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Perfect Pitch

#3
Being able to develop perfect pitch is probably a ridiculous notion.

However, the recognition of intervals can be highly beneficial in playing a pitched instrument - and a learner can develop his ear to become more proficient at recognizing intervals.

Being able to recognize any interval - such as a minor third - is the kind of nuts and bolts skill that a bassist can benefit from.

Save your money on the gimmicky perfect-pitch stuff and, instead, focus on developing your relative-pitch abilities.
 
#5
Perfect pitch is a skill that can be learned, but it takes years and years to fully develop it. But, in truth, you don't really want perfect pitch. Of the people that I have talked to that do have perfect pitch, none of them truely are glad they have it. Yeah, it can be useful sometimes, but in the end, it causes more annoyance and grief than anything else. People I know that have it say that if they hear a note even slightly out of tune, it hurts, even if there is no reference note! If an ensemble is in tune with itself, but as a group is tuned to 443 or 445, they can't listen to it. Many people who have perfect pitch say that even with all of its benefits, it ends up being a curse more than a blessing.

What every good musician needs to develop is good relative pitch. That is where its at. Notes in relation to other notes is what makes music, not the notes themselves.
 
#6
Nick, the 'perfect' pitch you can acquire is unlike traditional perfect pitch, in that, you don't get so sensitive that 2 cents off will give you a headache, but you get adept at recognizing and remembering pitches quickly and accurately. Just like anything it takes a lot of dedication and hard work, and because of that, most people don't 'buy into' that product. But the product is only one method of learning, it works by associating pitches with colors, so that instead of just remembering a pitch with your inner-hearing(tough to do) you remember a color(easier to do) and then when you hear a pitch you think of that color, which tells you what note it is.

Sure, that's one way of doing it, association is a great way of learning, but it's no magic key, you still have to work hard at it.

Acquired 'perfect' pitch *is* desirable because in the process of obtaining it your relative pitch improves greatly, and ultimately you end up with not only superior pitch recognition skills but you also improve your relativistic skills too.
 
#7
Nick Gann said:
...except for some people of certain Chinese dialects; it has to do with the language itself and how pitch relates to the language...
Click to expand...

Um... no... :)

Anyways, I'm really sure perfect pitch is something that you can learn. I was born with it, but I had to take time to perfect it through transcription.

I say every day just pick one tone to study. I know a guitarist who spent the entire day listening to the E string on his guitar, and as soon as I played a song in E he was able to recognize it. It's all about just being able to remember the tones.

I compare it to being color-blind. When you're color blind, you still see colors the same as a "normal" person, you just can't remember them. My color blindness is mostly blue/purple. I can tell the difference, I just can't remember which one is blue and which one is purple.
 
#11
Jace The Bass said:
I agree with CJ

Having perfect pitch will help idenitifying pitches but learning to recognize relative pitch is IMO just as good as perfect pitch

Besides view this site and better yet it's free ( so save your money )

http://www.good-ear.com
Click to expand...

Thank you sooooooooo much for this link! I never thought to even search the net for something like this. What a great site.
 
#13
"Yeah, it can be useful sometimes, but in the end, it causes more annoyance and grief than anything else. People I know that have it say that if they hear a note even slightly out of tune, it hurts, even if there is no reference note! If an ensemble is in tune with itself, but as a group is tuned to 443 or 445, they can't listen to it. Many people who have perfect pitch say that even with all of its benefits, it ends up being a curse more than a blessing."

I sort of agree...I have perfect pitch; I don't think it's fully developed yet, I can hum/sing certain pitches from memory at any given time and can recognize them but I have trouble sometimes with accidentals and such..? And it does hurt to hear a person/group out of tune even if they're in tune to themselves. It's sort of a blessing in that I can hear if I'm in tune when I play upright but it's also a plague in that, if I'm slightly out of tune, I know it...

"I've always wondered what would happen if someone with perfect pitch was raised in a home with an out of tune piano. "

We got my great-grandmother's very old (used to have the player piano mechanism but it stopped working) piano, which we had tuned but is still quite out of tune...needless to say, it bothers me, but I guess it's better than nothing.
 

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