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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Absolute (perfect) pitch
Absolute (perfect) pitch
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John95683
6 posts
Jun 16, 2011
6:48 PM
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How common is perfect pitch? Anyone here have it?
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Diggsblues
811 posts
Jun 16, 2011
7:55 PM
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My father had it. He was highly trained conservatory
pianist. He was trained at the Royal Conservatory of
Naples starting at the age of 14 to 24.
He said all the ear training was perfect pitch.
When I was in music college the person sitting to
the left and right of me in conducting class had it.
I don't have it.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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Todd Parrott
520 posts
Jun 16, 2011
9:07 PM
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I have it. If you play a note on the piano, I can tell you what the note is, or if I hear a song I can tell the key of the song. Some say it's a God-given gift, but I believe it's one of those things that can be acquired with practice. I personally feel that this comes from my early days of having a box full of harps and having to search through them to find the right key to play along with the songs on the radio.
If you listen closely you'll find that every key has a certain characteristic or mood. Though some may disagree, I believe that the key selection is part of what has made some songs hits. Try putting "Sweet Home Alabama" in Eb instead of D.... it just isn't the same. Or try playing a song like, "Reach Out I'll Be There" (which is in F#/Eb minor) in the key of G and E minor... it loses it's mood. Different keys make you feel different ways.
Country songs are often in E, G, A, C, D, and sometimes F. Some say this is because it's easier to play the guitar in these keys, which could be partly true, but I think it has more to do with the mood these keys set. After all, you can easily use a capo.
Lots of Gospel choir songs are in Db, Ab, Eb, and sometimes Bb. This is certainly not because these keys are easier to play in on the piano. Sharps and flats have a characteristic that I really like.
Blues is popular in E, G, A, D, and sometimes C. I think E is a perfect key for the blues. You don't hear the blues as much in keys like Eb or Ab, but think about Stevie Ray Vaughn. I believe he tuned down a half step, and his music has a darker feel in my opinion, but I mean that in a good way.
I could go on about other styles, and I do realize that you can play any style of music in any key, but I guess the point I'm making is that this how I can identify the key of a song, or a note on the piano; I recognize it partly the mood, and partly by the tonal characteristic, much like how you can recognize your friends by their voices. With practice, I think most people could do it also, and I've even seen courses available for purchase to help you accomplish this.
Having a good trained set of ears is just as important as being able to bend, overblow, etc. I've found that the more styles of music I've listened to, the better my ears and ability to improvise have become.
This reminds me of a funny story about Chris Michalek. He was making me a Db harmonica, and when I called him to chat about it he said, "Your harp is turning out really nice..." and he commenced to play it over the phone for me. When he finished I said, "Chris, that's a C harp." "No, it's a Db, dude," he replied, but I think it just embarrassed him a little bit when his B.S. attempt kinda backfired... but that was just Chris, and I just kinda chuckled. He was a good guy.
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2011 9:31 PM
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boris_plotnikov
566 posts
Jun 16, 2011
11:34 PM
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Chris Michalek had perfect pitch...
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Excuse my bad English. Click on my photo or my username for my music.
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Stevelegh
235 posts
Jun 17, 2011
12:44 AM
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Have you seen the Perfect Pitch course? I got it and did it years ago. Perfect pitch (or their definition of it) has a few different levels. If you can identify a pitch within a few hertz, on your own instrument, but not on another, it's still considered perfect pitch. The pinnacle is 'oral recall' where you can pick a note out of the air perfectly and sing it perfectly on pitch. For those chord / harmony types they also offer the Relative Pitch course, which helps you identify chords, harmonies and single out notes from chords. Very handy if you're playing ensemble (say horn lines) and want to work them out.
I'm going to dig my copy out again. You definitely notice an improvement in your ear.
Last Edited by on Jun 17, 2011 12:45 AM
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Diggsblues
812 posts
Jun 17, 2011
4:22 AM
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@Steveiegh I was using it at one time and I was able
to sing C when I woke up in the morning.
@Todd I think it was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that
talked about mood of keys. I think Scriabin also.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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nacoran
4209 posts
Jun 17, 2011
11:27 AM
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I think there are several levels of "perfect" pitch and some of it is learned.
I read an interesting article on language that said, basically, that the more words you have for something the better you were at noticing subtle differences. For instance, in cultures that don't have a word for pink showing people a bunch of flash cards with different colors on them people will just classify the card as red. When asked later if it was light red or dark red they won't know. Because they have no word for pink they don't bother remembering information like that, although if you hold the red and pink card next to each other and ask which one is lighter they can tell.
So, there is a defined level of perfect pitch... but you can break it down into it's components.
The first thing is not being down deaf. Can you tell two notes played at the same time or separately are the same note, which one is higher, etc. Some people have problems telling fifths and octaves apart.
Then you have the ability to match that pitch. Can you sing (assuming it's within your range) or play the note you hear on the first try? I can sing a pitch and I'm getting there with the harp.
Then there is being able to sing (or play) a note after being told just 'play a F#'. When I was in choir I knew people like this. I could get ready to sing the note, and within the context of the music figure out what note was coming. In other words, I could guess based on the key we were in and where the note was what it was. I could be accurate enough to pick the degree of the scale, but I couldn't pick out that first note. As for playing it, well, that's just a memorizing what lines go with what notes on your instrument.
Then there is the last category. It's the ability to hear a note and immediately say what the note is, and the reverse, the ability to see a note and be able to sing it without a reference pitch.
I think really there are two different skills involved in all of it; there is being able to tell the different pitches apart and learn there relationship to each other, and then there is the part of associating all that with language. (Hmm, skimming Wikipedia seems to break things into similar categories.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch
I can't find the number, but I seem to remember reading that it was a pretty small number, 1%-10% depending on nature and nurture.
It's actually kind of funny. I spent years singing in choirs before I picked up the harmonica. I find that I have a hard time picking a melody out on the harmonica if I can't already hum the melody in my head. I still seem to internalize things to my voice faster than the harp.
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Nate
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