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Anyone have perfect pitch?

Discussion in 'Music genres, Bands and Artists' started by Floydian, Apr 14, 2007.

  1. #1 Floydian, Apr 14, 2007
    So... are any peeps here blessed with the gift of perfect pitch, rather it be from practice/training or maybe a natural gift?

    Just kinda curious... I'm getting damn near close, it started getting a lot better after I started singing, can really notice it when I play guitar.
     
  2. #2 rumandromanism, Apr 14, 2007
    Natural perfect pitch is more of a curse than a blessing; everyone I know who has it has said that at some point. There's a kid in my classes who has perfect pitch, but he hasn't trained it. What a fucking waste of talent.

    I would consider myself to have superb relative pitch. I can usually guess a note give-or-take a 1/2 step, so I would say that I am almost there. I don't really wish to have it though....I could care less what tone the elevator makes when it goes up a floor :D
     
  3. #3 Floydian, Apr 14, 2007
    I can usually tune a guitar with no reference note, from putting new strings on it, to within a quarter step, sometimes perfect... might not nescessarily be godlike, but eh, but I never seem to be able to find my tuner when I put on new strings (yet it's always around on any other normal day...) so it's kind of useful to be able to do. It would seem learning how to sing has trained my ears to do in months what a guitar hasn't taught them to do in years :p

    Lol... elevator tone.... I think I'ma carry my strobe tuner around for a day and figure out the obscure tones of random moving objects :p
     
  4. #4 rumandromanism, Apr 14, 2007
    Ear training is a great skill. I agree with you; singing has definitely helped to improve my pitch over the years. Usually, out of tune notes make me cringe. However, lately I've been getting into microtonal music so my ears are now being trained to hear quarter tones and things of that variety.
     
  5. #5 Floydian, Apr 14, 2007
    My ear training started when I actually paid attention to if my bends and vibrato on guitar were being played in tune. Was a great way to start hearing tone in proper 1/4 and especially 1/2 step increments thanks to those David Gilmour solos. Then I made sure I at least knew A with no reference note so I could always tune my guitar, and then I just gradually started to get the rest of the open string notes on my guitar stuck in my head too... and learning to sing just kind of helped me with the finer points.

    I've actually told a few buddies how my ears came to be trained and they did the same and it worked for them... so it seems David Gilmour Solos, lack of a strobe/digital tuner, and learning to sing is the 3 step plan for good aural skills (at least for those who happen to play guitar.) :D

    Edit; Soooooooo.... what the hell does microtonal music mean anyway? Like I think the literal interpretation is fairly obvious... but if you elaborate, I'll give you a muffin =D
     
  6. #6 Palmer Eldritch, Apr 14, 2007
    I've never been able to match pitches, but for some reason I am quite good at finding spontanious harmonies and counter melodies when playing with someone or with a recording
     
  7. #7 rumandromanism, Apr 14, 2007
    Microtonal music is music that uses tones that arent based on the well-tempered tuning system. Most tribal music (from all over the globe, not just Africa) uses a different system of scales than Western Europe development. If you try to play along with a sitar on guitar, you will quickly find out that the sitar sounds "out of tune" to your ears. However, the instrument (along with the tabla accompaniment ) is just tuned to a different system than us.

    Contemporary classical composers such as John Cage, Harry Partch, Dean Drummond, and La Monte Young (among countless others) have experimented outside of well-tempered tuning.
     
  8. #8 Floydian, Apr 14, 2007
    Righteous.
     
  9. #9 RuseOfMetacarpi, Apr 15, 2007

    Most standard telephone dial tones register at F, most car horns in the united states are C, while most car horns in Europe are G.

    So if you're like me, don't have a tuner, and can't hear shit notewise other than dissonence, you can get your top string to E by holding down the first fret and tuning it to your dial tone
     
  10. #10 Floydian, Apr 15, 2007
    That's a fucking awesome trick man, I'ma spread the word on that one... but I do have a tuner, which I no longer need. I can tune A 99.9% accurately every time, and just tune the rest from there, or just do them each individually in my head... whatever I think will be quicker.

    I wanna see if there's a progression in the dial up connecting noise, lol.
     
  11. #11 RuseOfMetacarpi, Apr 15, 2007
    it's C AM G F#.


    sike.
     
  12. #12 MajinX, Apr 21, 2007
    Yes, I have perfect pitch.

    I started piano lessons at age 4. At one point in time I was the best in toronto at my age. I stopped at age 11 (was studying for grade 8 conservatory exam), and picked up the sax shortly after. Still going strong with the sax :D


    Perfect pitch has 'hurt' me sometimes, but a few headaches in band practice don't kill a guy. When starting on other instruments that weren't in concert pitch it proved a bit tough because what I used to read as a C would suddenly sound like an Eb or a Bb, etc, but it's still much more helpful than harmful.
     

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