[LAU] Developing perfect pitch

[Burkhard Wölfel]

Some thoughts about your questions about perfect pitch.

(which could imho better be called non-relative pitch. That way it  
would not have the connotations the words "absolute" and "perfect" can  
have.)

Am 16.04.2010 um 14:33 schrieb Atte André Jensen  
<atte.jensen at gmail.com>:

> Hi
>
> I have quite good relative pitch,

 From what I have heard of your invention and playing that is good for  
you and may be quite an understatement. :-)

It's all that really matters. Imagine having perfect pitch but lousy  
relative capabilities! You would probably not bother us with music as  
great as the tunes you keep posting on LAU, (will you please do so, I  
really love them).

> but not perfect pitch.

Don't care, it's nothing magical. It is just remembering a certain  
quality of sound.

> By accident I
> stumbled upon some information that gave me the idea "why not give  
> it a
> shot, it might be possible to pick it up". Please let's not go (too
> deep) into either "it can't be learned" or "it makes you unmusical".
>
> However, I don't really know what the steps int the learning process
> would be.
>
> One course seems to start with CDEF and then add more notes when those
> are stuck in your head. However with these notes played at random  
> I'd be
> able to tell any of the other if I'm told what the first note is :- 
> ( To
> I guess that wouldn't work...
>
> Another seems to play all 12 notes at random and then you should only
> focus on one at the time, for instance be able to identify whenever C
> comes up.
>
> Are there anyone here that *learned* perfect pitch (don't care 'bout  
> the
> lucky bastards that was born with it).

Lucky? What about having to listen to music that is out of tune most  
of the time?

OTOH I don't think there is anyone born with it. It is a product of  
practice.

> How did you learn it?
>

String instruments. Violin, guitar, bass guitar. Especially with vl  
and gt I started to notice that I could imagine the notes of the empty  
strings before really touching the instrument.

It developed from there. Never really perceived it as an advantage.  
No, wait: maybe with singing in a choir there can be some. Being able  
to perfom relative analysis and imagination is far more important.

I noticed this quality of my perception one day in the park, playing  
guitar, hanging around in the sun, moving from one camp fire to the  
next. A friend asked me why I had tuned his guitar before playing it,  
he was sure that it had been tuned perfectly. (Ha! That ambiguos word  
again!!) yeah, I thought, but not to my pitch.

I discovered that when I was about to pick up the violin in the  
morning I could remember how it had sounded the day before without  
touching it, just by imagining to do so.

Fading memory that gets more persistent along with your daily  
practice. That's how I'd explain it.

And it varies a bit, depending on how much I play.

I don't play the piano very well. Don't know a good technique for what  
I think is your main instrument.

Do you have a favourite tune or beginning of a tune you could start  
every day with? The hook for my memory was the empty strings. Maybe it  
could be the first two or eleven notes of "Sophisticated Lady" for  
you? (blocked chords, anything that feels natural and beautiful to you  
and your hands. Ritualise! It's all about remembering. Let the body  
help your imagination. )

> Now to the linux part: It would be dead simple to write a script that
> throws notes at you, even with different constraints (which  
> instrument,
> which group of notes). Besides one would need *really* well tuned  
> notes
> of instruments like piano, guitar + more.
>
> Would anyone here be interested in exchanging scripts, samples and
> practice results for such a journey; "collecting a set of files for
> learning perfect pitch with your linux box, and using them to learn
> yourself perfect pitch along the way"?

Count me out. That sounds like setting up a gym for your musical mind  
(booooring!).

But maybe consider learning an instrument that must be tuned before  
you play. Even better: learn an instrument that requires practicing  
intonation. Even better++: don't overrate perfect pitch. It won't make  
your music and your playing any better, imnsho.

All the best to all of your efforts, no matter how I'd judge them,

- Burkhard

>
> -- 
> Atte
>
> http://atte.dk   http://modlys.dk
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