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Re: Perfect Pitch

Author: gsurosey
Date: 2011-10-26 17:54

My ability to hear pitches is (I think) why I can transpose as easily as I can. There are some rehearsals where I end up reading English Horn parts (if the Oboe II player doesn't have it with her or she isn't there). I say this because I see the part and having heard it before, know where the notes are supposed to go (for the longest time, I thought EH was in G when it's actually in F).

I'm actually more apt to mess it up if I try to think about where the written pitches are in relative to concert pitches. It's a little tougher for me with an A clarinet (especially reading, say, Alto Sax parts with the tritone transposition; that makes my brain hurt). I do read what I'm playing while transposing; it's not like I memorize the parts. The first time I ever played an A clarinet was when I was halfway through undergrad, so I hadn't worked with it nearly as much as a Bb clarinet.

As for being heriditary, I don't see it (in my family anyway). No one else in my family can hear/recognize like I can. And whoever said it can be a curse it so right! I'm not saying 440 is the be-all-end-all, but I go to some rehearsals for a group in that there are lots of times where we don't even agree on 440 at the start of rehearsal and it goes downhill from there.

Radio recordings get to me sometimes. I have heard pieces on the radio and wondered if they were re-written in a different key because they sounded so much higher/lower than a live performance (which makes playing along with recordings difficult as well).

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Rachel

Clarinet Stash:
Bb/A: Buffet R13
Eb: Bundy
Bass: Royal Global Max

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2011-10-25 18:55