Perfect Pitch, how you have it, how does it works. Options

[pianist_1210]

Hi, I'm getting a bit jealous of my friends who all have perfect pitches... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
how does it works anyway?? Does it mean you know what the notes are when some random notes are played, or does it mean you can sing A??
How do people get them?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[Car Expert]

pianist_1210 - do a search. There have been a lot of topics about this.

Car Expert

[pianist_1210]

ok thanks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[lizbun]

I don't have a good pitch, but if you play a string instrument, when you tune it with a piano, you'll get some pitch. You can also try singing a short tune and check it by playing it on the piano.

[cellocase]

That's really interesting about France. I had no idea.

I've always been told that you either have perfect pitch or don't. However, I'm pretty certain I either didn't or didn't know how to use it until I was about 9 (I do definitely have perfect pitch, I can sing notes and I can tell you what notes are), which I always find interesting, because surely that means that there are many people around who do have perfect pitch, just don't know how to use it yet.

Each note has a different feel for me, it's hard to explain, but if you played me a G and tried to tell me it was an A, I'd know it was wrong because there'd be a kind of, I don't know, discordance in my brain. The two notes have completely different feels. Black and white notes are incredibly different, and even before I tapped into my perfect pitch, I could always tell which are which.

The best way I can put it is thinking of those transparancies - the transparent sheets you put on projectors and can write on. If you have two identical ones, with writing on, (one representing the note being played, one representing, if you like, the "keyboard" in my head) and put them on top of each other, you would easily be able to see when the writing on both sheets is in different places because the sheets aren't exactly in the same place. If you tried putting the sheets in different positions, and got the position where the sheets are perfectly on top of each other, you can tell immediately, because it looks as if there's just one set of writing, because the two are in the same place.

That's a bit of a long-winded analogy, but for me that's what it's like. If the note being played is the same as the note name being thought in my head, I can tell immediately, because they interlock, they feel the same. If it's different, I can also tell, because there's something not right about the feel.

This may not make any sense, but it's the best way I can describe it...

[ShArOn_StAr92]

when i first started, i'm just like... when you play me a note, i couldnt tell what note it is... it was until 12 years old then i started to have perfect pitch and i'm able to know the notes you play... and it was around 11 or 12 years old then i started joining school choir and started listening to classical music every night... so i guess i develop the skill of perfect pitch by either one of these 2 or both... (at first when i join the choir, i always sing out of pitch...) so for me, it's first that i manage to sing the correct pitch when i'm given a note before i have perfect pitch to tell what note is being played... the perfect pitch is exactly like what 'cellocase' has said... each note has it's own unique sound/pitch and had a different feel and i think those things that 'cellocase' has said do make sense...

so if you want to have the skill of singing the correct pitch when the note is given to you, first, you name any note u choose then u hum to the tune, then you play the note on the piano and check whether you had hit the right note...

ShArOn

[bassmadmatt]

I find that perfect pitch works well. It's very useful to have, and good for impressing other people too.

[earplugs]

It's also worth remembering that Perfect Pitch isn't quite perfect - it varies from person to person. Most people with perfect pitch will agree on notes played on the piano - but remember that a piano is very slightly out of tune with itself. When you play a note on a stringed instrument, you will often get some disagreement from perfect pitchers as to whether the note is in tune or not. If you want to be really evil, play a note a quarter tone between a natural and sharp and see what happens.

Allan

True, particularly on stringed instruments where you may want a different pitch for a note when it is a single note in a melody or scale and when it is double stopped. There is no single correct pitch for every note all of the time.

[YetAnotherPianist]

If you want to be really evil, play a note a quarter tone between a natural and sharp and see what happens.

Maybe you should have a listen to the latest addition to the forum recordings site (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif).

[AnnC]

Apparently it's also quite painful. My accompanist has perfect pitch. He hears the note written, but if a piano is slightly out of tune he "hears" both together.
Useful though, during the interval in a concert, where the only "piano" available was an electric one, another "pianist" played cocktail style. The only key he could play in was C, so he kept altering the pitch button to make himself sound better. He left it up a second. Luckily, when my man came to play my introduction, he recognised this, stopped, and was able to rescue a tricky situation - especially as I was due to sing a top E flat!

