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Icarium View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: perfect pitch and other interesting subjects
    Posted: May 16 2010 at 10:42

This is one of my interest fields (not that it controls my life or anything) but I like to philosophies about which of my musical heroes or musician I know of might have perfect pitch.

I don't say that only people with perfect pitch are the best at do what they are doing making music. or that people with PP is better instrumentalists, composers, arrangers or conductors then people with moderate pitch or tone death people. Like for example I don’t think Rick Wakeman have PP but he is an incredible gifted piano player, and can compose great stuff, probably knows what a good arrangement will apply, or might as well know have to conduct.

But what I mean is that many of the top musicians have made it without perfect pitch, I have read that when Robert Fripp started playing guitar he was almost tone deaf, but you will probably not guess that after hearing the song Starless or Epitaph, Innovativeness is probably hindered if you have PP, he might not handle dissonance and that will not work in a rock'n'roll setting.

people i Know of who have PP are Keith Jarret, Chich Corea, Franz Lizst, Mozart, Prince (probably), Mariah Carry (yeah you read right), Buddy Rich (from what I’ve heard of him in sessions he could be really tough to work with because he heard ALL wrong tones are false notes)

if You know of more please name them, I often believe that Elton John have very close to PP,

me myself don't know I am not tone-deaf but I have no formal musical training but play bass guitar and relay much on hearing/listening to tones and by that developing my tonality on bass, i like to learn more about Harmony, Rhythm concepts, melodies and bass

 
I realy will recomend whatching

How Music Works by Howard Goodall part 1,2,3 and 4 which are about the core of what makes music part 1. melody, 2. rythem, 3. harmony and 4. bass highly recomended

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW_9T25Wgvg  you can by this chach it on Youtube and i will recomend to take part one 1stWink


well I jumpt over alot of concepts here and topics but i'm sure this will trigger interesting answers okey enjoy
.


Edited by aginor - October 30 2010 at 08:08
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Triceratopsoil View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2010 at 17:56
Speaking of perfect pitch, I investigated David Lucas Burge's Ear Training Supercourse for a short while and came to the conclusion that yes, his "method" does work, but no, I don't have the time or the patience.

What Burge asserts is that everyone, unless they are actually tone deaf (and you can tell by their monotone voices, apparently), is capable of hearing the differences between pitches; however, very few people are aware of what to listen for.

It's pretty fascinating, and for a while there I could legitimately tell the difference between a few pitches.  It's the sort of thing one must practice often and for a long time to properly establish, which is unfortunate in today's busy world
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2010 at 18:15
if Fripp was "almost tone deaf" when he started (which I doubt), then maybe it's a plus--  though I suspect perfect pitch does not necessarily equal musical talent, certainly not inspiration.  I knew someone with it and they were routinely annoyed by these artist who were, to him, off key.  A good ear is very important, perfect pitch not so much.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2010 at 20:37
Perfect pitch, whatever, can you play well? is what counts. Big smile
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2010 at 22:28

Rick Wright claimed that Waters was practically tone deaf and he had to tune the bass for him because the tuning would drive him crazy. But this was post-breakup so he may have just been bitter.

I don't put that much stock in perfect pitch. It's nice, but I don't see it as really necessary to anything, even free improvisation.

if you own a sodastream i hate you
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2010 at 22:36
I believe that about Roger Waters.  That would explain why David Gilmore had to play all the fretless bass on The Wall
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 17 2010 at 01:43
as an aspiring young metal vocalist I am discovering the wonderful art of NOT having an accurate pitch. I sound better when my pitch is wrong.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 30 2010 at 07:57
I have perfect pitch and relative pitch.
 
Very useful for such things like:
. Writing/Composing.
. Learning songs by ear.
. Naming notes and chords.
. Saying to people that my fridge is in the key of G.
 
But it comes at a cost. I find alot of blues, country, pop etc, boring and predictable due to the fact it doesn't challenge my abilities. 
 
 
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 30 2010 at 09:29
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

  I knew someone with it and they were routinely annoyed by these artist who were, to him, off key.  A good ear is very important, perfect pitch not so much.



