Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!carroll
From: carroll@ssc-vax (Jeff Carroll)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch
Message-ID: <3787@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 3 Apr 91 03:49:56 GMT
References: <1991Apr1.165504.5325@cs.cornell.edu> <716@synopsys.COM> <1991Apr2.145836.16301@cs.cornell.edu>
Sender: news@ssc-vax.UUCP
Reply-To: carroll@ssc-vax.UUCP (Jeff Carroll)
Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics
Lines: 25

In article <1991Apr2.145836.16301@cs.cornell.edu> rapo@cs.cornell.edu (Andy Rapo) writes:

>Our understanding of what 'green' is doesn't change when we put on
>sunglasses.  Our eyes depend on color relationships but our
>understanding of color doesn't change. This does not seem to be
>true of sound - for most people.  My understanding of what a C# is is
>completely dependent on what I'm given to be a C.

	This color/pitch analogy thing has been reduced to absurdity. The
reason why your "understanding of what a c# is is completely dependent on
what I'm given to be a C" is that your ear has not been sufficiently trained
to give you reliable pitch memory.

	IMHO there is no physiological difference here; the difference is 
purely in social convention and environment. If we had installed horns of 
different pitches rather than lights of different colors at traffic
intersections, everybody in our society would develop absolute pitch.

	And, BTW, your editor mucked up the format of that posting too.

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

"If it sucks, it sucks because *I wrote it*." - Whoopi Goldberg