How do you know when you've got it??
by what ages should you know??
Who's got it here??

To my mind there are two, or even three, kinds of perfect pitch: A friend of mine finds it painful to play or hear something in a key other than the one she can see on the written music, and can always identify any note.
However I don't think that perfect pitch is only allied to reading music and knowing about keys. I am pretty good at reproducing vocally the pitch of a song a long time after I have heard it. I am a church cantor, and if I have to pitch an solo psalm from the lectern, I can remember where we finished the last accompanied piece and work it out in relation to what I have to sing. As a folk singer I can frequently pitch songs exactly as I heard them previously, even years ago.

hm ...i think we have got another discussion board regarding perfect pitch. hmm..well..i kind of get confused between 440 and 442.

QUOTE (martl1 @ Jan 22 2005, 03:42 AM)

Who's got it here??

I think Cheeble got it if I'm not mistaken.

i have perfect pitch. my teacher was playing notes on the piano and asking what they were and i knew them all. people in my orchestra call me tuning fork

QUOTE

hm ...i think we have got another discussion board regarding perfect pitch. hmm..well..i kind of get confused between 440 and 442.

I only found out about the 440/442 thing the other day, it explains why sometimes I'd piano along to a recording but the orchestra would be sharp!

It used to bother me immensely when I was listening to recordings of baroque music on period instruments with A ~= A flat. However, I've listened to quite a bit now and if I don't think about it too hard I can just about convince myself that the piece in F really is in F, not in E.

There was another thread on this in the general discussion forum recently! I don't have perfect pitch.

QUOTE (songsinger @ Jan 29 2005, 02:10 PM)

I am a church cantor, and if I have to pitch an solo psalm from the lectern, I can remember where we finished the last accompanied piece and work it out in relation to what I have to sing.

That sounds like relative pitch to me - I can do that and I definitely do not have perfect pitch.

and yes Cheeble has it. check out this thread about it

QUOTE (Student @ Jan 31 2005, 02:10 PM)

QUOTE (martl1 @ Jan 22 2005, 03:42 AM) Who's got it here?? I think Cheeble got it if I'm not mistaken.

you are right there!

I have perfect pitch, and so does my sister. Some people think it's genetic, I think it's just something to do with having been exposed to music from a very early age (my father is a musician and most of my extended family are as well).

i have nearly prefect pitch. lol i can tell some note easy like Bb n D but the others i have to think about lol!!!

When I was 12 or 13 I used to think everybody can tell the key of a piece or song after hearing it once...

I find that a combination of perfect pitch and good relative pitch extremely useful!

My flautist friend has perfect pitch. Its kinda freaky cause once we tested him with a thunderstorm and we had a tuner beside the tape player so we knew what it was (Bb) and he got it right. Freaky or what?

I can sing (if you can call it that) and then work out all the other notes from that. I think thats relative pitch

I have 'perfect' relative pitch, I can identify any note or chord when given one note to start with, and many of my acquaintances mistakenly believe I have perfect pitch - I can assure you it is not the same thing!

I remember for a music scholarship audition I had to name some notes..
the guy played a B, asked me what it was and I said it was a B
he obviously thought I said D and went on to say, "No, its B, but otherwise from all you've done I think you've got perfect pitch"
lol, has anyone ever been through something where someone misunderstands what you said even though when you said it it was right?

QUOTE (martl1 @ Jan 21 2005, 07:42 PM)

How do you know when you've got it?? by what ages should you know?? Who's got it here??

You will definatly know when you've got perfect pitch you can do allsorts with it. (by the way you have to be very fortunate to have perfect pitch!) You could get it from any age i know some one who found they had it when they was just 4. I haven't got perfect pitch though! UNFORTUNATLY!

Hey, Relative pitch? isn't that easy? everyone should be able to work out a note if they are told what one note sounds like! You just sing up or down a scale until you get to the note you want.
I don't think i have perfect pitch, but i can more often than not sing an A if someone asks- is that perfect pitch? I dont think it is.

Perfect pitch,,,,,, is throwing a banjo into a skip without hitting the sides

If I hear somebody playing a violin I can always work out what key they're playing in by listening to the timbre of the notes, but I don't thin that's perfect pitch - just knowing the violin.

Violinia

" have 'perfect' relative pitch, I can identify any note or chord when given one note to start with"

is that not called absolute pitch, i have relative pitch!

