At first I read this as "want a perfect pitch?" and I thought the article would be about This One Crazy Drug That VCs Hate™. I was pleasantly surprised.
Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
You refer to perfect pitch and absolute pitch like they're different things -- do you realize that they're the same thing? My brother and I are both musicians with perfect pitch, and we've found it useful in a variety of circumstances. To name a couple, it really helps if you're jamming and want to pick up a progression quickly, or if you're DJing and want to key match. I will concede that Traktor recently got key de…
I think they are different things. Knowing the sound of a perfect fifth is not perfect pitch, but relative pitch. One could transcribe a piece of music from memory with just very good relative pitch, with the caveat they probably will transcribe it in the incorrect key.
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Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
You refer to perfect pitch and absolute pitch like they're different things -- do you realize that they're the same thing? My brother and I are both musicians with perfect pitch, and we've found it useful in a variety of circumstances. To name a couple, it really helps if you're jamming and want to pick up a progression quickly, or if you're DJing and want to key match. I will concede that Traktor recently got key de…
I think they are different things. Knowing the sound of a perfect fifth is not perfect pitch, but relative pitch. One could transcribe a piece of music from memory with just very good relative pitch, with the caveat they probably will transcribe it in the incorrect key.
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Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
You refer to perfect pitch and absolute pitch like they're different things -- do you realize that they're the same thing? My brother and I are both musicians with perfect pitch, and we've found it useful in a variety of circumstances. To name a couple, it really helps if you're jamming and want to pick up a progression quickly, or if you're DJing and want to key match. I will concede that Traktor recently got key de…
I think they are different things. Knowing the sound of a perfect fifth is not perfect pitch, but relative pitch. One could transcribe a piece of music from memory with just very good relative pitch, with the caveat they probably will transcribe it in the incorrect key.
Are you saying that you think perfect pitch and absolute pitch are different things? They are synonyms, cf. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch .
If you're saying that perfect pitch and relative pitch are different things in that it isn't as if perfect pitch is better than relative pitch, then yeah, I absolutely agree. The hacks that I mentioned involve perfect pitch specifically, but transcription ability like you mention is probably tied most to one's sense of relative pitch, even if one has perfect pitch.
Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#35I think perfect pitch can be acquired as an adult, I just think it becomes exponentially harder. I started to learn guitar around 12 years old, and became interested in perfect pitch after reading Steve Vai internalised A=440Hz by having a tape start to play the tone as he slept. I definitely don't have full perfect pitch, but after a while I could: - Tune a guitar, no matter how out of tune to concert pitch without…
It took me about 2 years, starting at age 25, to acquire perfect pitch. I didn't try the Vai trick, instead I ran an exercise at last once every few days that challenged me to name the note associated with a tone (out of all 12 equal-temperament tones). At first I got right about 20% of the time, but I was able to get to 100% over those two years.
But long before I could complete the exercise, I was able to tune my guitar perfectly, and I can still tune it fine in a very loud environment, or on stage without the full ability to hear it myself. After playing it for long enough a good guitar made from good tone-woods will resonate like a bell around the "home" frequencies you play a lot. For me, in DADGAD tuning that's a "D" that makes the rosewood echo, but the "A"'s are plenty strong too. If it's out by even a few cents, the guitar just plain doesn't feel right.
Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#36There's a strange preoccupation with perfect pitch. It's not very useful today since there are inexpensive electronic and mechanical tools to give you absolute pitch. It wasn't even that useful previously. I believe that people confuse it with relative pitch which usually translates to the skill of transcribing and memorizing melodies. This is very useful as a musician or even in daily life sometimes. There are peopl…
You refer to perfect pitch and absolute pitch like they're different things -- do you realize that they're the same thing? My brother and I are both musicians with perfect pitch, and we've found it useful in a variety of circumstances. To name a couple, it really helps if you're jamming and want to pick up a progression quickly, or if you're DJing and want to key match. I will concede that Traktor recently got key de…
Also, the key detection in Traktor (and Torq, tho it's a little better) isn't perfect either, so it helps to have the ability yourself.
Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#37For reference, valproic acid (and/or its salt) is sold under the trade name Depakote . This is not a drug you should consider taking lightly, whatever neuroplasticity benefits it might confer.
It's mainly prescribed a mood stabilizer. They'll commonly give it to you with lithium or such things.
The list of side effects is rather long, just like most of these psych meds. There's a reason bipolar folks tend to not want to take their meds or go off them.
Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#38I read a quote from Joseph Hoffman about perfect pitch. I can't recall the exact quote, but it was a Q&A in his book on piano playing. It went a bit like this:
Q: Is it necessary for a musician to have perfect pitch?
A: No. I don't think I have perfect pitch, but my father did. It appears to be a double-edged sword. He couldn't recognize a Mozart tune if it was played in a different key.
(I recall the part about how he "thought" he had perfect pitch in particular because I found it odd that he didn't even know, despite his incredible talent
For those not aware, Rachmaninoff dedicated his 3rd concerto to Hoffman, though Hoffman never played it.)
Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
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That's the thing, I actually think that's just how people without absolute pitch think it would be like, but everyone with absolute pitch that I've talked to describe different pitches as different "buckets" - categorically, qualitatively distinct. edit: I suspect this conversation won't lead anywhere because there isn't good language to talk about phenomenology. But I think we both understand the other's hypothesis.
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Re: Want Perfect Pitch? You Might Be Able To Pop A Pill For That
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they are different things. Knowing the sound of a perfect fifth is not perfect pitch, but relative pitch. One could transcribe a piece of music from memory with just very good relative pitch, with the caveat they probably will transcribe it in the incorrect key.
Are you saying that you think perfect pitch and absolute pitch are different things? They are synonyms, cf. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch . If you're saying that perfect pitch and relative pitch are different things in that it isn't as if perfect pitch is better than relative pitch, then yeah, I absolutely agree. The hacks that I mentioned involve perfect pitch specifically, but transcriptio…
Oops! I clearly need to read better. I thought I read relative pitch vs absolute/perfect pitch. Sorry about that.