 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kennychw
Date: 2004-02-11 11:55
Is it possible? There is a CD + handbook package on this at http://www.perfectpitch.com/
Any comments? Is it worth a purchase? hmm..
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2004-02-11 12:10
I suppose if you're an advancing player, drills may help.
I'm hopeless when it comes to exact pitch, but I do hear the beats generating when my standmates and I are out of tune.
There's a strong arguement for sticking to the same equipment, so that you may learn the vagaries of your particular instrument.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-02-11 14:29
I've tried to acquire perfect pitch several times, but have not the slightest hint of it. Like SB, I've found it hopeless.
Nadia Boulanger, however, said that anyone can be trained, so let us know your results.
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2004-02-11 14:35
What's so important about perfect pitch? I think I have it, and I can hum a decent A on demand, but it's never helped me pick up women at parties -- though I admit the reasons for that may be many...
Relative pitch, though, is extremely valuable and can be learned pretty easily.s
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
Post Edited (2004-02-11 14:50)
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2004-02-11 15:05
I think it is genetic. Does anyone know?
(My wife and one son has it, while the other son doesn't. I have relative pitch but not perfect pitch. )
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-02-11 15:24
I think its partly genetic, but also partly whether you learn it young enough -- when you learn your colors, you also learn that a particular pitch is A.
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2004-02-11 15:27
For a good article on "perfect pitch," actually absolute pitch, check out this website for a good explanation and study:
http://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/ppstudy.html
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: JessKateDD
Date: 2004-02-11 16:38
I learned perfect pitch my freshman year of college. There was a piano in my dorm that was on my way to the cafeteria. So every morning, on my way to breakfast, I hummed what I thought was an A, then hit the piano key. After a couple of weeks, I was dead on. Then I went to other notes after that. To this day, I still start off mornings by humming something then playing it on piano. Perhaps I should package this and charge 100 bucks - "YOU TOO can have perfect pitch in just 5 seconds a day!!!"
Post Edited (2004-02-11 16:40)
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Author: Joel Clifton
Date: 2004-02-11 18:45
I think it can be learned, but I'm sure some can learn it more easily than others. About two weeks ago I decided I would try to learn perfect pitch. I somewhat randomly picked concert E (which, later, turned out to be the lowest note I could comfortably hum) I mostly picked E because it was the first note of a piano piece I like playing (one of the very few that I know how to play). I've imagined what note E was and then tested it with an instrument about 50 times since then, and I've been right about 90% of the time, and when I'm wrong I'm usually imagining Eb or F. My accuracy seems to be getting better with time. A few times I've been able to guess the key of a piece of music playing by comparing its tonic to what I thought E was, and I was practically always right. A few days ago in sightsinging class, the teacher asked us to try to hum Bb, which was the key the next dictation piece was in. People hummed pretty much every note imaginable. I hummed what I thought was Bb (I imagined E and went down a tritone), and I was the only one who was right!
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"You have to play just right to make dissonant music sound wrong in the right way"
Post Edited (2004-02-11 18:57)
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Author: msloss
Date: 2004-02-11 18:50
Of course it can be learned as long as you have a decent supply of accordians and a big enough dumpster. The real trick in perfect pitch is hitting the banjo.
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-02-11 20:23
Humming a "decent A" on demand is not having perfect pitch.
Perfect pitch is the ability to recognise any note (by name) at any octave played on any instrument.
It is a curse not a blessing, trust me.
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2004-02-11 20:38
But if you have the A pitch fixed in your head and have good relative pitch, you can discern notes. So it may not be instantaneous and therefore isn't true perfect pitch, but the end result is the same -- "that's an E," "that's an F#," etc.
Seems to me the only advantage of true perfect pitch is that you're all set if it becomes an Olympic sport. The time trials will surely be fun to watch.h
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-02-11 20:58
In college, my room mate (a double bass/piano performance major) had perfect pitch.
After consuming too many beers at college "happy hours" his perfect pitch would actually rise by a half step.
Ask him to sing an "A" and you would get a "Bb".
Ah... the mysteries of alcohol...GBK
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Author: clarinetmajr
Date: 2004-02-11 22:58
haha, I just did an experiment... I sang the first note of the mozart clarinet concerto and then played my cd, and I was right on! I'm not studying this piece at the moment and I haven't listened to it in a while. Weird!!!
