"Perfect Pitch"

First of all I’d like to say that perfect pitch shouldn’t be defined as something that you can learn or you must be born with. It’s just a better understanding of the pitches that you hear. And everyone has some degree of this ability if you’re a musician. Like if you were jamming with a friend, say your playing guitar or any other instrument. And your playing a E and your friend is playing a C#, if you can tell those 2 notes aren’t the same. You have some sort of perfect pitch, cause you can tell there is a difference in sound between those 2 notes. You’re probably saying well that’s relative pitch. No using relative pitch you would know the interval between the 2 notes. But knowing the notes are not the same is the concept behind perfect pitch. Perfect pitch isn’t hearing the notes any different from anybody else. People with perfect pitch just understand the sound of the note, like a G is a bright sound, and an Eb is a softer weaker sound. It’s not looking at it and saying G is higher than Eb (or the other way around) cause if you move one note up or down an octave that’s not the case anymore. But the note you moved up or down still sounds like the same note. That sound is the ‘mystery sound’ of perfect pitch. And those who are referring to the David Lucas Burge’s super course, who are thinking all notes, have a certain color to them. This is completely ridiculous. If you are actually listening to these notes and waiting to hear in the background, this note is the color blue. Your way off, just turn it around. When you look at the color red, do you hear a sound coming from it??? NO. If you do, I want the trip your on. Listen, all he is trying to do is to get you to hear the characteristics of each pitch, like Eb is softer, what is a soft color? Maybe it is a light blue to you. And F# is bright and vibrant, well a bright and vibrant color is red. So Color and Pitch relating together is not Perfect pitch or any kind of pitch perception. Perfect Pitch is just the highest level of pitch perception. Just like 20/20 (or above) vision is the highest level of seeing, Perfect Pitch is the highest level of hearing. If you can understand pitches at this level. Yes, you will be able to name a pitch from ear, and all the other kool things associated with Perfect Pitch.

If you can hear the difference in notes, even if its how high or low it is. A higher level of pitch perception can be developed. It just needs to be refined. You may not be able to obtain everything that they say Perfect pitch gives you (if you can’t sing, your not going to be able to perfectly sing a note of the top of your head.), but you can progress to a higher level by hearing. The only people who wouldn’t be able to are people who are tone deaf or completely deaf. Don’t worry, if you like music in any way, you ARE NOT tone deaf. People who are tone deaf can’t even hear the ascending and descending of pitches. The only thing keeping you from it is either the disbelief or lack of wanting it and working for it. It does take time to develop good pitch perception, just like it takes time to learn to play your instrument or sing. I know it is possible, just like it’s possible to get better at anything else, you can get better at hearing pitches. To contradict myself on this. Well hearing is a sense, and so is taste. You can’t learn to taste better, right? Sounds stupid, right? Well you wont learn to hear better either; your hearing will always be the same. Even if you took ear training for 20 years, you will never gain the hearing abilities of people like Mozart, Sinatra, and even people without “perfect pitch”, if you didn’t have it before. It’s not called Perfect Hearing; it’s called Perfect Pitch. Perfect Pitch is the understanding and absolute deepest perception of any given pitch. That is possible, you just got to listen, and take time to understand it.

And those who are looking for the mysterious sound that people with perfect pitch hear, your already looking too hard. There are levels to each pitch; the first level is the timbre. Which is the sound of the instrument that you’re playing. Like a guitar has a stringy sound. Timbre is the surface level. The level below that is your “perfect pitch sound”. This is the sound of the actual pitch of the note. People who have perfect pitch listen to this more discretely when naming a pitch or any other ability of pitch perception. And guess what. Everybody hears it, when your tuning your instrument this is the sound your tuning by, if you learning a song you heard on your stereo, “this is what your listening for, whether you know it or not”. The other levels are the vibration of the notes (no, you don’t hear every vibration like C has roughly around 440 vibrations per second). But you get an idea, sort of like looking at a helicopter propeller spin, you don’t see each time it goes around but you get a blurred spin of it. Same exact way with these vibrations. The last audible level of a pitch is its overtones and they are very low in volume, pretty hard to hear. And those who take the David Lucas Burge super course can mistake these for the “perfect pitch sound”. But if you are hearing these overtones, you already have a great ear. You’re just looking in the wrong place.

