>
> "Perfect pitch" is a misnomer. The correct technical term is "pitch
> recognition." It's a kind of parlor trick. If a bird outside your
> window sings a single pitch, your friend with pitch recognition says
> brightly, "That's a C#." And it's not even "perfect" but can vary in
> preciseness. This ability is not necessarily helpful in the real
> world of making music, can even be annoying if the orchestra tunes to
> an absolute reference pitch, say different from the one learned by
> the pitch recognition person. Relative pitch, the ability to judge
> intervals, is much more important.
> See "Absolute Pitch" article in New Grove 2.
>
Whatever the appropriate term and regardless of how many degrees it
comes in it seems to be much more of the hard wired variety than
relative pitch. After suffering through some ear training courses my
relative pitch improved significantly but I still haven't a clue as to
what that bird is singing (though there is a "course", i.e. a book and
series of tapes, that claims to bootstrap something like "pitch
recognition" off of the continued development of relative pitch; perhaps...)
-- KY
Karl Young
University of California, SF Phone: (415) 221-4810 x3114 lab
VA Medical Center, MRS Unit (114M) (415) 750-9463 home
4150 Clement Street FAX: (415) 668-2864
San Francisco, CA 94121 Email: kyoung at itsa ucsf edu
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