Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!sgi!cdp!lucy
From: lucy@cdp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch as a Birth Defect
Message-ID: <1094700004@cdp>
Date: 12 Apr 91 16:39:00 GMT
References: <3177@esquire.dpw.com>
Lines: 22
Nf-ID: #R:esquire.dpw.com:3177:cdp:1094700004:000:1196
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!lucy    Apr 12 09:39:00 1991


Perfect pitch, perfect pitch.  I've been able to name notes
immediately from any source (piano, voice, other instrument, car
horn, computer beep) since I was 5 (OK, we didn't have computers
then.)  I *don't like* the term Perfect Pitch just because it
creates this confusion.  I think a much better term is Pitch
Memory.  Yes, the E's bleed into F's a little, and the G's
into A flats. I do not have the fine discrimination for perfect
intervals that the average string or wind player possesses (I
am a keyboardist, and you know how we are.)  I just don't think
the two things have anything to do with one another.

So, what is Pitch Memory?  It's just like any other kind of 
memory, that is, in the human entity, slightly imprecise but
largely reliable.  What about conversations we remember? We
usually don't get every word right. How about doing imitations
of people?  We get some elements of how they talk and move, and 
miss others.  Some people, like Rich Little, get much more.  
Who knows why some of us, like myself, hooked up our labeling
and categorizing ability to notename-hz relationships?  Sometimes
I think I learned to do it as a little kid because my eyesight
was so bad...