Some people say Perfect pitch cannot be true because no two pitches are exactly the same. Yeah, this is true. No two pitches are exactly the same, but it is the same with everything else in nature. No two colors are exactly the same, the red of a stop sign if a different shade of red than a red light. If you make, say spaghetti one day and then make it a week later, it doesn’t taste the same. So Pitches are the same way. When you say a stop sign is red, well so is the red light. And if you sit down to eat, hopefully you know what spaghetti tastes like, and you don’t confuse it with macaroni and cheese. Pitches are the same in this aspect. Each note has its own sound, C, D, E, F, G, A, B (includes sharp and flat notes). Each note has its own range, like in Bach’s time an A was flatter than it is today, it was more like the Ab we hear today. But that still is a pitch, whether you called A or Ab or X. It’s doesn’t matter, it still has a certain sound to it. Perfect Pitch is hearing these differences in sound. Perfect Pitch is not saying C has to be exactly 440 vibrations per second; this is impossible to calculate with the human ear. Even when you tune your instrument, it is never exactly right. Even your dog couldn’t hear that your E is 15 vibrations to flat. You get a range for each pitch, that is what how you tell the difference between notes. Yeah, if a C is a little too sharp it starts to sound a little C#-ish. Perfect Pitch will help you recognize this.

tell us more. It's like if I was saying: making 10000 dollars a month is easy. So easy you can do it... It's just so easy It's funny I'm the only one to know...
And then saying nothing.

To those who doubt this level of perception, saying most of your favorite artists don’t even have perfect pitch so why do people say you need it to be a good musician? Well you don’t need it to be a good musician, but having perfect pitch is only beneficial to an artist. It doesn’t automatically make you a rock star. There are other factors that make you a good musician. Rhythm, Creativity, Technical facility, Memory, but hearing above all is the most important. Every musician you listen to relies more on hearing than anything else. Even the most well-know musicians, although they may not have Perfect Pitch, they do have very good hearing. Music is the hearing art, like painting is the seeing art. Are there many sight-impaired painters are there? No. It’s the same way with music, the better you can hear and understand the notes, the better you will write the music you really want to write. And anyone listening to your music will have a better interpretation of what you are trying to convey in your song. Anyone who writes his or her own music, the better you hear the better you write, and Perfect Pitch is the top of the mountain.

Not having perfect pitch sucks, its like being deaf. im just saying it's well worth the time to learn, it's doesnt take long and you dont have to pay david lucas burge jack squat. just trust its must better to have it, than not to have it. if u take the time to learn songs, take the time to learn what actual music sounds like.

you choose, im just saying its worth it.

Yo, except rewriting the Ad, I didn't learn much...

So tell us how to work on it. And if you answer 'buy the method' then I'm sorry, but no thanks. You gotta tell us more so we can really understand how it works.

how does it work you ask? say you wanna write a fast up beat tune, you sure wouldn't use Eb. cause Eb is more of a mellow sounding note, i would use either C or G. or you want to write something that graps people attention, write something in F# or C#. it's gives you a better understanding of the notes and what they mean. Each note has a different feeling to it. To understand play a chromatic scale, listen to each sound. as see if its mellow, sad, happy, dark, and listen to the kind of feeling you get from it. that gives you the feel of each note. to discriminate between notes develops as you learn their differences. you just have to listen man.

mozart himself began playing the piano by just striking a note over and over until he could hear the note in his head.

hears a clue.....play a D, listen to it. then play a up a fret to an Eb, what is the difference? One's higher and one's lower right? Yeah that is right, but what else is different?

Here it is...

The D sorta of has a "dah, dah, dah" sound and the Eb has more of a "nah, nah, nah". The D is alittle brighter than the Eb, which is softer and more sedated. But the Eb is higher than the D right? See each tone has its own characteristic is the way. It's not highness of lowness, its just a feeling of the note.

Listen to the F#...."wier, weir, weir". it has a buzz in it, huh? Like a fly buzzing in your ear.

Make sure your in tune to.

Mhhhh?

Tell us more about the other tones?

[Edited by lalimacefolle on 08-04-2002 at 09:30 PM]

I would but then you wouldn't develop it, you would start to think of every note as...dah dah dah, weir, weir, weir etc... trust me,its not hard just listen to each note. and think how the sound of the F# is buzzy sounding, then just listen to another note (any note), what does it sound like. and when you listen...

Listen this sounds like some buddha type shyt but its true...

Let the sound come to you, just listen to it. dont listen into the sound, let it fully soak into your ears. And you'll realize that it has a sound completely different from all the others.

now as you listen more and more, the sound you once heard will start to evaporate. this happens! you just got a taste of pitch recognition, you just have to practice it like 5 mins a day just listening to each individual note.

you'll learn these tones more and more. and as you listen you'll start hearing more characteristics of these sounds, like the F# not only sounds buzzy but it's also very bold.

