Author: TianL
Date: 2011-10-26 18:24
Karl,
I have perfect pitch and I'll try to answer some of you questions. (More precisely, I have "relative perfect pitch", that is, out of nowhere if someone plays me one note, I can tell what it is; however, if out of nowhere someone asks me to sing a concert pitch, I cannot do it). I believe that there exists an "absolute perfect pitch" in which they can just sing any note.
Note that "relative perfect pitch" is different from "relative pitch". Most musicians would have the latter.
First of all, I would like to say that from my experience, (relative) perfect pitched is learned -- not born with. At least for me, it's learned. I can't say this about absolute perfect pitch though. That might or might not be born with.
Secondly, I didn't start clarinet until 8th grade and before that, I played a concert-pitched instrument for about eight years. That's when I learned the perfect pitch. Now, I believe that if I started playing clarinet when I was 4 (let's just assume it), then I'll also have perfect pitch, just that my "perfect pitch" will be in clarinet pitch (Bb).
Now, this explains why the fact that not many clarinetists (or any wind instruments players) have perfect pitch, because most of them start too late and have already lost this learning ability. On the other hand, many more string and piano players have perfect pitch. Just like learning languages, it's easy for kids to pick it up, but not easy for adults.
Thirdly, I will describe "how" I can tell what note it is when I hear it. All the notes sound "different" to me, even if they are played from the same instrument, they just sound different. I'm not exactly sure what's different though, but they just sound different.
Something interesting is that, if someone gives me a note that is off-tuned, then I will not be able to tell what it is. For instance, when someone sings (without accompaniment), it's often impossible for me to tell the pitch. If something is between an A and a G, I cannot tell it's between A and G. It has to either be an A or a G for me to be able to tell.
I think my above description answers some of your questions:
1. It's not that I learned the concert A first. I kinda just learned them all at the same time. Each note sounds different to me. It's not that I already have the A in my brain and then when I hear the first note, I try to figure out what it is. When I hear a note, I immediately know what it is.
2. When I started clarinet, obviously now that it's in the different pitch from what I'm used to. But this gave me no problem. Whenever I pick it up and start playing, my brain quickly switch to the pitch of Bb (thus the relative pitch dominates over the perfect pitch). If I play an open G on clarinet for example, it would sound like G to me immediately after I play the first note on clarinet.
3. Each time I play clarinet, I (subconsciously of course) tell myself what a note sounds like. Like when I play a G, I hear it, and I subconsciously tell myself that's a G. This has REDUCED by perfect pitch ability. I still have it, but I tend to get more confused now than before I started playing clarinet. This again proves that (relative) perfect pitch is a learned skill.
4. As a kid, I never "tried" to learn perfect pitch. At some point I just gained it. Just like when someone is young, he or she doesn't try to learn a language, but at some point he or she just picks it up.
Hope this helps.
Post Edited (2011-10-26 18:27)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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