Perfect Pitch?

[keman]

Hey,

Is it a common phenomenon to have perfect pitch only on the classical guitar?
How many of you have this? I'm just wondering, since it can be very annoying...



- Keman

[Rehoboam]

What do you mean by "perfect pitch"?

[keman]

What do you mean by "perfect pitch"?

You hear a note and can tell its name.

[Gaius46]

Perfect pitch (aka Absolute Pitch) is uncommon and may, from what I've read be detrimental to musicians. Good relative pitch - the ability to identify intervals - is fairly common and cane be learned through ear training.

[Tarbaby]

What do you mean by "perfect pitch"?

When you toss a banjo into a dumpster 20 feet away and it lands directly on an accordion.

Now that that's out of the way...

Keman, do you have perfect pitch only on the guitar? I think that might be possible. For years, the back cover of the monthly International Musician magazine has run an ad from a guy who insists that perfect pitch can be learned using his method. I know a couple of people who have ordered it. They said it was very subtle, learning to identify the notes as "colors". They also said you're supposed to learn it on your instrument.

I can see how that would be helpful. If you are learning "colors", it could be confusing to also have to take into account the varying colors of the piano vs. violin, etc.

I know I don't have perfect pitch, but I like to play a game with myself when changing strings. I try to tune the E string (high or low) to pitch without using a reference. Depending on the day, I usually get it right. As soon as it's an "E", I feel my ears go sort of dead. We've thumped out that E so many thousands of times that we have become numb to it. Almost bored with it.

When I hear it, I recognise it immediately. It's like being visited by an old friend over and over again. "Oh. It's you again!"

Can you identify all the notes on your guitar, Keman?

Alan

[cool09]

Why would you be able to identify an A 400 Hz on the guitar but not on a piano, clarinet, cello, etc.?

[keman]

Why would you be able to identify an A 400 Hz on the guitar but not on a piano, clarinet, cello, etc.?

Maybe "perfect pitch" is not the exact word I'm looking for. I just recognize an A when it's played on the guitar, even if the guitar is a bit out of tune. So it's rather the colour of the tone, and not the exact pitch. And I'm asking if that's common.

[guitargeorge]

I don't know if its common but I can do something similar. I can tune a very-out-of-tune guitar very close to correct picthes without a reference. I cant name random notes on random instruments, but I can get pretty close with open guitar strings. Maybe I've heard them a millon times so they are etched on my memory.

[Scot Tremblay]

I was under the impression that there was no such thing as perfect pitch. However, some folks have highly developed "pitch memory". They just can remember the pitch much the same way some folks have "photographic memory". I think one can develope it to a fairly high level with concentrated practice and just like everything some are better at it than others.

[Denian Arcoleo]

I was under the impression that there was no such thing as perfect pitch.

Some people, when they hear a random note out of the blue, can name it; that's called perfect pitch and has been so named for a long long time.

[Jeffrey.C]

Why would you be able to identify an A 400 Hz on the guitar but not on a piano, clarinet, cello, etc.?

A=440 Hz is the standard.

It's more the colour of the note that you'll be identifying -- it's rather common for instrumentalists to be able to recognise notes easier on their home instrument than other ones.

I have rather good pitch identification on guitar but when it comes to other instruments, I have quite a bit of trouble.

A clarinet player I used to know could tell you any note someone played on a clarinet but on any other instrument, he would have to stop and think very hard about it and in the end, he wasn't always right when it wasn't a clarinet.

[Varun]

I don't think perfect pitch is necessary.Like someone said before,it's very uncommon.From what I've heard,even many professional musicians don't have it.

[rever]

I always thought that I had perfect pitch, but when really tested I found that i was consistently 3 cents sharp. So my my perfect pitch was only relative pitch to my guitar, which apparently gets tuned consistently 3 cents sharp, probably developed from chasing the G string.

[Richard Lawrence]

what about an A 432Hz instead of 440 Hz? Who designated 440 Hz as being "standard" any way?

[LVR]

what about an A 432Hz instead of 440 Hz? Who designated 440 Hz as being "standard" any way?

The American music industry reached an informal standard of 440 Hz in 1926. In 1936 the American Standards Association recommended that the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz. This standard was taken up by the International Organization for Standardization in 1955 (reaffirmed by them in 1975) as ISO 16.

That's who designated. Prior to that A=435 was the standard set by the Austrian government. I'm not aware of who if anyone used A=432, but I'm not an expert at all. I have never thought I had absolute or "perfect" pitch but yesterday after changing strings, I tried to tune my A string by guess and was within a few cents of being right. Maybe it comes and goes.