F# is an attention grabber, now when they say you'll be able to identify the key of a song. you'll notice, the songs that really stick have some relation to F#.

have fun.

another thing to add...when you listen to a note... your not searching for anything in that note. pitches never change. dont think it you listen alittle harder your gonna hear a new sound in the note your playing. the notes sound exactly the same as they always have sounded. so when you listen, dont TRY to hear anything, just listen. If you start looking for something or listening into a note. It's like trying to play hide and go seek blindfolded, the more you try to listen the more you are blinded of the vision of the pitch.

i understand if your trying this, you really wanna hear and understand it, but here's the secret the less you try to hear the more you will hear it. cause your ear needs to relax to hear these differences in pitch. so just relax.

another thing dont expect to be master of this the first time. and that your gonna get perfect pitch in full bloom right off the bat. there is no secret or shortcut to this. just like learning to play guitar, you weren't just told "put your fingers on the frets, and strum the strings", and a second later your were hendrix. it does take alot of patience and alittle bit of time.

so just relax and listen.

p.s. If you are having doubts on whether or not, your hearing the right thing?? If you are hearing anything that is different, you are hearing it right. See "perfect pitch" seems still so much more than it is. See the thing is, in everyday life we always looked past the simple things, and perfect pitch is simple. It's always been in your face, you just thought it was something more.

Listen, here is why I cant describe every note to you so you know what to look for. See when to hear music, "you dont hear weir, wah, ah, do, da, dong". Music doesn't sound like this. If it did music wouldn't be such a big deal cause it would sound retarded. Music is pitches, and every note has its own pitch. And when I say F# sounds like "weir". If you say "weir", it has sort of a funny feeling and sound to it, and F# has that sort of sound to it. All the word "weir" is doing, is it's gettin you to look in the right direction of pitch. It's only a description of the sound an F# has. Like you would describe a color, well someone might say red is vibrant, and someone else may say its attractive, bright, whatever. Same thing with notes, you may say the F# is vibrant, bright, attractive. Everyone hears it the same, but they describe it differently. And if you just where told bright, what color would you say? red, yellow? There's is no perfect word that will get you to hear all the notes distinctively.

Then if you listen to the Eb and your thinking its sorta sounds like "nah, nah, nah". Some people say it sorta sounds like "wah, wah, wah". See everyone describes these pitches differently. But you can hear that sort of quality in the Eb. That's its pitch, that you are hearing. Now if you go and play another note, it might sound sort of "nah, nah, nah" too, when it not an Eb. Cause "nah, nah, nah" is a softer sound than if say "dah, dah, dah", which is stronger. Like notes there are more than one soft note in the chromatic scale, and more than one stronger note, etc. But listen to the Eb again and then listen to say an Ab. The Ab is sort of soft and mellow too. But its a different kind of mellow than the Eb. The Ab is alittle stronger than the Eb. You may describe these 2 pitches as: Eb is softer and sedated, and the Ab is just as soft, but its stronger. So if the Eb sounds sorta "nah, nah, nah", the Ab might sound like "neh, neh, neh". See your just opening up the first set of doors, then as you hear more notes some may sound the same. But as you compare them they get more distinctive, and you open more doors. And you keep going til you can hear a difference in all 12 notes. This is how people with perfect pitch can name a pitch by just hearing it, cause these differences are as obvious to the ear as red and blue are different to the eye.

This is how perfect pitch is developed. Yeah it is learned, mozart wasn't born knowing what a C# sounded like before he even heard music. Yeah he may have been born with an amazing ability to hear, just like some people are bored stupid and some become geniuses.

If your interested, I will help you with this. Just ask me if you have a question and I'll try to answer the best I can.

People who say Perfect Pitch is a myth, are saying that Pitches dont exist.

Now the reason I am continueing to write about this, is because some people just need to know what to look for. Just telling you how to hear the pitch in any sound and you will just automatically realize what perfect pitch actually is, and take hold of it very quickly. I know that if you read the other posts I put up and tried it, all of you heard it to some extend. If not just listen alittle closer, and remember you have nothing to lose, plus I need dont your money.

