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Perfect Pitch

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2011-10-25 18:55

In another thread I asked

> I've always wondered how people with perfect pitch learn what A
> is in the first place.
>
> You [Rachel] describe being able to produce a 440 Hz A by ear.
> But how did you learn that A=440 Hz?
> When, if you remember, did you learn that A was 440 Hz and that
> a 445 Hz A was sharp? And how far away from 440 Hz does a note
> need to be before it isn't an A anymore?

clarnibass wrote:

>
> I think of it like colours. You learned what e.g. "red" was and
> now you recognize it. You could have called it "blue" and then
> you would just call it blue.

I understand that this would get you in the general area of a pitch. But I have "normal" color vision and I can't associate a given hue with its wavelength. How does a person with perfect pitch learn that 440 Hz (as opposed to 435 or 445) is A or that 330 Hz is middle C and onward through the rest of the audible range of notes? Do people with perfect pitch hear notes as they exist in true temperament or as they've been exposed to them on keyboard instruments tuned to equal temperament? Does someone with perfect pitch in Berlin learn their tuning and someone who grows up in Leningrad or Moscow learn a different tuning? Does each feel discomfort listening to performers who play at different tunings from the ones the person with perfect pitch grew up with?

There must be players on this BB who have perfect pitch and might give some input about this.

Karl

Karl

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kdk

2011-10-25 18:55