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From: fredg@marob.uucp (Fred Goldrich)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch
Message-ID: <28030766.D90@marob.uucp>
Date: 10 Apr 91 12:39:02 GMT
References: <1991Mar27.122408@Think.COM> <886@mrcu> <2398@aber-cs.UUCP>
Organization: ESCC, New York City
Lines: 26

In article <2398@aber-cs.UUCP> ads@cs.aber.ac.uk (Adrian Shaw) writes:
>
>This is interesting. I definitely come under category (1) (I instantly
>know what the note is) _provided the instrument it is played on is a piano_.
>Sometimes I will immediately know the note on other instruments, but if
>I don't recognise it immediately, I can only guess and will not be confident
>about being right. When I recognise a note immediately, I have no doubt about
>it.

	Interesting indeed.  I do _not_ have absolute pitch; but, very occa-
sionally, I will hear an unfamiliar piece of music and will feel confident
that I know what key it's in; fewerwhen I check, I am always right.  However,
I would say this has happened less than a dozen times in my life.

	You know, Maurice Abravanel is fond of talking about how one of the
obstacles to musical interpretation is overintellectualization, and how this
fault is practically unavoidable because the evolutionary development of
the brain has favored rational thought over the preservation of instinct.  I
bring this up because my experience with perfect pitch leaves me wondering
whether it is an ability that lies buried "in there" (pointing inward), to
which I only occasionally have access.

	Any thoughts?
-- 
	Fred Goldrich
	{att,philabs,rutgers,cmcl2}!phri!marob!maestro!fred