Perfect Pitch - Anyone Got It?

jbalou02 · #1 10-06-2010, 02:55 PM

I was reading a thread about skeptics that got closed and I didn't have a chance to comment. Someone was skeptical of perfect pitch which is an interesting topic to me, because I have hard data to back up that it is a real phenomenon.

I'm super jelous of my son...he has perfect pitch. He's 14 now, we found out when he was about 7 or 8, his piano teacher called me into the room and asked him to guess this note, she plucked out a G and he said "G", then Db, F#, etc. This is with him having his back to the keyboard. I was floored.

He can call out the pitch of any tone, be it a bass, saxaphone, violin, door bell, break squeel or hum of a band saw. What key a song is in, even if its major or minor (although I think the major/minor thing is learned). He can tell me if I'm in tune or not. I say "how does it sound" and he'll tell me if I'm flat or sharp, and even can tell me "alot" or "just a little". I check it with a tuner, and he's spot on. It is quite amazing.

He can't really explain how he can do it, he just does, he just knows. I'm curious if any TBers have this gift, and if so, can you elaborate on what its like and how it works for you?

NateS · #2 10-06-2010, 03:09 PM

i've read quite a lot about perfect pitch, and it is fascinating. Can he tell the pitch of the wind? Some can.

Bloodhammer · #3 10-06-2010, 03:13 PM

I wish I was an X-man....

ctbass · #4 10-06-2010, 03:14 PM

Had a Bari sax player in our band (12 pc funk band). Bride changed her mind on a couple of tunes right before the wedding. Dude sat down with an IPOD and proceeded to chart out the whole band!! Mutant!

jnevi9nr · #5 10-06-2010, 03:14 PM

this would be a weird, but great skill to have. i dont have it.

Grizzly700 · #6 10-06-2010, 03:16 PM

I'm getting there. Lots of ear training. The way I'm learning it is basically just relate the pitch I'm hearing to an F.

jgroh · #7 10-06-2010, 03:19 PM

I definitely dont have perfect pitch, but some times I can tell what key a song is in just by hearing it, and from there (and from years of playing experience), I can sometimes figure out a bassline in my head before picking up the bass. I can usually tune my bass pretty accurately without a tuner too.

I just attribute this to having decent ears, and years of playing along with my favorite songs and figuring them out by ear (there were no internet tab sites when I was just starting to play). I pretty much figured out every Rush song every made pretty accurately by ear lol

skwee · #8 10-06-2010, 03:20 PM

I do not, but three colleagues of mine over the years have it. For one (a great bass singer and violinist), it was difficult, especially when singing with others. He would have to pretty much memorize our program and not look at the music during the concert if we got out of tune, or if the director wanted to do it in a key different from the page. As I understand it, he would hear the pitch in his head if he saw it on the page.

My other colleagues (two baritones) seemed to have a much easier time with it, in that they are able to diverge from the written note just fine. They might know that they are sharp or flat or whatever, but they could focus on the music making instead of the pitches flying by.

I find it interesting that the only people I know with perfect pitch are low voices. One of them is a Chinese-American, so with a pitched language background, it is far more likely that he would have it.

TripleDouble · #9 10-06-2010, 03:22 PM

I had at least 4 different friends at music school who had this talent. 2 were great musicians, one average, and one was kinda bad, but with him it may have been a matter of taste as opposed to skill.

Thunderthumbs73 · #10 10-06-2010, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbalou02

I was reading a thread about skeptics that got closed and I didn't have a chance to comment. Someone was skeptical of perfect pitch which is an interesting topic to me, because I have hard data to back up that it is a real phenomenon.

I'm super jelous of my son...he has perfect pitch. He's 14 now, we found out when he was about 7 or 8, his piano teacher called me into the room and asked him to guess this note, she plucked out a G and he said "G", then Db, F#, etc. This is with him having his back to the keyboard. I was floored.

He can call out the pitch of any tone, be it a bass, saxaphone, violin, door bell, break squeel or hum of a band saw. What key a song is in, even if its major or minor (although I think the major/minor thing is learned). He can tell me if I'm in tune or not. I say "how does it sound" and he'll tell me if I'm flat or sharp, and even can tell me "alot" or "just a little". I check it with a tuner, and he's spot on. It is quite amazing.