I noticed alot of people say Perfect Pitch is something that you just have and your born with it. Yeah some people are, they are born just looking at things simple. That's why they say Children and Authentic people can develop this more naturally. Cause your not trying to look for something that is not there, your going about it simpler. Like colors in the sounds, haha. You guys are reading into this David Lucas Burge thing alittle too much. People with pitch perception dont see colors when they hear a pitch. Why these are qouted so much together, is because they are both waveforms. Light waves (color waves) travel at about 700 trillion to 800 trillion vibrations per second. Depending on the color, red is faster and blue is slower, and everything in between is a different color depending on the vibrations per second and the same with sound wavs. Now sound wavs travel only in the hundreds of vibrations per sec. C is roughly about 440 vibrations per sec. This is why we here pitches ascending and descending. The vibrations per second go up as you go up the chromatic scale, and down when you go down the chromatic scale. This is using Relative Pitch. We were not born with relative pitch, we learned it back when we're first introduce to music in maybe grade school. Remember this, "do, ra, me, fa, so, le, toe". This was also your first introduction to Perfect Pitch perception, you just didn't realize it. You were only taught to think of the relationship of those 7 pitch. Say you wanted to go up 5 steps up from "ra", well that would be "le". When you refer to this, your using relative pitch. The relation between the two pitches. You were not taught to recognize a single pitch (perfect pitch). Because that they say is too hard for a child to grasp. Again, Perfect pitch is exotic, its only for the gifted or whatever. But actually Relative Pitch is much Harder to learn than Perfect Pitch, Perfect pitch only requires the knowledge of 12 individual tones. Relative Pitch is learning any variation of 12 individual tones, its endless. We still learn that easier. So why does it seem children have a better chance to develop perfect pitch? It is because children who developed perfect pitch were not taught only relative pitch but pitch recognizition as well. There ears are much more easier to mold with perfect pitch, cause they haven't been taught that relations are the only way to hear notes. Like how high and how low a note is compared to another note.

So with that in mind the first thing you should do, is forget about the relationships between notes. Say you can name a pitch because you know what "A" sounds like and you just figure how many steps up or down it is. This a good tool to use, but to develop perfect pitch it isnt. To archieve perfect pitch you'll have to be able to hear any note without reference. See having just having relative pitch is one dimension, having Perfect pitch and relative pitch, is hearing in two dimensions. For those who think they only need one or the another, the ear is 4 times more powerful with both.

Again If you are really serious about learning perfect pitch, I would recommend gettin the david lucas supercourse. It will guide you step by step to the pinnacle of perfect pitch, DO NOT get it if aren't serious about gaining this ability, or if you dont believe you can gain this ability, and are not willing to take the time to learn it. If not, your waisting your time and money.

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 08-05-2002 at 10:45 PM]

Anyone who says having Perfect pitch is a drag, either doesn't have it and they are pist that they didn't develop it right, or they have it and their just being a B@tch about everything. Truthfully, it is something to show off cause your perception of pitch is much more keening than another person. Say your friend plays something and he accidentally hits a wrong note. Say he was supposed to play an Eb and he played an E natural. You can let him know right of the bat, and tell him, "you should have played an E natural there, and didn’t you hear how it sounded wrong"? If he doesn't have perfect pitch he probably didn't notice, but you obviously will if you know how the song was supposed to go.

How this is a drag? I don't know. You will get a lot more respect as a musician by doing this. Your friend will appreciated it and you will feel good about it. Actually when you first start noticing things like this, you will sort of blow your self away knowing that you picked up on it so quickly.

Some say having Perfect pitch will drive you crazy cause you'll be able to easier tell if someone is out of tune. OK, you dont need perfect pitch to do this, everybody will know if the band is out of tune or if someone hits a wrong note. If you in a band, and your have perfect pitch, it is much easier to get back in tune more quickly, which I think is a benefit especially live. Say you notice your flat one-half step, you could easier just play everything up 1 fret on your guitar.

Benefits of Perfect pitch. Improvising, you become the king of improvising in your own personal style. Have you ever just started playing something or jamming with a band, and every time you improvise you tend to somethimes hit a wrong note and fall off track. With Perfect pitch this is no longer a problem, you know exactly the note you wanna hit next. Now for shredding a solo, perfect pitch is a major plus but you need good technique. Your probably moving way to fast to think up every note you wanna play.

Now with writting music. For those who write there own music, even if its just little riffs or melodies. How long does it take to you figure out what you hear in your head? Or just riffs? It kind of sucks looking for the right notes, Perfect pitch will help you know the right notes before have to look for them. It also helps you write things in the right key that you wanna hear it in. Transposing is not a drag, you actually become a lot better at transposing than someone who doesn’t have perfect pitch. Say you go to a show and theirs a band there, and there playing a faster upbeat happy song but yet the notes they’re playing are rather downish. This is recognized by people with or without perfect pitch. Although the advantage of perfect pitch is that you would know a good key to transpose a song into using your personal taste. Now this doesn’t mean you hear a song and you don’t like the key its in, thing is you probably would have never liked that song anyways.

