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From: vange@stolaf.UUCP (Erin L. Vang)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Perfect pitch
Message-ID: <1712@stolaf.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-May-84 17:09:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: stolaf.1712
Posted: Fri May 18 17:09:52 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 19-May-84 06:58:55 EDT
Organization: St. Olaf College, Northfield MN
Lines: 24


I don't believe perfect pitch is necessarily an acquired "skill."  
I had perfect pitch when I was younger and only played piano, which
is in concert pitch.  However, in fifth grade, I began playing the
horn (in F), picked up cornet, trumpet, and fluegelhorn in eighth,
(all in Bb), then tuba and euphonium (more concert pitch), and so on...
Also, I began playing more and more music in which I had to transpose,
to horn in Eb, D, C, G, A, Ab, B, Bb, etc.  Over these years, I 
gradually lost my perfect pitch, simply because my brain got confused
from having to think in all the different keys--i.e., thinking that
concert G was C, or concert f# was b, or whatever.  

Now, I can no longer reliably give any concert pitch on demand, but
I do have relative pitch.

Yes, microtone perfect pitch, as someone put it, does exist.  I have
it, to the extent that regardless of whether I can name pitches, 
I can infallibly tell whether they are sharp or flat from the 
accepted scale based on A440.  When I could still name pitches (i.e.,
before taking up the alphabet soup of other-keyed instruments),
I could tell that, too...

Erin Vang
...ihnp4!stolaf!vange