Perfect Pitch

[Don]

Hi Paul,

When I was a freelance fiddle player I would routinely tune my violin
within 2 cents of A440 without referrence to a pitch source.  I was not
particularly exceptional in this regard--nor do I have *perfect pitch*.

At 11:32 AM 12/13/1999 -0800, you wrote:
>Brian Holden wrote:
>> 
>> Many people over the years have claimed to me that they have perfect
>> pitch. When I ask them to be more specific on this, they start to cool
>> off.  One person when asked what note I was playing on the piano went
>> cold on the idea altogether.  To me, having perfect pitch means being
>> able to detect or aurally produce a note within a maybe a few beats,
>> but no one has demonstrated to me that they can get that close.  I
>> would imagine that singers would be pretty accurate, but not perfect.
>> Any comments?
>> 
>> Brian Holden
>
>Brian,
>
>When customers tell me that they have perfect pitch, I say, "Oh."  When
>they ask me if I have perfect pitch, I say that it depends what they
>mean.  I tell them that no one has ever tuned any instrument effectively
>one note at a time without reference to the other notes on that
>instrument.  I call it "pitch memory," and everyone has some degree of
>it.  Some individuals may be able to remember some notes to within 20
>cents or so, but even then it is a moving target depending on the
>instrument, the temperament, the pitch standard, etc.  Some singers and
>musicians familiar with a given piece can usually come pretty close to
>the starting note that they usually use.  It's hard to expect more than
>that.  I'd take the whole thing with a grain of salt.
>
>Paul S. Larudee, RPT
>Richmond, CA
>
>
Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.

Tuner for the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts

drose@dlcwest.com
http://donrose.htmlplanet.com/

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REGINA, SK
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