Perfect Pitch

[Bonifield/Poulson]

Dear all:  Mark Stivers of the Sacramento Valley chapter presented a 
program a our meeting several years ago in which he presented the 
results of survey he did of his customers who claimed to have perfect 
pitch.  He did not do actual measurements of their abilities, but 
presented in anecdotal form their descriptions of their abilities and 
history.  It turns out that there was quite a range of "perfect pitch" 
capabilities among them.  Some were indeed born with the ability, and 
some seemed to have developed it over years of exposure to music.  Those 
born with it seemed to have the highest degree of accuracy, and could 
recognize the pitch of almost any sound, and did associate colors with 
different tones.  Some instrumentalists could recognize the notes only 
if they were played on their own instruments.  A few said that they were 
no longer active musically and found that their pitch recognition 
ability had lessened quite a bit.
	The first person I tuned for who had "perfect pitch" was a retired 
Broadway arranger.  He said that perfect pitch was an asset in his work, 
because he could write out charts and know exactly how they would sound 
when played.  On the other hand, he said that his sense was so acute 
that he could hear when any member of any orchestra or opera performance 
was the slight bit off, and it was like hearing nails on a chalkboard. 
This prevented him from enjoying almost any performance; even major 
sympony and opera performances would have notes that were out of tune 
and ruin the event for him. In this case, I think "perfect pitch" was 
indeed as much a curse as a blessing. Patrick Poulson, RPT