Perfect Pitch

Petrokov · 08-02-2012, 07:51 PM

Wikipedia defines perfect pitch as "the ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference."

If this is indeed the definition of perfect pitch, then I firmly believe that it can be learned.

According to this definition, I have perfect pitch. Instead of using an external reference to identify or recreate a note, I use my own internal reference.

I'll be more detailed. I can clearly recognize a C or an F, but other notes are more difficult. But what I can do is compare a note that I hear to a C or an F, and I can use the interval to determine what the note I hear is. For example, if you play an F# on the piano, I might think about what C sounds like. I'll think "That note makes a tritone with C. It must be F#."

If this can be defined as perfect pitch, then why is it impossible to learn perfect pitch? Let's say I play "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath, and I tell you that it's in E. If I stop the music and then ask you five seconds later to sing an E, you'll be able to do it. If I ask you to sing an A, then you'll be able to find an E and then sing the perfect fourth. If I ask you to sing F, you'll be able to go up a half step from E. If you have decent relative pitch, then you'll be able to produce any note based on this reference song that I gave you five seconds ago.

If I ask you thirty seconds later, you'll probably still be able to do the same thing.

If I ask you ten minutes later, you might still be able to remember what an E sounds like, and you might not.

But let's say I did this to you every day. Eventually, you would be able to remember what key the song is in for longer and longer periods of time after I stopped the music. After a week, you might be able to sing and E after a half hour; after a month you might be able to remember what E sounds like after an hour; and eventually, I feel like the song, in its correct key, would be converted to long term memory.

At this point, if you needed to identify any note, you could just think, "Oh, War Pigs is in E," and sing the first note to yourself in your head. Then you would have an E. Then you could find the interval between E and the note you were asked to identify, and correctly identify the note.

I feel like this is a practical way to teach perfect pitch. Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?

08-02-2012, 07:51 PM	#1 (permalink)
Petrokov Groupie Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 5	Perfect Pitch Wikipedia defines perfect pitch as "the ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference." If this is indeed the definition of perfect pitch, then I firmly believe that it can be learned. According to this definition, I have perfect pitch. Instead of using an external reference to identify or recreate a note, I use my own internal reference. I'll be more detailed. I can clearly recognize a C or an F, but other notes are more difficult. But what I can do is compare a note that I hear to a C or an F, and I can use the interval to determine what the note I hear is. For example, if you play an F# on the piano, I might think about what C sounds like. I'll think "That note makes a tritone with C. It must be F#." If this can be defined as perfect pitch, then why is it impossible to learn perfect pitch? Let's say I play "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath, and I tell you that it's in E. If I stop the music and then ask you five seconds later to sing an E, you'll be able to do it. If I ask you to sing an A, then you'll be able to find an E and then sing the perfect fourth. If I ask you to sing F, you'll be able to go up a half step from E. If you have decent relative pitch, then you'll be able to produce any note based on this reference song that I gave you five seconds ago. If I ask you thirty seconds later, you'll probably still be able to do the same thing. If I ask you ten minutes later, you might still be able to remember what an E sounds like, and you might not. But let's say I did this to you every day. Eventually, you would be able to remember what key the song is in for longer and longer periods of time after I stopped the music. After a week, you might be able to sing and E after a half hour; after a month you might be able to remember what E sounds like after an hour; and eventually, I feel like the song, in its correct key, would be converted to long term memory. At this point, if you needed to identify any note, you could just think, "Oh, War Pigs is in E," and sing the first note to yourself in your head. Then you would have an E. Then you could find the interval between E and the note you were asked to identify, and correctly identify the note. I feel like this is a practical way to teach perfect pitch. Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?