OK, I think I have a degree of perfect pitch. I think it can be broken down into 5 parts:

a) Being able to identify a note on an instrument by its pitch, without reference;
Being able to tune an instrument to the correct pitch without a reference OR being able to tell if an instrument is out of tune;
c) Being able to produce (ie sing) a pitch on demand;
d) Being able to identify a chord, including its pitch (not just its type);
e) Being able to identify the key signature a piece is in, without the manuscript (obvioulsy)

I can do a, b & c, and partially d.

I read something interesting recently about perfect pitch actually. Apparently scientists have just discovered that it is to do with language rather than music. There is a link between perfect pitch and having learnt a second language very early on and people with perfect pitch have more developed language sections of their brain. Of course, it also happens randomly- you don't have to speak two languages to have perfect pitch- but the likelihood is that someone with perfect pitch will also have a facility for languages. The brain views the pitches of the notes as just another 'language' and therefore learns to 'translate it'. It's really interesting because it means that having perfect pitch is actually not necessarily linked to musical ability at all- lots of people who aren't musical probably have it and don't know it! So there you are........ you learn something new every day!

QUOTE (cellogirl @ Mar 14 2005, 10:22 PM)

Hey, Relative pitch? isn't that easy? everyone should be able to work out a note if they are told what one note sounds like! You just sing up or down a scale until you get to the note you want. I don't think i have perfect pitch, but i can more often than not sing an A if someone asks- is that perfect pitch? I dont think it is.

My guitar teacher can do that....he can sing an E and a C#

I know i definitely don't have perfect pitch, but I have a fair relative pitch. However I can identify if someone is playing the chord of G maj. on a guitar. Thats it though.

relative pitch is easy, cellogirl, to someone who is educated in music, but it's more of a skil learned from aural and theory practice, rather than the lucky ones who have perfect pitch. It is not easy to everyone! my point was that a number of people mistake a good aural knowledge of relative pitch for perfect pitch, and as i said it is not the same. its all about intervals and basic harmony really. (makes it quicker than counting up the scale...)

Surely if you play an instrument then it becomes easy to have perfect/relative pitch.

E.g I play the cello and i can always hear in my head the open strings(A,D,G,C) and then you just work any other note out from there...

Is that wot u guys all do?

Daisy
xxx

QUOTE (mattrattley @ Mar 16 2005, 06:32 PM)

OK, I think I have a degree of perfect pitch. I think it can be broken down into 5 parts: a) Being able to identify a note on an instrument by its pitch, without reference; Being able to tune an instrument to the correct pitch without a reference OR being able to tell if an instrument is out of tune; c) Being able to produce (ie sing) a pitch on demand; d) Being able to identify a chord, including its pitch (not just its type); e) Being able to identify the key signature a piece is in, without the manuscript (obvioulsy) I can do a, b & c, and partially d.

It seems that pitching expertise is a continuum - tone deaf at one end of the spectrum - and producing a note on demand at the other.

I have found after years of a capella singing, and singing with only well-tuned instruments, that I can produce a B flat on demand - that is my "reference" note when asked to produce any other note. B flat happens to be the first note in "Tuba mirum" from Mozart Requiem, which I practised and practised to perform in 2002!

But I have witnessed far superior abilities than mine. For example a distinguished NZ composer Dr Douglas Mews was able on one occasion able to tell that our choir had slipped a "microtone" in the course of singing an a cappella number. In other words, there are some people out there who cannot be fooled about pitch whereas I can be!

Could it be that some of us have the potential to be pitch perfect - and if so, years and years of working with music on well-tuned instruments will enhance the abilities first.

my teachers say that i am pitch perfect. i can sing any white note pretty easily (sometimes i get black notes wrong) and i can identify them when they are played (sorry that sounds really posh) i think you know when youve got it because you can song a note or just say that song is in .....major/minor

QUOTE (Daisy @ Mar 23 2005, 10:52 AM)

Surely if you play an instrument then it becomes easy to have perfect/relative pitch. E.g I play the cello and i can always hear in my head the open strings(A,D,G,C) and then you just work any other note out from there... Is that wot u guys all do? Daisy xxx

But transposing instruments can stop this....most of you with perfect pitch are string players, which are at concert pitch.

Playing Clarinet, Horn etc. will hinder you!!!

I play trumpet and I have perfect pitch... I guess I must be an exception then...
Except I do play piano and have been playing it longer...hmmm...Oh I duno!!! this is a tricky business!!