He can't really explain how he can do it, he just does, he just knows. I'm curious if any TBers have this gift, and if so, can you elaborate on what its like and how it works for you?

Perfect pitch is not useful to me, but the relative pitch I have IS useful. I've been in unnaccompanied choirs whose pitch is in flux (like when they start in one key and end up slightly sharp or flat to that), and because I have relative pitch, I could comfortably adjust to the pitch of the choir I was singing with.

Not sure I can find a practical and realistic place/application where I would need perfect pitch, and I've been involved in a very, very wide range of musics, ensembles and environments. Never found a place or situation in all my years of doing music, where my sense of relative pitch wasn't enough.

I am suspect of the notion that pefect pitch, in reality, is desireable, or useful, if you have well-developed relative pitch.

Joeykun · #11 10-06-2010, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bloodhammer

I wish I was an X-man....

Well played!!

I dont have PERFECT pitch but I can get real close.
One time I took all the strings off my bass, cleaned the neck and put a fresh set of strings on.
Tuned it by ear and then checked it to my Peterson Stroboflip. To my surprize I was dead on with
each string. I quickly drank a beer to kill any perfect cells going on in my brain!!

Seriously, this did happen. Including the beer!!!

ZombieSpacebat · #12 10-06-2010, 03:29 PM

i would imaging having it would be horrible, listening to a band live for instance and being able to tell that they were not all in tune would drive me nuts

DanNowhere · #13 10-06-2010, 03:34 PM

I can identify notes by ear, but not entire chords. I can usually at least pick out the root of the chord, though. I was always told "perfect pitch" was the ability to identify chords, not just single notes.

rbbrchkn · #14 10-06-2010, 03:34 PM

I have perfect pitch (known it since I was 8) and find it to be a real pain in the ***. There are very few situations where it comes in handy, but it did help me develop better relative pitch because I was always comparing the pitch of things I'd hear to the absolute pitch in my head. As far as playing with other people goes, it's all relative pitch for being in tune with a group, especially with those electric guitars or keyboard instruments that use tempered tuning.

The best way to explain it in my experience is that most people can sing a note back to you after you sing it to them, sometimes even a minute or two later just because of short term memory. So perfect pitch is the same thing, just that the pitch becomes imprinted in longer-term memory and everything is relative from there. Nothing too special about it.

5StringBlues · #15 10-06-2010, 03:38 PM

I had a friend with perfect pitch,totally mutant keyboardist.

I would sometimes drive by her work at lunchtime and honk the horn on my old VW bus.

One day she called me and said, " The notes on your horn are F# and C,but the C is a little flat."

Wow.

ugly_bassplayer · #16 10-06-2010, 03:41 PM

During my music studies I met a couple of people who had perfect pitch, they all said it's not all that cool to have it.

One even said it was a curse, he couldn't stand anything even slightly out of tune.

Nagrom · #17 10-06-2010, 03:45 PM

You guys with perfect pitch think you got it bad. Try having a wife with perfect pitch...

M0ses · #18 10-06-2010, 03:48 PM

I've got relative pitch: the first note I play every single time I pick up my trumpet (several times daily) is concert F. And after seven years of that, I can sing concert F at any time. Now it's just a matter of learning my intervals well enough to get everything off of that. That's why I'm going to music school.

Thunderthumbs73 · #19 10-06-2010, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nagrom

You guys with perfect pitch think you got it bad. Try having a wife with perfect pitch...

But is she listening to and hearing you when you talk to her? Sometimes, that's when you really need her hearing.

Blueszilla · #20 10-06-2010, 03:59 PM

I thought pp was being able to sing or hum a tone accurately without a reference? Oh well...

I don't have it, but how can you not know if you or someone in your band isn't in tune? I know I can and it's a pet peeve of mine, (I've pissed a few people off because of it). I'm totally distracted to the extreme if someone is out of tune. I can tune a bass/guitar to itself (is that relative?) within one cycle of true, (if it's intonated accurately) and I can certainly tell a major chord from a minor, or a 7 from mi7, but I don't think those abilities are special. I suspect most musicians with a little experience can do that. Or not, IDK.

Having pp is be cool, as long as it helps with the music.