[HD-5000]

Quote:

I have perfect pitch, as do most of my "better" musician friends, and so does my violin teacher...

That's quite a rare find. I asked my dad what perfect pitch was, because I recognized the enormous potential in my violin playing, including instantly recognizing the high notes. Well, my dad told me that people with perfect pitch are very rare with 1 out of every 10,000 people. With those stats, you'd find 2 for every full albino human you find.

What confuses me is that how could you find so many perfect pitched people?

 

[TaffyGuy]

it's probably more than 1 in 10,000, but like he/she said, goes along with musicianship, so where you find good musicians, you find people with perfect pitch.

 

[secretasianman]

Yeah, it's definitely good to encourage kids, and even tactfully "forcing" isn't so bad since I've heard of quite a few ppl
who discover their love for music that way. Now I'm not saying we should be taping flutes to the hands of children (ala Tiger Woods), but you guys are right - how else r u going to learn? The answer is always "in the middle," he he.

HD-5000: its probably more than 1/10k; its more common in asians like someone said earlier. And of course, the environment you pick has a lot to do with it (there were 4 PP ppl in my MT class, including myself - all Asian, btw

)

Taffy - I just noticed you move between PA and UCLA. did u graduate from Gunn or Paly?

 

[daycart1]

Some people with perfect pitch hear different keys as having different characters (e.g. c sharp minor = spooky). Those of us without it only hear the intervals.

If you become a musician, it can obviously help with playing in tune.

But assuming you don't become a musician the main advantage is being able to exactly calibrate the speed of your turntable without using a strobe!

 

[Bob]

I would attribute your perfect pitch to learning an instrument at a young age. It has been documented that one has the ability to "learn" perfect pitch when they are young and this ability declines rapidly as one gets older. I have heard numerous examples of musicians sitting down with their young children and teaching them instruments (piano mostly) and these children grew up to have perfect pitch. As an adult one can strive to have good relative pitch, meaning that given a starting point (say A 440 Hz) they can name pitches that follow based on intervals and knowledge of key. Being able to "think" in terms of key and intervals can be more beneficial than perfect pitch in the long run. Keep in mind that if you go to a decent conservatory most music theory professors will play a passage for you to write down, but will ask you to do so in a different key than what he played it in ... this is done for the sole purpose of making the people with perfect pitch think in "musical" terms (learn to think in terms of key, intervals, etc. though if you are quick I guess you could transpose to the proper key). Also, perfect pitch would only benefit one in a very small part of what one would learn in music theory. Believe it or not, there is actually alot of theory in music theory (not just being able to pick out notes). Another interesting point ... many kids learn perfect pitch based off of a piano ... but ... do you consider a piano to be perfectly pitched? Can you hear beats in an perfect 5 on a piano? Of course you can ... but more than likely when playing in an orchestra you will "tune" a fifth to have no beats ... this would sound "out of tune" to one who has perfect pitch (learned from a piano). One must therefore have the ability to be able to tune their instrument relative to others in the performing ensemble. While I probably have gone into to much detail I will say this ... use your perfect pitch to enhance your music ability and you might be surprised how far you can go. But, if you think having perfect pitch means that you will be a good musician ... you might be sorely disappointed.

 

[fiddler]

Quote:

Originally posted by HD-5000 That's quite a rare find. I asked my dad what perfect pitch was, because I recognized the enormous potential in my violin playing, including instantly recognizing the high notes. Well, my dad told me that people with perfect pitch are very rare with 1 out of every 10,000 people. With those stats, you'd find 2 for every full albino human you find. What confuses me is that how could you find so many perfect pitched people?

Because probably less than 1 in 10,000 people are aiming to be (or currently is) a professional musician.

 

[TaffyGuy]

i don't think bob was listening all that carefully, but we won't hold it against him. its okay bob, many of your statements are very true, and good to keep in mind.

and yes, i came out of PALY, and go to UCLA. have we met? heh.

 

[Bob]

Quote:

Originally posted by TaffyGuy i don't think bob was listening all that carefully, but we won't hold it against him.

lol ... I never claimed to have actually read all the responses(I guess I should have) ... though I do not think I was to far in left field.

Quote:

Originally posted by TaffyGuy and yes, i came out of PALY, and go to UCLA. have we met? heh.

Nope, not from the west coast ... went to Curtis in what seems like another lifetime ... I am actually an engineer now ... go figure.

 

[TaffyGuy]

lol i'm sorry, was talking to asain man... guess i should title my responses. guess we can chalk that one up to not reading previous posts as well. haha.

 

[secretasianman]

bob - good points you make there. It's kinda what I meant when I said I can't help seeing the notes in the music rather than the music as a whole, which might detract from my listening experience (ie when listening to Hendrix like earlier). I guess my statement about color is similar to "musical terms." A good read, once again.

Taffy, i guess we haven't met (I'm a Gunn grad 2k2

). j/k, it was just a hunch, and besides, my memories of Palo Alto aren't very fond

 

[TaffyGuy]

i'm y2k grad. all the gunn people i knew were from ECYS. people who would have graduated this year... umm that trumpeter. wow i really shouldn't have forgotten his name. white guy. thats the best i can do. then older than you was motvey and ryan and whatsisface... oh well.

 

[Magicthyse]

Quote:

Originally posted by TaffyGuy oh yeah, these "special" people, it is some "disorder", i forget the name, but some associate a color, taste, and even smell, with every event in their lives. aparently they are like spunges and it gives them a mental prowess that goes far beyond photographic memory. i've never met anyone who has this ability; my genius roommate was telling me about a friend of his who does. very facinating. seems like there is so much more potential for intellect than we commonly know of, its almost exaspirating to think about. brains are cool.

DAMN! I have that.
Am I an idiot savant (clutches V700) ?

 

[secretasianman]

Taffy - that small blond trumpeter is Trip (or John) Adler (i assume), and he's probably having the time of his life at Harvard. As far as jazz band ppl go, the only other guy I could name is Matt Nelson, but Trip's the standout of the bunch, I suppose.

Why am I even up at 2 AM?

 

[DanG]

Perfect pitch doesn't really help you very much in any way unless you use it, and I'm sorry to say it seems you no longer can do anything with this pitch. It's not the most amazing thing in the world and it really isn't a very big deal to begin with.

An example: I've always had perfect pitch which I inherited from my father. My father had solfeggio instruction in the USSR as a child, maybe that contributed. My younger brother (1 year younger), however, was quite tone-deaf as a child (inherited from my mother).

We both started playing the piano at the age of 5. My brother eventually switched over to violin, which is far more conducive to developing a good ear. I continued with the piano.

My brother's ear developed to the point where his ear is as good as mine. We can both tune instruments to near perfection, and both of us have found we have better ears than many college music majors who play multiple instruments.

That on its own is quite worthless though. All that counts is that it is one factor in aiding in the swift learning of an instrument at a young age. You can never become a great musician if you start after about age 7 or 8. If you don't even have the patience to learn the acoustic guitar, one of the easiest musical instruments to learn to play proficiently, then you have to analyze the problems you have which clearly outweigh your gift.

 

[Kubernetes]

Quote:

Magicthyse: There are "special" ppl associate colors with the notes (one was hired by a chamber orchestra to pick out the individuals who were out of tune). Or they can tell you the pitch that you're talking in. Anyways, I'm sure you could hustle some disbelieving suckers here and there

Ahh, you're talking about synesthetics. Vladimir Nabokov was such a person--he could "see" the color in every sound. I believe it occurs more women than men.