 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Ashley
Date: 2001-05-25 18:32
I think I'm starting to develop perfect pitch..not sure though. I used to (a year ago maybe?) not be able to tell whether I was in tune or not. Now I can tell almost exactly. I can hear the beats between the 2 pitches.. i didnt used to be able to do that. that could just be my ear getting better though. Now though, i can sing certain pitches.. not all pitches, but several. these pitches are those that start songs that I've played or sung many times.. for instance, I played the clarinet part to a vocal solo of Send in the Clowns. It started on a low Ab, concert Gb. I dont know if its because I've heard that pitch so many times, but you can tell me to sing a low Gb and i can sing it. The same goes with a few other notes, including concert Bb. Maybe i've just heard these notes so many times i just remember them.. i dont know. I can be sitting at the computer, start to hum or sing a song, if i know what pitch it starts on, I check it with the keyboard next to me,and i'm right about 90% of the time. I cant name any pitches that are played though. So i dont know. I've been told you can be born with perfect pitch (I have a friend that was born with it), and that you can develop it. Thoughts??
~Ashley~
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mario
Date: 2001-05-25 18:50
When I was young... I had to go through exams of musical dictation (namely, listening to short fragments and writing them down by ear). It turned out that the instrument used to play these fragments was the clarinet (on tape of course) instead of the usual piano. Do not ask me why, but for several years musical dictations in my school was based on clarinet playing.
Clarinet tones have colors and property across the bridge that is easy to recognize for a clarinetist. Typically, these musical dictations have fragments in the staff (hence, across the bridge). I could figure the fragments out just by noticing the change in tone colors. I aced these tests and was told I had perfect pitch.
I never told them my trick of course...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Kaizhi
Date: 2001-05-25 19:19
My oboe teacher tested me by turning his back on me and playing notes here and there and I guessed everyone of them correctly. He concluded that I have perfect pitch but I am quite sure I don't. Just told him basically what Mario had; be able to recognise characteristics of notes.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Eoin
Date: 2001-05-25 21:51
Perfect pitch is generally reckoned to be just an extremely good memory for notes you have heard. So you are right, you are in the process of developing it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: J. Exner
Date: 2001-05-27 12:53
In my understanding, perfect pitch is something that cannot be "developed"--it just is. A person with perfect pitch can tell you immediately what note or notes are being played, and he is not sure why--he just knows. Relative pitch, on the other hand, can be developed through experience and ear training. With the clarinet, for instance, you know what certain notes sound like (who could mistake the throat Bb?). A singer can feel what the notes sound like as he/she sings. Perfect pitch is a gift that can be an annoyance, or so I've heard.
Jill
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2001-05-27 15:50
Jill,
I did some research into this previously (I perhaps posted the info in the Klarinet archives or here - I don't remember) but it most certainly can be taught - there is even a few courses that can be had to learn "perfect" pitch (both absolute and relative "perfect pitches"). There's been numerous studies over time confirming this. Some people have fantastic "pitch memory" without training. I'm not entirely sure if perfect absolute pitch is all that useful - if you have perfect relative pitch and can remember one note's frequency then of course you now have perfect absolute pitch.
Perfect relative pitch isn't very difficult. You can remember tritones by thinking of the song "Maria" from West Side Story (or the evil tritone from beginning to the theme song from TV's "The Simpsons") and a barbershop quartet will alwasy get in tune initiall by humming a 1-3-5-7 chord. Between those two (and a couple more memorable sequences - I used to play guitar so I automatically think in 4ths and 3rds for tuning sequnces) you can figure out any pitch in a chromatic scale. Sometimes you've got to switch octaves or fifths - but that's easy because there'll be no beats (I hum with one one blocked by a finger to cheat).
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ginny
Date: 2001-05-27 16:43
Ashley, its wonderful that your ear is coming along so nicely.
I have two kids with stunning ears. One has perfect pitch, one relative pitch.
The one with relative pitch plays by thinking intervals, the one with perfect pitch thinks in
note names...They seem to have taken different approaches for the same goal. The kid
with relative pitch is a little quicker at picking out melodies, at least for now. They both transpose easily (surprize) and even sight sing a little. The perfect pitch kid
(evident by age 3) still occasionally just hears notes, not music! He now knows what the intervals are too, and can think that way although it is not 'natural' to him.
I was able to get the relative pitch kid to name notes cold (like a pitch pipe, random on the piano) years ago, but he cannot do that now, as far as I can tell.
My point is that it seems a matter of musical (fixed v. movable) approach, although this is not supported particularly by any study.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-05-28 00:34
Brain doctors recently found out:
1)perfect pitch can be learned only by 5 years old, and
2)relative pitch can be learned only by 14 year old.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-05-28 01:11
Last night I happened to listen to a radio programme where a brain doctor specializing in dortage therapy using games, musics, etc speaked confidently like that. However, this field seems full of disputes even among professionals. He may be insisting that 'solidl' sense of perfect pitch or relative pitch should be imprinted when the brains are developping, and may not be denying acquiring these after 18 years old, for example. http://musica.uci.edu/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
