http://www.perfectpitch.com

have any of you bought this? I'm thinking about getting it, and I'm wondering what your thoughts are about it if any of you have bought it or have any experience using it.

It's been discussed a lot here. The general opinion seems to be this: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

I personally think PP is overrated. A good relative pitch is at least as useful, and that is definitely achievable.

What if you put on headphones and when you went to sleep at night, the only noise coming out of the headphones was an 'A' or a 'C' or something. After a while your brain theoretically should recognize the pitch of an 'A' or a 'C' (whichever you played). Think it would work as opposed to paying for a course to teach your ears?

Steve Vai purportedly used a metronome with an earphone out and an "A" tuning note, and walked around with it in his ears nonstop for 2 weeks. Dunno if it's true.

Being born with PP, or AP (Absolute Pitch), I can tell you that 1) it IS teachable, and 2) it's not as important as relative pitch.

...Being born with PP, or AP (Absolute Pitch), I can tell you that 1) it IS teachable, and 2) it's not as important as relative pitch.

I agree that AP is hereditary, and that ears can be trained to understand well what they hear with a variety of well-known, though demanding methods.

I also know from personal experience that when working as a music teacher/performer, who is teaching, practicing and performing, composing/arranging 10 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, I start to experience a degree of AP. This effect fades quickly for me, when I stop a heavy work schedule, and has never been as fast, dead on, and detailed, as the perceptual skill of my colleagues and teachers who were born with AP. I don't mind it, but I don't really use it either.

I am not saying you are holding out "teachable" AP as a short-cut to musicianship. But don't you think some people might get that idea? :cool:

I think transcribing is a really good way of training your ears. I know it helped me.

I think transcribing is a really good way of training your ears. I know it helped me.

Yes, but since I believe you have AP (previous thread :p), I have a question:

Did transcription help you mostly with understanding the rhythm and meter of what you heard (but not pitch), or was it something else? Just wondering... :D

AP or PP is something one is born with, which is the case for about 3% of humanity, I've been told. You may inherit it from one of your parents. My mother has it, and my sister too (and both excellent musicians). If you are, like me, not one of these lucky people, you can improve your relative pitch (which we almost all have to some extent) by training your ear. This requires a minimum of theoretical knowledge about intervals, the rest is practice. For me, the most useful has been singing and sightreading parts in choirs or smaller vocal groups. This approach has worked well for improving my ear, as well as my reading and transcribing skills. As Dr. Jim points out in his post, spending a lot of time with music practice (in whichever way suits you best) definitely helps a lot.

I am not saying you are holding out "teachable" AP as a short-cut to musicianship. But don't you think some people might get that idea? :cool:

I'm sure MANY people have that idea. Perfect Pitch and musicianship have nothing at all to do with each other in the purest sense. One can aid the other, true, and that goes both directions, but they can also be completely separate. It's not my fault if people are looking for a shortcut to learning how to play and perceive music - I's jes' answerin' th' question, ma'am. :)

...Perfect Pitch and musicianship have nothing at all to do with each other in the purest sense. One can aid the other, true, and that goes both directions, but they can also be completely separate...

The friends, colleagues, and teachers who I have known with AP were generally superb musicians, but certainly for some with AP, music is not what they pursue.

As one of the lucky ones with AP, I am curious why you believe it is teachable? :D

I know one person well that has PP - my twinbrother. I'm sure it helped him in his childhood in advancing quickly on his instrument, piano, but to become the pro he is today, he definitely had to practice, practice, practice like everyone else. He still practices. Creativity, timing, phrasing, technique etc. are things that have nothing to do with PP, and those things are far more important in becoming a musician. I believe everyone - with practice - can develop a decent relative pitch (RP) that is at least as useful as PP, if not more.

Through my brother, I've also gotten to know a lot of other great professional musicians (probably around 15-20 people). AFAIK, my brother is pretty alone with his PP in that group of musicians. All of them has a great RP though. Guess how they obtained it?

Forget the hype around PP and go practicing, do ear training and transcribe songs instead. That way you will obtain a good RP and you won't miss you don't have PP. I'm rather convinced about that.