Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!ukma!dftsrv!mimsy!midway!gargoyle.uchicago.edu!boy6 From: boy6@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Justin Boyan) Newsgroups: comp.music Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch Message-ID: Date: 20 Mar 91 01:23:39 GMT References: <1991Mar18.195507.25639@odin.corp.sgi.com> <3719@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Distribution: comp Organization: University of Chicago Lines: 27 I've had perfect pitch since I was small. Introspecting, it seems that I do it by somehow having memorized what each letter sounds like. I feel as though my musical ability is very linguistic, as if notes were letters, chords were words, and phrases were, well, phrases in a language which is quite as natural for a child to pick up as a spoken language is. An article I read a couple of years ago in a psychology journal (I forget which, sorry) asserted that this was how all perfect pitchies did it, and that it had to do with having lots of musical exposure at a young age and *not* with genetics. I find that it makes transcribing very easy, that it's a very good party trick, and that it makes it difficult to transpose. When I'm playing a piece in a key other than the key I learned it in, I have to make a conscious effort to "shut out" my perfect pitch; *or* I try to mentally transpose it in my head as I go, as in "let's see, I'm supposed to be playing an A here, but since I'm transpos- ing I'd better play a C..." As a side note, my father used to have perfect pitch but is now consistenly a half-step flat; e.g., when I test him, he'll say, "It sounds like an A to me, so I'll say B-flat." And he's right. Justin - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Justin Boyan boy6@cs.uchicago.edu 5480 S. Ellis Ave. #2 home: (312)-955-5834