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From: carroll@ssc-vax (Jeff Carroll)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch as a Birth Defect....
Message-ID: <3830@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 91 19:22:34 GMT
References: <4124.27fb558b@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <346@heurikon.heurikon.com> <3177@esquire.dpw.com>
Sender: news@ssc-vax.UUCP
Reply-To: carroll@ssc-vax.UUCP (Jeff Carroll)
Organization: Boeing Aerospace & Electronics
Lines: 62

In article <3177@esquire.dpw.com> rreid@esquire.UUCP (r l reid ) writes:
>
>This is what I haven't been understanding about the whole concept -
>if "perfect pitch" is inborn,  does this imply that 12-to-the-8ve,
>equal temperament is somehow wired into the brain by the Creator?

	My personal opinion (based on my own experience, and having known
others with perfect pitch) is that the skill is learned, rather than inborn.
I assert that none of the people who claim to have had perfect pitch from
birth have evidence to support their contention that the skill was inborn.

>
>The implication (that G-d was born after the invention of the piano!)
>is staggering.

	Not to mention the implied doctrine that instruments which sound in
some key besides C are somehow demonically posessed. Especially horn players,
who are a full perfect fourth away from truth :^)
>
>The serious question to those who understand perfect pitch by virtue of
>having it: if I play you a scale made with the following intervals, where
>the 1/1 is at a frequency that exactly matches an eq12 "E":
>     1/1 8/7 3/2 10/7 5/3 12/7
>
>I expect you'd call my 1/1 an E.  But what would your reaction
>be to the 3/2?  It's "about B", but not exactly (or more exactly,
>depending on your reference).  Do you just hear B, or do you hear
>a mockery of B-ness?

	I hear a B, out of tune. I am often exposed to this at work when I
try to identify, say, a 1000 Hz tone by ear, or when I'm troubleshooting 
modems.
>
>And then WHAT do you do when hit with the 12/7 and 5/3, which are
>both "sixths" above the "E", but neither one is anywhere near to
>an eq12 C#.

	Cringe.

	No, seriously... I think that all these people who claim that they
could identify the C# the doctor whistled on the way out of the delivery room
are either being disingenuous or don't understand their talent very well
themselves.

	I like to draw an analogy to language acquisition. None of us were
born with the ability to speak English (substitute your native tongue here),
but none of us remember learning it. The later you wait in life to learn a 
language, the more difficult it is - the same phenomenon may account for the
difficulty of acquiring perfect pitch.

	This business of imputing color or personality to musical pitches is
sort of interesting, but it reminds me of alchemy. Maybe I'm just not as
sensitive as I was before I went to engineering school :^)




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

"Do you think I care? ... I have an infinite amount of money."	-Bill Gates