Well said!  Clap   I think however, what somebody else said about learning songs by ear could be very useful. If you can distinguish pitches clearly, you can intuitively understand the relation between notes better.  Some other post referred to knowing what to hear. I sort of agree with that. I can learn songs by ear and though I can't call notes as soon as I hear them, I can accurately hit the identical note on my keyboard and then, by counting out the octaves and remembering the shapes of the keys LOL, can tell you what pitch it is, without getting it wrong.  But I don't really fuss over minor pitch mistakes, especially by singers, and pay more attention to whether they are able to execute very tough passages flawlessly.  So, yes, it's about knowing what to hear.   
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 30 2010 at 12:10
I would really like to test people who claim to have perfect pitch. Looking over the Wikipedia page about it, there are certain degrees of "absolute pitch," but some of them seem relatively easy: identifying all tones in a chord, name a the key of a tonal piece of music.  I want somebody to sing me an A# on the spot, or listen to a single tone and tell me what it is, or if they're really up to it, tell me the frequency of a tone. Insane bonus points if it's not a harmonic of any other note ("Between A# and B."). That's kind of what I always thought perfect pitch meant. But anyway, it seems to me kind of a neat skill, but not a necessary one when practically anything musically is going to have more than one tone, and likely be in a certain key, so relative pitch os more important.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 30 2010 at 19:24

Elton John could at age between 5 and 14 copy/paste any song he heard, that were playd to him, his ear was incredible at young age, thats why he got a Scholarship at Royal Academi of Music (youth section) at te age of 12 and was their til he wa 15/16 years old

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 31 2010 at 00:02
My guitar teacher always maintained that perfect pitch was a curse, not a blessing. Everything sounds bad to you unless it is perfectly in tune. However, I must disagree with you about perfect pitch leading to intolerance to dissonace if your information on Franz Liszt is correct (I have read the excellent biography of him by Alan Walker and it doesn't mention him having perfect pitch.) Liszt was a pioneer in the field of atonal music as in his bagatelle sans tonalité.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 31 2010 at 02:14
Originally posted by thellama73 thellama73 wrote:

My guitar teacher always maintained that perfect pitch was a curse, not a blessing. Everything sounds bad to you unless it is perfectly in tune.


But does dissonance necessarily equate to being out of tune, as in wrong?  Where dissonance is underlined by a clear pattern and direction, I would not take it as anything other than being in tune.  Yes, it's a very wide definition of 'in tune' but without some amount of dissonance, how can drama and contrast in music be effectively built? Maybe people with perfect pitch do that, don't know, haven't met those types, in that case, and yes, if they do, then it's a curse.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 31 2010 at 03:18
Originally posted by paganinio paganinio wrote:

as an aspiring young metal vocalist I am discovering the wonderful art of NOT having an accurate pitch. I sound better when my pitch is wrong.


Give it up and leave music to the pros.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 31 2010 at 03:25
Originally posted by rogerthat rogerthat wrote:

Originally posted by thellama73 thellama73 wrote:

My guitar teacher always maintained that perfect pitch was a curse, not a blessing. Everything sounds bad to you unless it is perfectly in tune.


But does dissonance necessarily equate to being out of tune, as in wrong?  Where dissonance is underlined by a clear pattern and direction, I would not take it as anything other than being in tune.  Yes, it's a very wide definition of 'in tune' but without some amount of dissonance, how can drama and contrast in music be effectively built? Maybe people with perfect pitch do that, don't know, haven't met those types, in that case, and yes, if they do, then it's a curse.  

Dissonance and perfect pitch are completely unrelated. Dissonance/Consonance applies to intervals (two or more tones play simultaneously) and whether the interval created by the tones is dissonant or not does not depend on whether these tones are in or out of pitch compared to an absolute reference (like a tuning fork or a human capable of perfect pitch). 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 31 2010 at 04:26
Originally posted by Mr ProgFreak Mr ProgFreak wrote:

Originally posted by rogerthat rogerthat wrote:

Originally posted by thellama73 thellama73 wrote:

My guitar teacher always maintained that perfect pitch was a curse, not a blessing. Everything sounds bad to you unless it is perfectly in tune.


But does dissonance necessarily equate to being out of tune, as in wrong?  Where dissonance is underlined by a clear pattern and direction, I would not take it as anything other than being in tune.  Yes, it's a very wide definition of 'in tune' but without some amount of dissonance, how can drama and contrast in music be effectively built? Maybe people with perfect pitch do that, don't know, haven't met those types, in that case, and yes, if they do, then it's a curse.  

Dissonance and perfect pitch are completely unrelated. Dissonance/Consonance applies to intervals (two or more tones play simultaneously) and whether the interval created by the tones is dissonant or not does not depend on whether these tones are in or out of pitch compared to an absolute reference (like a tuning fork or a human capable of perfect pitch). 


Perfect, that's sort of what I wanted to say but I couldn't express it because I don't know so much about music.  Thanks for an educative and informed reply. Smile
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