Perfect Pitch

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 12/13/99 7:35:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, Mark Potter
bases-loaded@juno.com writes:

<< 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.... >>

I read all the responses to this perennial question.  They were all good and 
right on their marks.  But I liked Mark's reply the best except to take issue 
with the final remark.  I never claim to anyone that I have perfect pitch.  
Yet even as a child, I knew one note from the other on the piano and still 
do, whether it is in tune or not.  I don't see anything perfect in that.

When I come to a new customer's piano and try a few keys before even opening 
it, I know right away what I am in for.  That doesn't limit itself to tuning 
either.  Some people have a predisposition to awareness of certain qualities 
that other, if not most  people are completely oblivious to.  A retired 
itinerant tuner in our area used to say, "You don't hear what I hear and I 
don't hear what you hear".

I played bass professionally, both orchestra and jazz/pop for many years and 
have also been an avid and semiprofessional singer for many years.  I also 
played violin and trumpet in my youth.  You must have some kind of sense of 
pitch and be able to know one note from the other to be a musician.  I can 
always give a workable and mutually agreeable pitch to other singers if there 
is no pitch pipe or other source available.  To me, it seems obvious.  But I 
wouldn't know if it were "perfect" or not because I don't really know what 
that means.

I always use a pitch reference to tune the piano but if you asked me to tune 
A4 without one, I would probably fall well within "passing" on the PTG RPT 
Tuning Exam.  On a good day, I might even be within one cent.  But as others 
have said, I believe that would be due to a good pitch *memory*, not some 
inborn, natural ability.  If I were born, deaf or even hearing impaired, or 
even became so incidentally shortly after birth, I would not be able to do it.

Perhaps, If I did not have the opportunity to learn the violin and piano at 
an early age, I would have never been able to do any of the things that I do 
now for both pleasure and to earn a living.  I wouldn't have "perfect pitch" 
in such a circumstance.  I hear the sound of A4 at A-440 every day many 
times.  It is also a part of the dial tone you hear when you pick up the 
telephone.  Some people can selectively remember pitches easily while others 
cannot.  I think it may have a lot to do with whether one even thinks about 
such things.

I remember the admonition of the local Symphony Orchestra and Opera director 
saying, "It is important to *always* have our rehearsal at Standard Pitch 
(A-440) so that we can recognize it when we hear it.  Otherwise, if we have a 
*different* pitch every time, we could never know the difference."

If I have to tune a piano at nonstandard pitch, once I have accepted that 
fact and the pitch, I immediately adjust to it and it does not bother me at 
all.  I would say that I experience what I would call "Pitch Shock" when I 
first hear nonstandard pitch but once I get accustomed to it, which takes 
very little time, a second or two, I have no further problem with it. 

One skill that certain musicians must possess is to be able to transpose.  I 
think of nonstandard pitch the same way I do transposing, it is just an 
amount less than a half step.  I also played French Horn and had to learn to 
transpose as a requirement of the set of skills expected of that kind of 
musician.  I think orchestra trumpet players and other Bb wind instruments 
have to learn that too.  As a singer, I do it all the time, no problem at 
all, any amount, from a little to a lot, it makes no difference.

But I do not have perfect pitch.  No one does, in my opinion.  It's one of 
those terms that deserves to have the words, "so-called" always added to it 
when discussing it with any seriousness because you really can't prove that 
there is in fact, such a phenomenon.  

Respectfully,

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin