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Post by steve on Mar 5, 2013 17:37:36 GMT -5
ASnyone got it? Do you believe in it?
I was thinking, after another thread, about my ability to pitch an "E" in my head. I can also pitch and "A" and a "G" and from there I can pitch anything else I want. Have I got perfect pitch though? Well I don't think so because you see I cheat- or at least I think I do.
If I want an "E" I just run through the Beatles " Norwegian Wood" in my head. If I want an "A" then I use "Ticket to Ride"- well you get the picture. For some reason, once I have heard a song and become familar with it, I can always play it in my head exactly in the same key as the original. I recently heard a piece of music that I hadn't heard since I was a kid (it was actually the theme to a tv show) and I'd got it exactly right. But I don't know if that is perfect pitch.
My eldest son however could sing a note when asked and it would be spot on. As far as I can tell, he was just able to do it. He would be able to name a chord just by listening to it. He plays piano and was able to hear a song and more or less play it by ear immediately after. He loved chords and the Steely Dan chords were his favourites. Now I would call his ability perfect pitch but mine....well no.
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Post by muddylives on Mar 6, 2013 8:04:27 GMT -5
I believe in it, and know that I don't have it.
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Post by steve on Mar 9, 2013 6:20:17 GMT -5
Yeah thats what I fugured Herb. My method is a trick albeit one based on a good musical memory but then again I wouldn't want to test it against microtonal scales.As I write this I just tested myself against a guitar nearby and used the method I referred to above and was spot on.
My son, though, went beyond that and he must be one of those rare people who have it.
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Post by jmuscara on Mar 24, 2013 8:22:18 GMT -5
I've seen one method to learn perfect pitch ( www.pitchpaths.com ) that uses a method similar to Steve's. It's just memorizing what's the first pitch of some common classical riffs. There's no reason this wouldn't work with other types of music, as long as the pitches can be clearly heard. I think it's like learning a language in that it's easier the younger you are. But, I do think it's learned, despite the fact that some who have it say they were born with it. The frequencies chosen are arbitrary in that they were picked in our Western system of music, and they could have been something else. It's also been shown that the people from places where the language has pitch-related meanings learn it more easily, likely because they are more used to listening for pitch. It's probably easier to learn if you try to listen for and sing the pitch. That connection through you makes it deeper, I think.
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Post by Admin on Apr 2, 2013 14:37:39 GMT -5
I've seen one method to learn perfect pitch ( www.pitchpaths.com ) that uses a method similar to Steve's. It's just memorizing what's the first pitch of some common classical riffs. There's no reason this wouldn't work with other types of music, as long as the pitches can be clearly heard. I think it's like learning a language in that it's easier the younger you are. But, I do think it's learned, despite the fact that some who have it say they were born with it. The frequencies chosen are arbitrary in that they were picked in our Western system of music, and they could have been something else. It's also been shown that the people from places where the language has pitch-related meanings learn it more easily, likely because they are more used to listening for pitch. It's probably easier to learn if you try to listen for and sing the pitch. That connection through you makes it deeper, I think. Nice tip Joe. I tried it and it does work. Thanks.
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Post by jmuscara on Apr 3, 2013 6:27:18 GMT -5
I've seen one method to learn perfect pitch ( www.pitchpaths.com ) that uses a method similar to Steve's. It's just memorizing what's the first pitch of some common classical riffs. There's no reason this wouldn't work with other types of music, as long as the pitches can be clearly heard. I think it's like learning a language in that it's easier the younger you are. But, I do think it's learned, despite the fact that some who have it say they were born with it. The frequencies chosen are arbitrary in that they were picked in our Western system of music, and they could have been something else. It's also been shown that the people from places where the language has pitch-related meanings learn it more easily, likely because they are more used to listening for pitch. It's probably easier to learn if you try to listen for and sing the pitch. That connection through you makes it deeper, I think. Nice tip Joe. I tried it and it does work. Thanks. What have you done with it, Jim?
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Post by Admin on Apr 3, 2013 6:34:07 GMT -5
Nice tip Joe. I tried it and it does work. Thanks. What have you done with it, Jim? I tried it to be able to identify specific notes. I listened to a couple of songs that I had the piano score for. Then, after knowing the true pitch of specific notes, I tried to identify these by listening to an unknown vocal and using the pitch from the test score, identify the new one. Now don't misunderstand, I wasn't perfect but it did give me a relative pitch by which I could identify the unknown pitch. I didn't miss a single note on three songs.
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Post by jmuscara on Apr 4, 2013 7:18:18 GMT -5
Once you have a reference pitch, you can do quite a bit. The more you do, the better you get.
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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2013 7:21:12 GMT -5
Once you have a reference pitch, you can do quite a bit. The more you do, the better you get. I'm sure you're right. It helps determine the key of a song pretty quickly for me now. I'm messing around with the harmonica (only really play the C harp for the time being) but I can see a real benefit when trying to determine which key harp to use. With relative pitch, you can home in on the song's key pretty quickly. Thanks.
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Post by saguitar on Apr 22, 2013 20:06:50 GMT -5
One of my two keyboardists has perfect pitch. It truly is uncanny, and we call her Freak of Nature. She can tell you any note you want, and then sing it if you ask. It's freaky, she can hear a car horn and tell you what note it is (or what it's close to). Plus, she can listen to a song and tell you what key it's in, and what the chord changes are. So guess what, she gets to write all our charts too, so the talent comes in handy.
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Post by steve on Jun 17, 2013 10:42:41 GMT -5
Well my son comes into the 1/10000th category.
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Post by Admin on Jun 17, 2013 11:10:41 GMT -5
Not the same as perfect pitch, but I can definitely tell when someone is flat or sharp - either instrumentally or vocally.
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Post by steve on Jun 29, 2013 8:16:35 GMT -5
Well my son comes into the 1/10000th category. He can call out a random tone, then hit it? Well I would hit a note and he'd tell me what it was. He could do it with chords too though that was harder for him though he got it right more than not. He could sing a note to order too. He has a fantastic voice but no ambitions so far as a career in music goes. A terrible waste but not much I can do about that. When he was 15 he'd taught himself to play a hell of a lot of Steely Dan songs -very talented.
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Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2013 13:21:51 GMT -5
Perfect Pitch vs. Relative Pitch How they work together to give you the complete musical picture . . . Q. Why do I need Relative Pitch when I can have Perfect Pitch? Musicians often think that Perfect Pitch is supremely superior to Relative Pitch. It's true in some ways, but it's like comparing apples with oranges. The truth is, Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch are completely separate hearing skills, each with its own unique powers and abilities. Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch are complementary. They do their jobs best when they work TOGETHER like the two hemispheres of your brain. Relative Pitch gives you an intellectual (left brain) UNDERSTANDING of what you hear, whereas Perfect Pitch gives you the artistic (right brain) PERCEPTION of what David Lucas Burge calls "pitch color." Great Comparison - Relative vs Perfect
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