Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Double Bass Perfect Pitch?
- Thread starter MrFawkes1605
- Start date
Lots of debate on this. The general consensus I've seen is that you have to be born with true perfect pitch but that you can develop your relative pitch to a very high degree.
I think it's nurture more than nature but it can't be learned per se. it's more of a conditioning thing. 70% of students in Japanese conservatories have perfect pitch. theory is it's because they have a pitched language so as their brains develop in the formative years it logs pitches in there.
if youre old enough to be typing on here you're too late.
if youre old enough to be typing on here you're too late.
Yeah there are lucky one out there who are born with it. I had a buddy through highschool who played upright and had perfect pitch, AMAZING bassist but later on in college he had to stop because he played with wretched technique. I also taught 5th grade orchestra my senior year of highschool and had young violist who me and and my mentor teacher discovered had perfect pitch...sadly that girl decided music wasn't for her and quit the next year 
Head on over to this other Forum...
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It's all they write about over there... year after year... after year.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It's all they write about over there... year after year... after year.
I don't think I was born with it. That said, you'd think I'd be able to sing in tune all the time and yet I have to practice.
I had a friend at UCLA named Bill Jackson. He was a math wizard and had heterochromia—and absolute pitch. He had been a classically-trained pianist for 12 years since age 6, but said he had always recognized pitches instantly—even in the beginning. He only had to learn their names once. For him, each pitch was as instantly identifiable as primary colors are to us. He could tell you that you needed to add a little more water to your water glass to make it ring at F#. Instantly. Even if he wasn't paying attention when you rang the glass once and only then asked him.
Once I found him sitting quietly in the lounge while a piano tuner was working on the dorm piano. I had to pull it out of him, but he said the guy was doing a pretty good job—just a little sharp in the higher registers. Bill played jazz great. Loved the Ramsey Lewis Trio and raved about them after he came back from hearing them. I asked him if they were all in tune, and he said they were great. When I pressed him on this, he said that the sax was a little sharp all night, but it was still great. I dunno how he could ignore those differences, but he did.
I won't believe for one nanosecond that anyone can learn Bill's absolute-pitch ability. I've met several people since then who claimed they had absolute pitch, but they didn't know what they were talking about. If you play a note for them, and they look like they're thinking about it—even for a second—before they answer, they don't have it. It's like someone having to think whether a color is red or green.
I wish I knew what happened to Bill. He must have had a career in math because I can't find any reference to him in music.
Once I found him sitting quietly in the lounge while a piano tuner was working on the dorm piano. I had to pull it out of him, but he said the guy was doing a pretty good job—just a little sharp in the higher registers. Bill played jazz great. Loved the Ramsey Lewis Trio and raved about them after he came back from hearing them. I asked him if they were all in tune, and he said they were great. When I pressed him on this, he said that the sax was a little sharp all night, but it was still great. I dunno how he could ignore those differences, but he did.
I won't believe for one nanosecond that anyone can learn Bill's absolute-pitch ability. I've met several people since then who claimed they had absolute pitch, but they didn't know what they were talking about. If you play a note for them, and they look like they're thinking about it—even for a second—before they answer, they don't have it. It's like someone having to think whether a color is red or green.
I wish I knew what happened to Bill. He must have had a career in math because I can't find any reference to him in music.
^ This, of course, suggests there's some debate as to the precise definition of perfect pitch.
In any case, some people do seem to be born with it, but then I swear my ear has got "better" the longer I've played, so perhaps you can develop it over time... *hopes optimistically*
Pitch discrimination is one of three musical aptitudes that Johnson O'Connor measures in their standard testing. Their data suggests that an individual can not change their capability to any significant extent by training. That is why they consider this skill to be an aptitude. This would suggest more nature than nurture. Probably not what folks want to hear.
Aptitude Testing at the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation
My experience is that they are pretty scientifically legit.
Aptitude Testing at the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation
My experience is that they are pretty scientifically legit.
This is going to sound like an urban legend, but my music teacher told me that his music teacher had perfect pitch. Only that all he played on as a kid was a slightly low piano, correctly tuned to slightly lower than A=440. For the rest of his life, he thought all music was sharp, allthough he knew exactly what note it was, instantaneously.
"Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks had some interesting things to say about perfect pitch.
One thing being about a study in a chinese conservatory (I don't remember the exact numbers, but if you want I'll check, and write them exactly) in which they found something around 80% of the students who had been taking musical lessons before the age of five had perfect pitch, around 50% of those who've had musical lessons since age 7, and it kept decreasing until those who've had musical lessons after the age of 10-11 only about 5% of them had perfect pitch.
So he postulated a theory that as newborns almost all of us have perfect pitch and a degree of synesthesia. But if we don't put it to practice we quickly lose it.
One thing being about a study in a chinese conservatory (I don't remember the exact numbers, but if you want I'll check, and write them exactly) in which they found something around 80% of the students who had been taking musical lessons before the age of five had perfect pitch, around 50% of those who've had musical lessons since age 7, and it kept decreasing until those who've had musical lessons after the age of 10-11 only about 5% of them had perfect pitch.
So he postulated a theory that as newborns almost all of us have perfect pitch and a degree of synesthesia. But if we don't put it to practice we quickly lose it.
Perhaps in China where language is pitch based. But my girlfriend who teaches theory to Suzuki students, who start musical training very young, will attest that the number here is much lower.
While not perfect pitch in any way, I've noticed that I can "remember" approximatley which pitch is what, eg. If I am trying to play a song on piano from memory, I almost always ends up playing it in the original key, as that's what matches the song in my memory.
A few notes is also pretty easy to remember (with no accuracy to speak of, +/– one semitone-ish), mostly the A and E (a from tuning in an orchestra, E from the lowest string on my bass.)
I'm sure may others have noticed the same thing, and that many will notice if you simply pay attention. Pretty cool
A few notes is also pretty easy to remember (with no accuracy to speak of, +/– one semitone-ish), mostly the A and E (a from tuning in an orchestra, E from the lowest string on my bass.)
I'm sure may others have noticed the same thing, and that many will notice if you simply pay attention. Pretty cool
It can be learned, I was 19 when I trained it. Today I hear what note door bells in stores have, phone buttons, tires, boat sirens etc. It can indeed be learned. Maybe I'm some kind of exception but I doubt it, I believe if I can learn it so can anyone else that isn't deaf.
Discrimination and identification are two very different things. There is a vast literature on the topic of absolute pitch. If you wish to delve into the subject, Google the name W. Dixon Ward. He was a wonderful scientist, a greater writer, and a fine human being. Be prepared to abandon what you think you know about "perfect pitch."
You can train yourself. I by no means have perfect pitch, but I've always been able to relate pitches and chords to "colors". Easy.
