[pianotech] Perfect Pitch / Children

[Matthew Todd]

Is there really such a thing as "perfect" pitch?  Is there anyone who is, perfect?
 
I think individuals possess "relative" pitch, such as you described people being able to name notes played on a piano, or to be able to sight sing.  But to have perfect pitch, to me, would mean they would have to be able to tell you the cents sharp or flat a particular note is, without looking.
 
IMHO!


TODD PIANO WORKS 
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician 
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com

--- On Wed, 3/18/09, JimWilsonian at aol.com <JimWilsonian at aol.com> wrote:

From: JimWilsonian at aol.com <JimWilsonian at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Perfect Pitch / Children
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 7:12 PM



Some people can, but my understanding of the term is that it means you're able to identify the pitch of notes you hear.  Having said that, I know one studio singer who can sightread any piece of music with no pitch reference and be "on key".  Of course, the level of accuracy needed to tune a piano is another story (never mind the whole topic of having to compensate for inharmonicity which has already been well covered in this thread.)

Jim



From: "CHARLES BECKER" <cbeckercpt at verizon.net>

Can people with "perfect-pitch" sing any note before they hear it?



  ----- Original Message -----
  From: JimWilsonian at aol.com
  To: pianotech at ptg.org
  Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:44 PM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Perfect Pitch / Children


  My friend Nate has a child Noah with perfect pitch.  From the age of 6 he's been able to identify notes played on the piano -- without seeing what you're playing.  You can play any note and he'll tell you what it is without hesitation.  He's 8 now and this gift is even more refined.  When I was there 2 weeks ago, I tried it out.  I played random clusters of notes and without being able to see the keyboard he could instantly pick out each note -- even dissonant clusters. He's also becoming a really good pianist and beginning to compose. Really amazing.  Nate is an accomplished studio musician, so one assumes that genetics played a role.  ... Then you add to the mystery that Noah's twin sister Sarah, while being a promising musician, does not share the same gift.  Pretty wild, huh?

  Jim Wilson


  pianotech-request at ptg.org writes:


    "Absolute pitch (AP), or perfect pitch, is the ability to name or
    reproduce a tone without reference to an external standard".







**************
Great Deals on Dell 15" Laptops - Starting at $479 (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220433363x1201394532/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B212935224%3B34245239%3Bb) 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090318/9b5a82d8/attachment.html>