isn't that more frequency related though? as in, the compressed version may have 'harsh' harmonics up near 20k that most people can't physically hear?

154 wrote:isn't that more frequency related though? as in, the compressed version may have 'harsh' harmonics up near 20k that most people can't physically hear?

Yeah, I should clarify that I'm not saying these tests are about perfect pitch. But the thread reminded me of them, because as with perfect pitch, a lot of musicians take these tests assuming they're going to ace them, and often do really poorly--poorly meaning that they often can't tell the difference between the compressed version and the CD-quality version. The point is that how well you do on these tests doesn't necessarily correlate with how good your overall hearing is, such as whether you can hear sounds up near 20k. (My understanding is that pretty much nobody can--certainly no adult.) It's about having sensitive ears in a way that's more difficult to quantify, and probably (somewhat) innate.

Perfect Pitch is something that you pretty much have or don't. On one hand, after a long day of singing/playing/marching/etc., I can give a pitch relatively reliably without a prompt, because even with a mediocre ear like mine, when you've had so many C's or Bb's in one day, you will be able to find one.

Perfect pitch is something that you either have or don't, generally. On one hand it is more prevalent among languages that are pitch related (Mandarin, Cantonese, a little bit Japanese), which implies some kind of nurture element, but it is rarely something you can learn.

The best most people can hope for is what a friend's teacher refers to as "Hyper-Sensitive Relative Pitch", which is another way to say "you have a damn good ear". Generally this means that you will be able to hold on to a pitch for a while after a good warm up, which helps with transcription, especially if you have an instrument to pound out a starting note.

certainly. there are $500/hour mastering engineers who can't hear a 15k sine wave.. and there are awesome musicians who don't even have relative pitch, let alone perfect pitch.

..not to suggest these hearing skills are meaningless, because that's not true either. that teenage girl would have quite an advantage over other aspiring engineers, if she were to pursue that field.

i have perfect pitch, and so does my mom. my sister doesn't have it at all.

it was definitely something i was born with. i took piano lessons when i was 3 or 4 years old and as soon as i learned the keys i could tell you what notes were being played without looking.

i've noticed that if i don't practice for like half a year i start being off by about a semitone here and there, but it only takes like an hour to get back on track.

when i was a kid i associated the keys on a piano with colors and the letter of the alphabet, and that's sort of how i instantly recognized stuff. it kind of sounds weird, but A was red, B was yellow, C was blue, D was green, E was dark blue, F was purple and G was burgundy.. i still have color associations for the rest of the alphabet and have no idea how they got in my head, but i've had them for as far back as i can remember. if someone plays a note on a piano i just sort of get a splash of color in my head.

my mom has really really good pitch.. if you play ten or eleven notes on the piano, or some of the easier chords, i can play them back, but my mom can practically play what someone else is playing a fraction of a second behind them, just by listening to them.

also, i think the most useful part of perfect pitch is that when one guitarist in my band is trying to figure out what the second guitarist or bassist just played. then i can just say 'A, Aflat, C, C, G', or just tell him what notes will compliment them, in my opinion.

davesec wrote: when i was a kid i associated the keys on a piano with colors and the letter of the alphabet, and that's sort of how i instantly recognized stuff. it kind of sounds weird, but A was red, B was yellow, C was blue, D was green, E was dark blue, F was purple and G was burgundy.. i still have color associations for the rest of the alphabet and have no idea how they got in my head, but i've had them for as far back as i can remember. if someone plays a note on a piano i just sort of get a splash of color in my head.

What a great form of cognition to be born with. If each of the notes is a color, what do you "see" in your head when you hear a chord? I'm guessing hearing an A (red) and a B (yellow) simultaneously doesn't make you "see" green, since that color is represented by D. Do you see the colors side by side?

Edited to correct dumb color mistake.

when i was a kid i associated the keys on a piano with colors and the letter of the alphabet, and that's sort of how i instantly recognized stuff.

the courses and books that try to 'teach you perfect pitch' tell you to do this; come up with mental/visual associations for notes. of course, i have a friend who's been practicing one of these video courses for about 10 years now and is still not even close to having perfect pitch, so yeah..

gmilner wrote:

davesec wrote: when i was a kid i associated the keys on a piano with colors and the letter of the alphabet, and that's sort of how i instantly recognized stuff. it kind of sounds weird, but A was red, B was yellow, C was blue, D was green, E was dark blue, F was purple and G was burgundy.. i still have color associations for the rest of the alphabet and have no idea how they got in my head, but i've had them for as far back as i can remember. if someone plays a note on a piano i just sort of get a splash of color in my head.

What a great form of cognition to be born with. If each of the notes is a color, what do you "see" in your head when you hear a chord? I'm guessing hearing an A (red) and a B (yellow) simultaneously doesn't make you "see" green, since that color is represented by D. Do you see the colors side by side?

Edited to correct dumb color mistake.

for me at least, the root note mostly defines the chord color. my A is mostly a neutral white/light blue (and my eyes don't literally flash colors in front of me, it's mostly subconscious), but an A major triad will have a little more blue in it, while an A minor will have a bit more yellow. i've never really thought about it, but it sort of does combine colors, because my C is sort of yellow/orange-y and my Db is deep blue/purple.

I know one person with perfect pitch. We discovered this when he was 5 years old, and at a symphony performance he started crying and complaining that the 'violin over there' is 'wrong.'