<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:v = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16527" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE>@font-face { font-family: Cambria Math; } @font-face { font-family: Calibri; } @page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; } P.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" } LI.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" } DIV.MsoNormal { FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" } A:link { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } SPAN.MsoHyperlink { COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } A:visited { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99 } SPAN.EmailStyle17 { COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-style-type: personal-compose } .MsoChpDefault { mso-style-type: export-only } DIV.Section1 { page: Section1 } </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY lang=EN-US vLink=purple link=blue bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Many musicians develop special sensitivity for "tuning A."  Their sensitivities for other pitches may be less.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would hope that their sensitivities for intonation in musical contexts would override any fixed pitch standards.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ed Sutton</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dporritt@mail.smu.edu href="mailto:dporritt@mail.smu.edu">Porritt, David</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">caut@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:46 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [CAUT] Pitch recognition</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV class=Section1> <P class=MsoNormal>We’ve had this discussion here before about how accurate people’s pitch recognition can be.  I’ve been challenged to create a test to see if some really can tell the difference between 440 & 442.  I have not done that yet but I’d love to.<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>We did have something happen yesterday that got my attention.  Our Wind Ensemble director stopped by after their rehearsal yesterday to tell me that the concert grand had gone sharp.  He said “I don’t have perfect pitch but as soon as Sam hit the A to tune the group I recognized that it was sharp”.  This was the first thing they did before any rehearsing was done.  I went in to check it and the A did sound high to me so I got out my pocket PC and measured.  A was at 440.69Hz.  The conductor recognized it.  I recognized it.  Not everyone would, but more people that we generally think will pick up on differences that small.<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>dave<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>________________________________<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>David M. Porritt, RPT<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>Meadows School of the Arts<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>Southern Methodist University<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>Dallas, TX 75275<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal>dporritt@smu.edu<o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>