[LAU] Developing perfect pitch

[Steve Fosdick]

On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:28:47 -0500
Charles Henry <czhenry at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 2:26 PM, ailo <ailo.at at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Another note on the subject:
> > Some people who have had absolute pitch all their lives may find
> > that when they get older their sence of pitch gets out of tune. I
> > know this happened to guys like Alexander Glazunov (Russian
> > composer) and Sviatoslav Richter (Russian pianist). How fun would
> > that be?
> 
> There's some explanation for that effect.  When aging, the basilar
> membrane stiffens, which shifts the location where resonance occurs.
> 
> Now, there's also the ongoing debate over place vs. rate theories of
> pitch, where only the place theory would allow this explanation.

Are we saying here that a given pitch resonates at a different place in
the cochlea and therefore stimulates the nerves previously associated
with a different pitch?

Steve.