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Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

moderndescartes.com

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Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#61

Post by vunderba »

crtified wrote: post #45

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 br…

Yeah - there has been some speculation that the additional overlaying of a sound (overtones, timbre variations, etc) can help someone who has absolute pitch - whereas even those with the ability can sometimes struggle with something more pure - like a sine wave.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#62

Post by vunderba »

smitelli wrote: post #56
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…

I'm fascinated by this discussion because of how imprecise the terms "perfect," "absolute," "pseudo-absolute," etc. are. It's doubly interesting because we're describing things that happen in our own minds, with each of us having potentially different abilities and training and no common reference to what a "typical" person can do. For me, sometimes, I can hear the opening note or chord of one song and it will immedi…

For some there is joy in the act itself even if the benefits are dubious at best. Just look at how much time we as a species have spent on mastering the rubik's cube.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#63

Post by vunderba »

lyricaljoke wrote: post #52
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…

Many of the responses to this comment imply that this is something fundamentally different than perfect pitch and give it some different name ("pseudo absolute pitch", "perfect relative pitch", etc.). While I concede that most people think of perfect pitch as something that is instilled in some way in early childhood rather than achievable through practice, I guess I would ask those commenters... why do you think the…

In fact, there is an interesting historical anecdote about polish-american pianistic prodigy Josef Hofmann related to absolute pitch:

"Josef startled musicians by the accuracy of his ear. Once, at the Metropolitan Opera, he heard a tuning fork supposed to be at 440-A. Josef said it was a shade sharp, and it was."

This is incredibly impressive for two reasons:

- It shows absolute pitch is not necessarily limited solely to semitone identification

- A pure tone from a tuning fork doesn't have any of the characteristic overtones, timbre, etc. that you'd get from an instrument to help identify the sound

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#65

Post by jsphweid »

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…

Huge +1 to this post. Lots of other posts are off-base about the basic definition.

I've always had strong relative pitch ability and many people mistake my ability for perfect pitch. But in most practical applications, it's not just the _answer_ you arrive at that makes the definition so (because this can be faked), it's _how_ you know it.

People with absolute pitch just _know_ it without thinking -- no tricks, no mental reference note, no memorizing songs, no relying on a certain instrument's timbre, etc., they just know it.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#66

Post by carey »

dberst wrote: post #47
carey wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It’s accurate to say that there are twelve intervals, anyway, which is the point you were making.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#67

Post by bitwize »

drivebyhooting wrote: post #49
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.

For that you will have to look outside the west. Consider traditional Arabic maqam music.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#68

Post by mrob »

linux_is_nice wrote: post #6

> By the end of freshman year, I had significantly expanded my musical tastes and unambiguously had perfect pitch… for piano only. I find it highly unlikely that this was due to identifying microtuning differences; I think the more convincing theory for instrument-specific perfect pitch is that one learns to recognize the timbres of the individual notes, not any minute variations in pitch. > Don’t learn a non-C instr…

Every instrument is a C instrument if you want it to be. "Transposing instrument" is a misleading name. They're really just instruments for which Western staff notation is conventionally written transposed. If you're writing all your own notation for your own personal use or playing by ear it's irrelevant. The transposition isn't part of the instrument.

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#69

Post by jsphweid »

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…

This post isn't compelling to me.

> a completely useless skill

It's probably an overrated skill depending on the musical task, but to say it's completely useless is really ignorant. Nearly anyone who studies music at the university level or above would find this statement ("completely useless") to be wildly incorrect.

> Random chance would be 8.3%.

A random human won't sing off the cuff with their tonal center magically quantized to one of the twelve keys in our modern western tuning (Equal Temperament).

Re: Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

#70

Post by mrob »

linux_is_nice wrote: post #23
mdwhatcott wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this advice doesn't hold up--even the OP mentions learning the clarinet, which is a B-flat instrument. I also play the clarinet and developed the same ability to detect each note by its timbre. I also think there is a kinesthetic element to each note--the way the instrument vibrates, the back-pressure or resistance you feel while playing, that becomes associated with the timbre the longer you play.

As a clarinet player myself, I think it's an instrument that's pretty unique in just how different the timbres of each note are, like Bb or an open G.

Recorders also have big variation in timbre (and volume) with different notes.
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