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-02-11 23:22
Would it be better to have perfect pitch relative to a Bb clarinet? Meaning when someone says hum an "A" you actually hum a B? I would think this would solve wonders if you had to improv. For instance, instead of playing what you think would be a cool riff in the key of C, you end up playing one whole step up and sounding horrible.
Just something I was thinking . . .
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-02-12 00:00
Alexi ... it would be far better that you don't worry about having it at all, frankly, just go off and play all major scales three octaves ... far more edifying! (tongue firmly in cheek).
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-02-12 02:27
Oh I'm prefectly happy with my sense of relative pitch. I can play a scale on an instrument and tell that the sixth note is flatter than the rest. I was just always wondering why someone would'nt want to develop it in relationship to their instrument.
I thought about that story about the piano player who was going nuts because the clarinet cues were in a different key and her mind couldn't make sense to them. And I got to wondering what would happen if SHE played clarinet instead of piano. Whether her pitch would have developed to understand clarinet and hate the "clashing" piano part on a score, or if she would not be able to accurately sing the clarinet parts and would be one full tone lower.
Just something I ponder at night. Along with why we drive on parkways and park on driveways . . . .
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Wes
Date: 2004-02-12 06:15
Perfect pitch is when you can hit the wastebasket with that old reed on the first attempt!
Pitch concerns are of great interest and there are many ramifications. Many times I hear notes and know that they are familiar but I can't name them. Many other times, I hear notes and know what they are because they remind me of a note in a familiar phrase. For example, one might know that a note heard was the same note as the clarinet F in the Concertino, which happens to be a concert Eb. The low C played by a flute seems to be a C because of the character of the note when played on a flute.
Also, notes that are played sharp or flat seem to be ugly or irritating or dull rather than sharp or flat to me, without a pitch standard to compare with at that moment. In addition, I can often match pitch immediately with my instrument with a note on a CD or record with no prior clue. But from hearing the notes, I don't know their names. These capabilities don't seem to be perfect pitch. Having played the oboe for many years, I just make stable reeds, never adjust the instrument tuning, and depend upon my ear to tell me how to play and no one complains. I can often tell how much the flute player beside me has practiced recently by how sharp their third register notes are.
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2004-02-12 18:49
My brother and I had identical musical upbringings, starting with piano at age 5. He has had absolute pitch from (apparently) the very start, while I and the rest of the family have very good relative pitch.
The difference is very striking. My engineer father tested my brother with an audio oscillator and found the perception of pitch to be quite exact - I wish I could remember some numbers, but this was over 50 yrs. ago. My parents would give him little musical challenges, e.g. playing the 11 of the 12 notes of a scale on the piano simultaneously, after which my brother would immediately name the missing note.
My favorite memory is of when we were learning to drive an old WW II jeep with no synchromesh. My brother could immediately double-clutch or shift without the clutch altogether. It turned out he was listening to the pitch of the engine to match gears.
John Morton
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2004-02-12 19:12
I know a composer with perfect pitch who grew up in a small village. The only instrument in that village was the church organ, which was tuned very low. To this day everything sounds sharp to him!
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2004-02-16 02:47
I've been looking for a reference which has now been located: _Brains That Work a Little Bit Differently_ by Bragdon and Gamon (B&N, 2003). One section/chapter of the book is on Perfect (Absolute) Pitch, and eight papers on the topic are referenced.
They write that the brain structures of those with perfect pitch are different in the left Planum Temporale. While this may be with a person from birth, there is some belief among "experts" that proper training at early ages may cause structural changes in the brain that correspond to this ability. Most who have Perfect Pitch began musical training or exhibited musical ability at a very early age (Mozart, for example). However, some who have it don't know, because they have never matched their internal pitch recognition to a pitch reference. So people who fall into that category can rather easily "learn" to exhibit Absolute Pitch, even though all they are really learning is the names of various pitches.
Hey, that was a paraphrase of several pages, so I hope it makes sense. Obviously, those learning must have a properly tuned reference, so they can learn properly.
Regards,
John
who has nothing perfect about him
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2004-02-16 11:07
I was alwys under the impression that the definition of someone with perfect pitch was:-
" a person who can throw a set of bagpipes far enough to hit an accordion."
Could become an olympic sport.
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Author: Phat Cat
Date: 2004-02-16 19:35
Re perfect pitch:
In NY baseball, David Cone and David Wells did; Tom Seaver, alas, did not.
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