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From: hrs@houxb.UUCP (H.SILBIGER)
Newsgroups: net.audio,net.music.classical,net.music
Subject: Re: Tone deafness AND absolute pitch
Message-ID: <294@houxb.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-May-84 14:12:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxb.294
Posted: Fri May  4 14:12:11 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 5-May-84 02:21:40 EDT
References: <293@houxb.UUCP> pyuxn.632
Lines: 14

Mr Rosen, the article on tone deafness was posted to net.audio
since there was a question in Mr DeBenedictis' article requesting
information on equalizers about his alleged tone deafness.
I also posted it to net.music.classical.
Your pitch identification ability is a form of relative pitch identification,
where you use memory as your referent. If your memory referent
did not shift, one could not tell the difference between your
skill and that of someone with absolute pitch.
The exact mechanism of absolute pitch is not known. It apparently
has to develop in early childhood, but has been shown to
be training dependent. People with absolute pitch can tell
whether a turntable is running only a semitone fast!

Herman Silbiger CGE (Certified Golden Ears, but only relative pitch)