Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!mjs
From: mjs@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Marc Sabatella)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Re: Perfect Pitch
Message-ID: <7180012@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM>
Date: 20 Mar 91 16:14:13 GMT
References: <3123@esquire.dpw.com>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Lines: 23

On another tangent, I've been thinking about the way some of these courses
describe perfect pitch - hearing "colors in a note" - or the comment here that
the F# below middle C always sounds TWANGY.  This also ties in with the feeling
that some keys are "richer" or than others, or the claim that D minor is the
saddest of all possible keys.

Some speculations: there is probably basis to these type of claims, given one
particular instrument other than an equal tempered, purely synthesized one.
After all, on, say, a clarinet, C will always sound different than Bb because
the leading tone in the former is a full fingered tone, usually slightly flat,
will the leading tone in Bb is open and a little sharp (assuming standard
fingerings, of course).  On a piano, different keys will use different strings,
so they could indeed sound different.  But note the "color" of a key would
vary from instrument to instrument, so as a means of achieving perfect pitch,
I wouldn't bet on it.

Is there any reason to think that, say, a pure sine wave "A" should sound
"different" than a "Bb", other than the obvious fact that the pitch is
different?  One possible explanation - perhaps some bones in the ear (or
elsewhere) have certain frequencies at which they produce sympathetic
vibrations.  Different pitches might trigger different resonances in the body.
If this is the case, then the "colors" would be the same from instrument to
instrument, but might vary from person to person.