[anacrusis]

If you want to be really evil, play a note a quarter tone between a natural and sharp and see what happens.

Maybe you should have a listen to the latest addition to the forum recordings site (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif).

I don't have absolute pitch, and just as well, really, since the music I like is often played a semitone flat of modern pitch, and on some instruments, even lower than that, or "between the keys"...
When I heard the addition to the site, it didn't upset me, but I did identify it as a particular note, and was amused when I realised what was happening.
I understand that some European orchestras now pitch their a' at 442Hz - certainly Moeck are now making recorders at this pitch (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) .
I'm not sure that cultivating "perfect" pitch is always such a good idea in these circumstances! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[YetAnotherPianist]

I'm not sure that cultivating "perfect" pitch is always such a good idea in these circumstances! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Yep, I'm just thankful that the harpsichord I play is tuned to 440 - chatting to someone who has a couple of harpsichords at his house in Glasgow, he said his are usually tuned to somewhere less than 400, so I'd be stuffed if I tried to play them....

[Trebor]

The only key he could play in was C, so he kept altering the pitch button to make himself sound better.

Might try that myself sometime.

[anacrusis]

I'm not sure that cultivating "perfect" pitch is always such a good idea in these circumstances! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Yep, I'm just thankful that the harpsichord I play is tuned to 440 - chatting to someone who has a couple of harpsichords at his house in Glasgow, he said his are usually tuned to somewhere less than 400, so I'd be stuffed if I tried to play them....

this instrument was at 406 for its last recording

I bet you're glad you don't play the clarinet (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (or do you?)

[sarah-flute]

When I was a young child learning piano at the conservatoire, perfect pitch was taught to all children in France (it's called l'oreille absolue here). I know people generally think you either have it or you haven't, but because a fixed do system is used in France (largely because the notes are named do, ré, mi, fa, sol, si, do and it would be confusing to have do meaning both 'c' and potentially any other tonic note). The effect of this is that do is always c and eventually you can recognise the notes when you hear them.

Would that not be the same if "this note is C" was constantly reinforced...? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

Admittedly, when I activate my 'taught perfect pitch' it involves me pitching the note I hear against an A, F, or C in my head and then working out the interval. I can do this quite quickly now.

I can do that reasonably reliably most of the time, but I wouldn't by a long way class myself as having perfect pitch.

Having tuned to A for years and years playing the violin and then the flute, my A is fairly reliable, though if someone told me "this note is..." then whether I knew if they were telling the truth or not would depend on how far out the note was and how tuned in/tired I was that day - & if I had a cold or an ear infection, all bets would be off (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif). However I wouldn't have a problem playing or singing something that had been transposed. I think playing a period pitch instrument would probably annoy me for a while, especially if I was switching from a modern instrument, but once my ears had got used to the different pitch it wouldn't bother me.

I also have pretty good relative pitch. Between being able to pitch an A, and by extension D, G, and E, having been used to pitching those notes when tuning my violin for many years, and having good relative pitch, means I have a similar sort of ability, (I correctly guessed YAP's note, insofar as that was possible (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)) but I wouldn't class it as perfect pitch in the same sense as it is usually meant. It's not absolute - it's a comparison with a pitch that I remember in my head, I can't pluck a note out of thin air instantaneously - and it also varies, getting better if I play and practice more, and getting less reliable and less confident when I am not doing musical things - in both these ways (for me at least - & I expect there are other differences if I stopped to think about it) it doesn't seem to meet the criteria of perfect pitch.

(I actually think that in many ways it's more useful than perfect pitch, as not having transposition completely do my head in etc is quite nice - I'd hate to have to mentally transpose music while I sang, or if I was playing something in a different key from the written music! Although I would love to be 100% reliable in my pitching of A, as then I would effectively have a chunk of the useful side of perfect pitch (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) and like most musicians have often coveted "real" perfect pitch such as YAP, Cheeble and others have)