Perfect Pitch

[Brian Holden]

Paul - You say you don't have perfect pitch.  2 cents off A440 seems darned
near perfect to me!  BH

----Original Message-----
From: Don <drose@dlcwest.com>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Tuesday, 14 December 1999 13:28
Subject: Re: Perfect Pitch


>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/
>
>3004 Grant Rd.
>REGINA, SK
>S4S 5G7
>306-352-3620 or 1-888-29t-uner
>