Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!dogie.macc.wisc.edu!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!nis!quad!dts
From: dts@quad.uucp (David T. Sandberg)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: What is perfect pitch?
Message-ID: <357@quad.uucp>
Date: 29 Nov 89 04:08:41 GMT
References: <18807@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <365@bbxsda.UUCP> <1989Nov27.212927.3253@agate.berkeley.edu> <7051@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: dts@quad.uucp (David T. Sandberg)
Organization: Quadric Systems, Richfield MN
Lines: 25

In article <7051@portia.Stanford.EDU> gaia@portia.Stanford.EDU (fai to leung) writes:
:Just cursious, will listening to intervals instead of pitches enhances
:a "grasp" of music context?  Or vice versa?  I don't have absolute pitch and 
:am interested to know the other side of the story.  Or is this a totally
:different issue?

I don't know if it's a different issue or not, but here's what I think.

It's my opinion that absolute pitch can be a help in performing difficult
pieces, especially for a vocalist, but is not as important in other areas.
As far as "grasping musical context" goes, I believe that sensitivity to
intervallic movement is far more important.

I myself have nothing resembling absolute pitch, but am much better with
intervallic relationships.  I feel that, particularly from the viewpoint
of a songwriter, the ability to discern relative pitch has been far more
valuable to me than absolute pitch would have been, and I certainly would
not trade it for the other if given the chance.

However, if someone knows good techniques for practicing absolute pitch
identification, I'm not adverse to trying them.  Perfect pitch certainly
wouldn't be a great hindrance.  ;')

-- 
David Sandberg             dts@quad.uucp or ..uunet!rosevax!sialis!quad!dts


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