Perfect Pitch

[bases-loaded@juno.com]

On Tue, 14 Dec 1999 07:17:58 +1300 "Brian Holden" <bholden@wave.co.nz>
writes:
> 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 -

I think the problem comes mostly from the nomenclature.  The word
"perfect" doesn't leave any wiggle room, eh?  I personally know several
musicians with perfect pitch, and by that I mean they can easily tell you
any note you are playing - a million times in a row with no mistakes. 
They can also sing any note for you on command.  It will never be
"perfect", I presume, but so what?  The musicians I know who have this
gift are either singers or violinists, with one exception - and he's a
drummer.  He can hear a 4-5 note chord and tell you all of the pitches
immediately.  This is an extremely useful gift, in my opinion!

However, it would be of no use whatsoever in tuning a piano....

Mark Potter
bases-loaded@juno.com