violin thread

[Richard Moody]

I once had an opportunity to proove to a singer there was  no such
thing as perfect pitch.  I had a meter pitch source set to A and
asked him to sing A above middle
C.  He "zeroed" the needle.  (without seeing it) I was floored, (ie
made the fool since I doubted this ability.) He
did it again.  We didn't have time to try other notes. I did
congradulate him on his performance.
	 Just the natural vibrato in the voice and a visual device is
usually enough to dispell the notion of "perfect pitch".  However
since it is such a  nice sounding word and it has become so much a
part of general usage, maybe we should bow a  little and call it
"almost perfect pitch" or "degree of perfect pitch."  Since ET's are
now pocket size, the pp people might get greater pleasure in seeing
how far off  (or close) they are to it than hearing their precious
notion "bashed".  Don't you wish there was perfect perception?

R Moody
----------
>
> Personally I love discussing "applied tuning" with musicians, even
the
> violinists.  One of my favorite things to do when presenting a
program to a
> group of music majors os to start out by telling them that there is
no such
> thing as "perfect pitch." You can almost always see one person in
the room
> immediately begin to bristle up as the others look around at the
supposed
> posessor (sp?).  Then, citing Jorgensen, Barbour and the very
subjects that
> have been discussed in this thread, it's pretty easy to construct a
logical,
> reasonable case and hopefully keep the person with a highly
developed sense
> of tonal memory from making a fool of his or her self at some point
on the
> future.
>
> Allan
>
> Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
> Gilreath Piano & Organ Co.
> Berry College
> Gilreath@aol.com
> Calhoun, GA USA