Path: utzoo!mnetor!motto!dave
From: dave@motto.UUCP (David Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: What is perfect pitch?
Message-ID: <74@motto.UUCP>
Date: 30 Nov 89 16:18:20 GMT
References: <18807@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <365@bbxsda.UUCP> <1989Nov27.212927.3253@agate.berkeley.edu> <7051@portia.Stanford.EDU> <357@quad.uucp>
Reply-To: dave@motto.UUCP (David Brown)
Lines: 27

In article <357@quad.uucp> dts@quad.uucp (David T. Sandberg) writes:
[...]
>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.  ;')
>

Although I don't have perfect pitch, I can often come very close when asked
to identify a note or to sing a note, even without a reference pitch.  I
think it began when I heard a difference between the tone of black notes
and white notes being played on a piano.  From there it developed until
I could usually recognize which notes were being played.  Even now, if
I'm having trouble identifying a note, or finding a pitch, I imagine
it played on a piano (I play piano myself).  That seems to help.

My brother plays trumpet.  He has about the same degree of pitch sense
as I do.  I asked him about it once, and it seems that he also finds it
easier if the note is being played on a trumpet, or if he imagines a
trumpet playing.  For pitch sense seems to be a matter of experience or
conditioning.


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