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From: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: tone deafness?
Message-ID: <610@hadron.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Nov-86 09:01:03 EST
Article-I.D.: hadron.610
Posted: Wed Nov 12 09:01:03 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Nov-86 20:21:42 EST
References: <2376@bu-cs.bu-cs.BU.EDU> <3808@columbia.UUCP> <210@mind.UUCP> <3817@columbia.UUCP> <212@mind.UUCP>
Reply-To: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Distribution: net
Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA
Lines: 32
Summary: Largely anecdotal

In physics class in high school, my teacher asked if any of us
knew what tone was being produced in his demonstration of wave
phenomena.  I thought, "why not?" and came up with the correct
answer ... just as he said, "good, i hate people with perfect
pitch." ...  I explained later that I hadn't used perfect pitch,
but rather counted up from middle-C (a technique harnad mentions
in passing in a later article).  I was told that most people
with perfect pitch do in fact use this technique, either
consciously or unconsciously.  One frequency is well-remembered,
which is easier than memorizing all (perfectly-tempered) notes;
and then octaves can be easily generated and any other notes
counted.  This appears to be a learned trait.  My sister,
however, memorized my answering-machine tone by hearing me
whistle it (!@#$); and my mother recognized it as a fractional
tone (not a pure natural, sharp, or flat).  Perhaps there is
also an inherited factor.  This is all speculation, though.

The jnd is much smaller in the presence of a reference tone.
When I tune my instruments by myself, I get pretty close; but
when I tune (by ear) against other instruments simultaneously,
I can get almost perfect equality of tone.  Better than other
people, sometimes.  (Actually, I tune by trying to phase out
the "beat" frequency; but I can tell the direction and the
approximate amplitude of the difference, when others can't.)

Harnad's book sounds interesting; but I wish he would post
title and projected publication info.  That's not advertising,
that's giving a reference [;-)].
-- 

	Joe Yao		hadron!jsdy@seismo.{CSS.GOV,ARPA,UUCP}
			jsdy@hadron.COM (not yet domainised)