Now I know this all sounds too good to be true. It’s not because these benefits are full of sh#t, it’s because you are taught to think this ability is only for the gifted. And you’ll never be able to get, well I know that you can obtain it. You already have it, you just need to know how to use it. So just take 5-10 out of your time and listen for it. What have you got to lose?

*You only have to spend 5-10 minutes listening, don’t think sitting there for hours is gonna make it mature faster. Just chill and relax.

Another thing, having Perfect pitch does not guarantee that you will become a Mozart, or a Malmsteen. Perfect pitch is just a great boost to everything else. But you need to be very creative and you must have good rhythm. You can have perfect pitch and if you have no rhythm or your not able to create, you not going be able to get any better. Sorry.


[Edited by noticingthemistake on 08-06-2002 at 08:38 PM]

you offer some good advice, thanx.
Were you born with P.P. or was it something you acquired?
Is it as strong with people who acquire vrs. people who learn it.?
In college we used to play "stump the idiot savant" with this one guy who had PP, we would press down 11 keys on the piano at the same time and he would tell us which one we were'nt playing, he was right 100% of the time. Is this normal with people who have developed PP or was this just an extreme case?

things that come easy go the same way...
gold is precious because it is hard to find...
you don't need a photographic memory to be a photographer...
"that deaf dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball..."

Hey Chris, Thanks for the kind words. Before I answer your questions I’d like to say. By Definition of “Perfect Pitch”, nobody is born with this ability. This is not a proven fact, but it makes sense to me. I think people who are said to be born with Perfect Pitch, pick up on the sound of notes at a very young age. Sort of like a child who learns numbers before the normal age, is often good with math and other similar fields when they grow up. Same with Perfect Pitch, you may have a gift in this area but you still need to learn the abilities that go with it, just like you need to learn how to add and subtract. But I do know that I did acquire a knack for music at a young age, and I’ve always had an ability to recognize tones very well. I also grew up around people who played guitar. So yeah, I do believe I was born with a very good sense of hearing. Now this brings me to your second question.

Actually, It doesn't matter if you acquire it or learn it. Perfect Pitch is the same ability in both cases. But the biggest factor in how strong your Perfect Pitch is; it's how good your hearing is. People who have really good hearing develop this easier and faster and they can hear the pitches better than say someone who doesn’t hear quite as good. This doesn’t mean that you can’t learn Perfect pitch; it just might take you a little longer cause your ear needs to open up more to these sounds. But if you are already pretty accomplished in music, you will probably learn the basic “perfect pitch” within a couple of months, even weeks. Basic perfect pitch is when you can hear the pitches very well, and you can name any tone by just hearing it. This is what I had when I started taking ear training, but then I realized there are other levels to this. Like just singing any note of the top of your head without reference, and being able to tell if a note is a little flat or a little sharp. But let me tell you, acquiring or learning it is very fulfilling. Cause when you learn it; you feel as though you have accomplished something that most people say is IMPOSSIBLE. It really trips you out. Now someone that has had it since they can remember doesn’t know any different, so they don’t appreciate it as much.

Now your last question, the answer is yeah, this is normal for anyone who has perfect pitch. Matter of Fact the first thing that they teach you in Ear Training in to play 2 and 3 note chords, and then sing each note to prove that you can hear them. And as you go on, “stump the idiot savant” is one of the lessons that you go though. It is very difficult to grasp for someone without Perfect pitch, cause all the tones are clashing and they are very dissonant. To you it was probably like me saying, “I'm going to count to 9, and I’ll leave out one number. Without referring to the keyboard, tell me what number I leave out?”. Then I go “!@#$^&*(“. This is what it sounds like to someone without perfect pitch. Now to whomever you are referring to, he was able to hear past the clashing sounds and the dissonance. And zoom deep into the sound and hear each note individually and see what was left out was the five. Pretty amazing huh? Well I hope I answered your questions thoroughly, especially the second one. If not, I think you get the idea. Thanx for writting, I wish you well with everything that you do. Take it easy man.

Rock,
mike

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 08-06-2002 at 10:33 PM]

hey Nechako, is that a quote from George Carlin?

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.