Is it possible to train yourself to recognize pitches?

[nightchef]

Originally Posted by rllink

It seems that the common belief is that for some reason being blessed with perfect pitch curses that person with pain if they hear a pitch that isn't perfect. Why would it be anymore painful to hear a note out of tune for that person then for the rest of us? I can certainly hear notes that might not be in tune, depending on context, it doesn't cause me pain. Can't most of us hear a klinker? And out of tune in relation to what? Jazz players purposely play discordant notes. Is it impossible for persons with perfect pitch to listen to Jazz? Just thinking about it.

I don't know about pain, but it can create practical problems. I sing tenor in a chorus where one of the other tenors has perfect pitch. This is a very good chorus, and we usually stay very close to concert pitch once we start a piece. But we do commonly drift just a few cents off. My tenor colleague has trouble staying with us when this happens. He tends to stick to the true pitch, even when that has become relatively sharp (or more rarely, flat), and that can futz up the blend. He understands the problem and does his best to meet us halfway, but he finds it genuinely hard.

[CASD57]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

As in to recognize an A note vs. an F on the guitar without looking where it is played? And of course not being born with perfect pitch if there really is such a thing. I seem to remember my roommate that was a music major at Indiana University was taking a class on that.



Is there anyone here that can do that?



I guess I could look this up on the Internet but it's more fun to ask questions here.

Not sure if this relates, but I can move the capo up and down the neck and sing the until I hit my top or bottom, but to tell you the key without looking I couldn't tell you. But I have no problem singing the same song in different keys on the fly

[Andy Howell]

Originally Posted by Wags

My quick answer - you can train your ear to recognize relative pitch, ie., intervals and even complex chords, but perfect pitch is likely a gift, and more often than not, a curse.

About right. In a desperate push I can usually tune to D!

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by rllink

It seems that the common belief is that for some reason being blessed with perfect pitch curses that person with pain if they hear a pitch that isn't perfect. Why would it be anymore painful to hear a note out of tune for that person then for the rest of us? I can certainly hear notes that might not be in tune, depending on context, it doesn't cause me pain. Can't most of us hear a klinker? And out of tune in relation to what? Jazz players purposely play discordant notes. Is it impossible for persons with perfect pitch to listen to Jazz? Just thinking about it.

Not at all.

What you mean by "discordant" notes are notes that have an unusual relationship with other pitches. That's a relative pitch issue, not a perfect pitch one. A Db against a C7 (e.g.) might sound too dissonant (unpleasantly so) for someone not used to jazz harmony, but someone with perfect pitch would not be bothered provided all the notes were in tune with the pitches they know. (They might also be bothered by the relative pitch issue if they weren't jazz fans, but that's different.)

What might bother the person with perfect pitch (and not the person without) would be when a performance or recording is not in tune with concert. E.g., if all the instruments were in tune with each other (so it sounds good to most people) but happened to be tuned to a reference other than 440. Again, the person with PP could certainly tell that the performance was flat or sharp of the usual reference pitches (the ones stored in their head), but they might not be bothered by that. It would just be an observation they could make, which no one else could.
But it might well bother them if it was a version of a piece they knew very well in the right "concert" key. Then it would sound distinctly "wrong" to them if it was just a little lower or higher. And of course even more wrong if the whole thing had been transposed, by a semitone or more, e.g., to suit a different singer.

It's a fact that some singers with perfect pitch hate singing in unaccompanied choirs, because choirs as a whole can drift flat or sharp from an initial reference pitch. They can still all be in perfect harmony with each other, but every note they sing is either flat or sharp of the A=440 equivalent. To the person with PP this is just totally "wrong" - but to their ears only. They would be attempting to stick to their "correct" reference pitch (the specific notes they know are right), so would be sounding out of tune with everyone else. To them, of course, it's everyone else that is "off key"!

Of course, some with perfect pitch are able to tolerate this by just parking their PP skill in the back of their mind - but they need to have good relative pitch to over-ride the PP instinct.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I understand that "perfect pitch" can be more of a curse than a blessing.

Hi Elderly singer, guitarist, etc…

Yes…apparently so!

I believe there are many different variants of what is termed 'perfect pitch'.

We had a choir director who started every rehearsal by saying "Sing an A" and by the end of the semester (as a group) we'd nail it every time. It was a real group exercise because we took a few seconds to settle on the pitch.

[H165]

My high school friend Pete has pitch memory. As desribed above, he was the choir pitch-pipe among many other talents. He was sort of our August Rush.

He took advantage of it. He's always made a good living in the music business - performing, producing, directing, writing, arranging. Here's one of his current websites:

https://petejacobsband.com/performer...e%20big%2Dband.

[The Bard Rocks]

I have two friends with perfect pitch. Boy can they tune quickly. One is a violinist, knows nothing about guitar. I bend an A for instance and without hesitation she says, "it is higher than A but not A#". You can't fool her.

That said, my pitch is not good, so I decided to try to see if I could improve it. The key for me is to remember what it feels like to sing a certain note. Then, when I hear a song on the radio, I match the ending note and try to decide what it is, depending upon how it feels to me. I of course know that it is not likely to be certain notes, say a C#, Gb and so on as so few musicians play in those keys (without capos), so that give see less notes to chose from. Quite often I am right anymore.

I had a neat experience at Ashokan many years ago. We were in a vocal class for non-vocalists.The girl next to me was a music major, obviously on an instrument, not a vocalist. The instructor would play something and I'd whisper to her that it was in D or whatever ever. "How can you tell". I'd answer "Don't you hear it?" She didn't of course. Nor did I - I was reading the chords he played, not listening. She thought I was pretty neat until I told her what I was doing. Today I might have a chance by listening.

[Andy Howell]

It is possible to improve your recognition of pitch and many systems doing this use the changing sound or colour of a note to appreciate when it is tune. It is worth exploring.

Absolutely perfect pitch is somethign different and many work oon a natural talent to be able to name and shape notes and chords. Perfect pitch diminishes with age!

[Guitarplayer_PR]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

As in to recognize an A note vs. an F on the guitar without looking where it is played? And of course not being born with perfect pitch if there really is such a thing. I seem to remember my roommate that was a music major at Indiana University was taking a class on that.

Is there anyone here that can do that?

I guess I could look this up on the Internet but it's more fun to ask questions here.

I'm a perfect-pitch guy.

Yes, you can.

[lar]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

My sincere thanks to JonPR for that considered information. Today, I have learnt something! That's a good day!

Ditto

Jon, you must have thought about/studied this topic extensively. It shows.

And for a reason(s) that eludes me, when I read what you write I understand it immediately - no need to re-read. My guess is that you are a music educator.

Do you have anything else I can read? A book on music theory? A novel? Science Fiction?

[brushknee]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

As in to recognize an A note vs. an F on the guitar without looking ....

Bought that David L. Burge course about 30 years ago. Never got far with it.

According to him F# is the most distinct tone color, maybe you should start there and then just go relative pitch once F# is established.

F# phygrian lends itself to guitar at any rate (lot's of Spanish compositions and for example Alex Lifeson's power chord at the Hemisphere's intro)

I also bought DLB's relative pitch course and got a bit further with that, but nothing to write home about. Well the truth is I didn't get anywhere with either of these, I can easily recognize an octave and a perfect 5th, beyond that I have to identify it stepwise from the major scale.

There is also the old Jadassohn book PDF floating around out there, which I find a much better more condensed straightforward format. Hopeful about that book, just have to buckle down and do it.