Perfect Pitch

[fredinator]

I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR last week and she had a guest on who is a neurosurgeon (I think it was Oliver Sachs) and who wrote a book about music and the brain. He said that 1 in 10,000 people have perfect pitch, and 2 in 15 musicians have it. Someone somewhere said that Neal Schon has it; I can't remember re: SP... Here is an interesting read I saw yesterday:

http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/fea/fea_16.asp

Does anyone here have it? I still am not sure exactly what it is so I'm wondering what it's like? Sigh, that sounds dumb because I love music...

[Rip Rokken]

Someone somewhere said that Neal Schon has it... Does anyone here have it? I still am not sure exactly what it is so I'm wondering what it's like?

I read here I believe that Neal Schon has perfect pitch, and I know I've repeated that info myself recently. This is from Wikipedia:

Absolute pitch, or perfect pitch, is "the ability to identify the frequency or musical name of a specific tone, or, conversely, the ability to produce some designated frequency, frequency level, or musical pitch without comparing the tone with any objective reference tone, i.e., without using relative pitch."[1] Possessors of absolute pitch exhibit the ability in varying degrees. Generally, absolute pitch implies some or all of the following abilities:

* Identify and name individual pitches (e.g. A, B, C#) played on various instruments
* Name the key of a given piece of tonal music
* Identify and name all the tones of a given chord or other tonal mass
* Sing a given pitch without an external reference
* Name the pitches of common everyday occurrences such as car horns

Individuals may possess both absolute pitch and relative pitch ability in varying degrees. Both relative and absolute pitch work together in actual musical listening and practice, although individuals exhibit preferred strategies in using each skill.

[RPC13]

I have it. I used to be a serious musician when I was growing up.

Perfect pitch is fun at parties - impress-your-friends type of stuff. I never found it THAT useful when I was actually writing and performing music.

[Rip Rokken]

I have it. I used to be a serious musician when I was growing up.

I've heard of pro piano tuners that have perfect pitch and can tune pianos just by ear -- is this true?

[RPC13]

[quote="RipRokken"][quote="RPC13"]I have it. I used to be a serious musician when I was growing up.[/quote]

I've heard of pro piano tuners that have perfect pitch and can tune pianos just by ear -- is this true?[/quote]


Sure. It would just be silly to do it that way.

Just like with any instrument, a piano tuner wouldn't be tuning 88 notes based on what he hears in his head. Maybe he would use his perfect pitch to get the first "C natural", but then you tune the rest of the piano to that one note. In other words, get the first "C" (out of his head). Then go an octave up and down and tune those notes to the original note. From there, it's easy to do the fifth ("G"), the third ("E"), etc. But if one note is off just slightly, everything is wrecked.

Piano tuners have tuning forks that are made to resonate at a particular pitch. You bang the thing on your knee and then touch it to the wooden surface of the piano, and that exact tone rings out loud and clear. You then tune all octaves of that particular pitch to the tuning fork. Then you switch to a new tuning fork for the next series of notes.

So it COULD be done by ear, but why bother?

[Rip Rokken]

Sure. It would just be silly to do it that way.

Just like with any instrument, a piano tuner wouldn't be tuning 88 notes based on what he hears in his head. Maybe he would use his perfect pitch to get the first "C natural", but then you tune the rest of the piano to that one note. In other words, get the first "C" (out of his head). Then go an octave up and down and tune those notes to the original note. From there, it's easy to do the fifth ("G"), the third ("E"), etc. But if one note is off just slightly, everything is wrecked.

Piano tuners have tuning forks that are made to resonate at a particular pitch. You bang the thing on your knee and then touch it to the wooden surface of the piano, and that exact tone rings out loud and clear. You then tune all octaves of that particular pitch to the tuning fork. Then you switch to a new tuning fork for the next series of notes.

So it COULD be done by ear, but why bother?

Ahh -- thanks for the info! Makes sense.

[stevew2]

I tried posting on this topic 3 times because I am a piano tuner,each time it got knocked of WTF? I will try later