--- On Sat, 3/21/09, David Boyce <David at piano.plus.com> writes: Yes, absolutely. it goes back to defining the terms. That's where I came in at! Agreed. I believe this phenomenon was unfairly tagged with the prefix "perfect", and for those that insist on hanging tenaciously to that unattainable standard, well, it is certainly likely that NO ONE has it. I believe David Porritt got it right when he called it uncanny "pitch memory". I know 3 people who clearly demonstrate a pitch memory that is phenomenal. It so happens that my son has this gift, and demonstrated it within days of starting violin lessons at age 4. He did not know the names of pitches until he had played them and identified the frequencies with corresponding names, but he immediately remembered every pitch he encountered that was identified. Now, at age 16, he instantly knows the pitches of every sound, whether it be a single music note, a cluster of notes, a squealing tire, a whistling faucet, a sneeze, etc.. He cannot, of course, tell you precisely how many cents it may deviate from a precise frequency, but can easily tell if it is a little sharp or flat. "Perfect", no, but as far as I can tell, nothing is anywhere! While it is true that this could easily be a tiresome burden for some, it has had quite the opposite effect for him in that he is an extremely gifted musician and this is in part attributable to this outstanding pitch memory. While I agree the name given to this phenomenon is faulty, to then suspect that some people don't have incredible pitch memory is just plain wrong. It's a very real phenomenon... Mark Potter -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090321/c688f4a7/attachment.html>
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