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Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

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Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#41

Post by hirvi74 »

rybosome wrote: post #19

I suppose I have perfect pitch, in that I can more often than not: * aurally identify key signatures * aurally identify chords * sing a given note on command It wasn't until I was into my early twenties that I could do this. For me, the single biggest stepping stone was building the connection between what I could hear in my head from a song that I remember clearly with the underlying music theory. Specifically, buil…

What you are describing is known as "perfect relative pitch." It's quite a feat to acquire it -- takes many years of practice.

My understanding of true, perfect pitch is something a bit more innate. Individual with perfect pitch do not need to rely on any other techniques.

I've known people with both types. If anything, the practical differences are not significant enough to truly matter from my observations. Many of the folks with true, perfect pitch have told me that it is a curse more than a blessing. These people tend to hear notes even when they do not want to e.g., toilets flushing in an out of tune C, the pitches in people's voices, the pitches of jet engines, CPU coil whining in D#, etc..

When a lot of modern life is constant noise and out of tune, it can be somewhat distressing for people with perfect pitch, or at least, so they have told me. I can't imagine turning off a song on the radio solely because it's a few cents out of tune, but hey, I knew people that would.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#42

Post by carey »

dberst wrote: post #39
laurieg wrote: post #18

Not quite music, but I had quite the adventure learning pitch perception as it applies to languages. As an adult I learnt to speak Japanese. Japanese has a pitch accent that is used to discriminate certain words. For example 箸 (chopsticks) and 橋(bridge) are both "hashi" but with a different pitch accent. Event though I spoke Japanese for years I couldn't hear the difference. With isolated words spoken slowly and care…

I think you could definitely do the same thing to learn relative pitch. In western music theory there's generally only 12 notes. And #1 and #12 are the same, an octave, which many people can recognize implicitly Furthermore, while a piano might have 88 keys (still doable with practice) most actual music rarely jumps more than an octave or two. Generally, music is also further restricted to a key/mode of 8 notes, agai…

You have a fencepost error; the notes in Western music in equal temperament are C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭, A, A♯/B♭, B, then c an octave higher is the thirteenth.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#43

Post by hirvi74 »

drumttocs8 wrote: post #12
droideqa wrote: post #9

Or you could just take depakote[0]. [0]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3848041/

Honestly fascinating. Any first-hand experience?

I do not know anyone that has taken Depakote for the purpose of perfect pitch. The individuals that I have known have taken it for severe psychotic/mood disorders. From what I remember, it's not a fun time for the side-effects can be absolutely brutal.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#44

Post by [deleted] »

w-m wrote: post #15

Absolute pitch: a completely useless skill, which having can in some cases even be detrimental. While being very hard to impossible to acquire. So naturally I will stop at nothing trying to develop it :) A couple of months ago, this paper made the rounds: Absolute pitch in involuntary musical imagery [0]. In a small sample group, nearly half the time (44.7%) when someone was asked to sing their current earworm, were…

[deleted]

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#45

Post by crtified »

Musical notes are rarely (never?) a single frequency waveform - there are layers of ordered harmonics. Some peoples versions of perfect pitch often seem to have some reliance upon the particular harmonic structures that they've trained their ear to, e.g. a particular instrument.

And it makes sense that those extra layers of info and interplay would be useful to the brain as it makes its analysis. As opposed to the brain entirely brute-force-counting a notes primary frequency in some manner.

Interestingly, other aspects of music and listening can develop great levels of aptitude too - not just absolute pitch. Relative pitch is a common one, closely related to harmony. Rhythmic analysis is another - a suitably skilled listener or musician can audibly derive the exact rhythmic structure of extremely fast and/or complex pieces that would boggle the mind of a casual listener.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#46

Post by dfan »

20k wrote: post #32
antegamisou wrote: post #25

As expected, another one of the many that conflates well trained relative pitch with absolute. Perfect pitch, for me, was an incredibly smooth and long learning curve. For each new instrument or texture I learned, I went from only hearing relative intervals, to being able to say, “this piece is probably in D major”, to being able to trace along the exact notes of the melody and bass lines, to being able to instantly…

So, I've got perfect pitch, and its not quite that black and white. For context, I can do all the regular perfect pitch superpowers (except for door rattles, which don't really rattle with a single tone), and have had it from a young age. When I first remember having it, I could only reliably recognise an A (and would have to count upwards to other notes), but unambiguously meet any definition as an adult Many things…

I agree with all of the above, including the hypothesis that the OP likely had absolute pitch to some degree as a child and not thought about it. Everyone I personally know with perfect pitch (including myself) started engaging with music seriously very early on in life. (I don't know quickly I acquired it because it's always been as easy as identifying colors and I didn't know it was unusual until my piano teacher noticed.)

For me piano is definitely the easiest instrument to identify, I'm sure largely because it's what I've played all my life. Pipe organs are the worst. I assume that in general the purity of the tone correlates negatively with ease of identification.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#47

Post by dberst »

carey wrote: post #42
dberst wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you could definitely do the same thing to learn relative pitch. In western music theory there's generally only 12 notes. And #1 and #12 are the same, an octave, which many people can recognize implicitly Furthermore, while a piano might have 88 keys (still doable with practice) most actual music rarely jumps more than an octave or two. Generally, music is also further restricted to a key/mode of 8 notes, agai…

You have a fencepost error; the notes in Western music in equal temperament are C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭, A, A♯/B♭, B, then c an octave higher is the thirteenth.

Ah thank you for the correction, I'm just a hobbyist and have not practiced in a few years

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#49

Post by drivebyhooting »

bluGill wrote: post #37

Someone introduce the author to microtunings. there is a whole - much more harmonic - world out there. Equal temperment is a harmonic disaster and it is time to end it. (there are advantages to equal temperment but harmony is lost)

I’m not convinced. Share a microtonal piece that can stand up against something by Chopin or any other great composer.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#50

Post by flyingcircus3 »

20k wrote: post #34
rybosome wrote: post #19

I suppose I have perfect pitch, in that I can more often than not: * aurally identify key signatures * aurally identify chords * sing a given note on command It wasn't until I was into my early twenties that I could do this. For me, the single biggest stepping stone was building the connection between what I could hear in my head from a song that I remember clearly with the underlying music theory. Specifically, buil…

Its worth noting that adults can learn something called pseudo absolute pitch, which sounds similar to what you're describing. The difference (which you're also describing) is that it requires reinforcement, and is a bit less accurate than having perfect pitch

It seems like a "bit less accurate" is a misnomer here. If you can successfully employ this technique, and use calibrated test equipment to measure it, you have in fact demonstrated your accuracy in recalling the pitch of notes, also known as perfect pitch. The means of achieving this recall do not in any way affect the accuracy of the results, because the results exclusively speak for themselves.
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