Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!cs.uoregon.edu!ns.uoregon.edu!milton!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!carroll
From: carroll@ssc-vax (Jeff Carroll)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch
Message-ID: <3717@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 19 Mar 91 06:46:52 GMT
References: <3123@esquire.dpw.com> <1991Mar18.104444.29128@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <1991Mar18.214745.6496@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Sender: news@ssc-vax.UUCP
Reply-To: carroll@ssc-vax.UUCP (Jeff Carroll)
Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics
Lines: 27

In article <1991Mar18.214745.6496@spool.cs.wisc.edu> ttl@aura.cs.wisc.edu (Tony Laundrie) writes:
>"Ask Cecil," a syndicated trivia newspaper column, recently stated that
>perfect pitch may be inherited, but who cares?  Cecil acknowledged that it
>is a nifty trick to be able to whistle an arbitrary key, but most musicians
>don't have it and still play fine.  Do you people with "perfect pitch" really
>find it useful?

	Yes and no. sometimes it gets in the way. 

	It's handy to be able to tune my guitar without a pitchpipe.

	I have had choir directors who used me as a human pitchpipe, which is
not always a pleasant experience. If I'm singing a capella in a choral group,
I tend to revert to inner pitch sense if the group is badly out of tune, which
only exacerbates the problem.

	In the church choir, I'm usually expected to be the one who sits next
to the completely tone-deaf chorister (there's one in every choir) who 
couldn't sing the right note if you stood on both sides of him at once and
sang it into both of his ears.

	And if the director decides to transpose the piece, I'm in trouble.


-- 
Jeff Carroll
carroll@ssc-vax.boeing.com