the notes first. Than, with a quick calculation I know which function I have in the chord and can adjust intonation instantly. Let's say we're playing a G-10. I have the -10, Bb, same as a minor third, I aim sharp. This calculation is done in 2/10th of a second.
I don't have a problem playing a transposing instrument. What I read is only theory. What sounds is completely different. Maybe I separate the clarinet sound from other sounds since I am so used to it. When identifying notes I think in concert pitch, but that's almost like a different world from what I read while playing. I know it doesn't make sence but this is how it works for me. It's like reading a book. The letters and the words don't mean anything itself. It's what you make of it in your head that means something.
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Author: Miriam
Date: 2000-08-01 04:54
I agree totally with Alphie. I have perfect pitch but didn't know it for years. I just took it for granted. It never bothered me in playing the clarinet- just made me extremely tuned into intonation and tone making me a better player for it.I am also a singer and have never had to struggle like so many others with pitch. I look at a note the same way I do when I'm playing. The difference is that
when I'm singing I'm hearing the concert pitch in my head before I sing. The only time I realized Perfect Pitch could
be a problem was when I was in College majoring in Music.
What I took for granted in pitch was not what everyone else was dealing with. It created a real problem for me in Eartraining and SightSinging. The Classes were being taught from a Relative Pitch point of view which almost made me
fail until I figured out a system for myself to do everything everyone else did with Relative Pitch. To me Sol-Feg and the Number System of Pitch are crutches I don't
need. Their whole purpose is to be able to find the pitch anyway which I can do by just looking at the note.
Like Alphie ,when I'm playing I'm thinking of the clarinet pitch but am extremely aware of intonation and tone.
Miriam
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