Another post prompted this thread topic. I have only occasionally run into people who claim to have perfect pitch. Lucky me but one person is usally too many, they’re rarely humble people. Even if a person was to have perfect pitch, how a person goes about telling or not telling folks about that particular character trait goes a long way.
Now let me say that I do not have perfect pitch but I have improved since playing the whistle and the flute. Anyway, when I run across people who are non-humble about proclaiming that they have perfect pitch, this is what I do.
I tell them about on-line Perfect Pitch Tests, including a university study where they are looking for people with perfect pitch.
I ask them for the e mail address so that I can send them the links.
I wait and wait and wait for them to proclaim again that they have perfect pitch.
I’ve never bothered taking either test. I don’t have perfect pitch. I do however have the ability to perfectly and unexpectly annoy people. It’s a gift.
I was thinking that it might be hard for folks to respond to this thread. Either they have perfect pitch, in which case they might not want to admit it, given that that means that they’re insuffereably arrogant (as implied in the OP) or they haven’t … and nobody wants to admit to being inadequate.
Mind you, I suppose there might be some sort of inverse snobbery involved here. As in “Ha! You wouldn’t catch me having perfect pitch! Nasty, jumped up little swots that they are!”
Well, now you went and took all the surprise and fun out of it for me. Actually, you didn’t. I expect that there would be people here, a good many actually, who do have perfect pitch, and since they don’t go around mentioning that every five minutes, they’re probably not insufferably arrogant, at least here. I was hoping to hear what other people had to say about any and all topics even slightly related to perfect pitch. Folks do what they want to around these parts no matter what. Also, I was giving people a way to deal withe the insufferably arrogant people in their lives who go around proclaiming that they have perfect pitch. I’ve never taken the test but I assume there is some kind of scoring system and folks might want to reveal their score after they take the test.
I suppose there could be a reverse snobbery in mentioning that I don’t have perfect pitch but I fail to see what that gets me other than points for honesty.
And since we brought up ways to respond to this thread, I would like to know what a person does who has perfect pitch and has to put up with music that is not in perfect pitch. We used to have a piano that went so completely out of tune that I couldn’t bear to hear it played anymore. On the other hand, I had a very old, very huge upright piano as a child that was in tune to itself and the F and the A about middle C played at the same time was one of the most pleasant sounds in the universe. No other piano I have ever played could recreate this same sound.
As we know, the current standard reference point (say A = 440 hertz) has been continually changing with time. Also, the pitch value of the other notes in the scale depends on which intonation system that is in place (Just intonation or Equal-temperment, to name two). I’m curious as to whether the person with so-called “perfect pitch” has a constantly evolving sense of pitch? Would he also be perfectly in sync with music from another era? Does he hear a note in equal temperment as being perfect, when, in fact, they are often noticeably off from the intervals that are based on rational numbers.
That what my wife says. I’m not hoping for immortality, especially not in this dimension. The closest that I can hope to come is a little immorality from time to time.
The actual frequencies tend to depend on the musical environment upon which a youngster with AP imprints. Its been shown that a childhood piano with a flat note or two can lead to an adult with those notes imprinted as correct. As well, like everyone else, people’s hearing changes with time; in most cases leading to a sharpening of perceived pitch.
In the interest of reverse snobbery, I shall thank Mute for the link and confess that I scored crappily on perfect pitch, but tolerably on relative, except in that I tend to forget–without a piano in front of me–where the intervals vary.
I also suppose that if it were in a supersonic rocket ship traveling at high velocity, 440 will say “hey cool…I’m gonna be younger that D and F when I get back.”
Anyway, I think all pitches emerged from East Africa and migrated by way of the fertile crescent, except for the aboriginal ones, which had an amazingly precocious knack for boats. This makes them all relative. Come on. Coexist.
I knew someone who knew someone who has absolute pitch, and reportedly that someone seldom enjoyed listening to music at all. Apparently the effect was much as it was for you with that piano. I never cared that I didn’t have absolute pitch, but that story made me glad I didn’t have it. I’ve always had good relative pitch, so when things are slightly out of tune I can tell and sometimes it irritates me out of my skin, but I also know that I’m not hearing pitch nearly so acutely as someone with absolute pitch can, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s not a negative, but a Good Thing.
The Wikipedia articles mention that. I do wonder if there are any constants in nature. For relative pitch I would think that the harmonic series would be something people would gravitate toward (outside of an artificial environment) but A440 Vs. A4XX? I just cannot think of an example.
You’re too weird, Denny.