lots of people who voted are liars or not enough people voted

matthew wrote:Also, I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is quite common among people with absolute pitch apparently.

This makes sense. Asperger's is part of the Autism spectrum type disorders. People with these types of disorders often have special talents like this, such as the ability to count cards, do math instantaneously in the head, draw exact pictures from a memory of having seen something briefly only once, etc.

There was an article in Scientific American recently about Autism spectrum disorders. Very interesting. The theory is that these disorders are caused by a disfunction in the mirror neuron system in a person's brain.

thyklopth wrote:I have relative cock.

Ok, this is good. But, is it relative to another guy's cock, or relative to say, a tallboy beer can?

matthew wrote:Also, I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is quite common among people with absolute pitch apparently.

It's also common for folks with Asperger's to be obsessively delusional and have no sense of humor.

Ishmael wrote:

matthew wrote:Also, I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is quite common among people with absolute pitch apparently.

It's also common for folks with Asperger's to be obsessively delusional and have no sense of humor.

When you find out someone has a disorder like this, it might be the one time, even when that person gets on your nerves otherwise, where it might not be appropriate to point out their other shortcomings.

bassdriver wrote:

matthew wrote:The funny thing is this: 440 Hz is a purely arbitrary thing.

that's right. 440 Hz is just a standard that was set 1939. a lot of classic records have the A on 437 Hz. but the point is that if you have the absolute pitch you will always sing the A on 440 Hz (or on 437 Hz if you grew up with classical music). the other thing is a relative pitch: I give you an A on 420 Hz and you're able to sing or hear the exact scale from this tone.

wikipedia wrote:Persons who have absolute pitch may feel irritated when a piece is transposed to a different key or played at a nonstandard pitch. They may fail to develop strong relative pitch when following standard curricula, despite the fact that maintaining absolute strategies can make simple relative tasks more difficult. Inadequately trained absolute pitch possessors can find it quite difficult to play in tune with an orchestra which is not tuned to standard concert pitch A4 = 440 Hertz (442 Hz in some countries), possibly because their comprehension of musical pitch may be categorical rather than spectral.

I've heard of this problem that AP people have when it comes to relative pitch. I fortunately do not have this problem, and in fact my relative pitch is just as good as my AP if not better.....heh, as a guitar player the B string temperament thing is such an annoyance sometimes. I have to "tune it out", no pun intended.

The concert pitch thing isn't an issue with me because I learned early on when I picked up the guitar at age 12 that there was no "definite", say, A or F#. The reason for this is probably the fact that I learned alot from playing along to records, where the pitch can vary and I had to tweak the tuning (and still do, since I still learn mostly by ear) to match the pitch of the recording precisely. I didn't have the benefit (if one might call it that in fact) of being rigorously told and drilled that 440 Hz was the "correct"pitch because I never took music lessons for any extended period. I'm pretty much self taught and aural- I just hear it and know what it is.

The concert pitch thing isn't an issue with me because I learned early on when I picked up the guitar at age 12 that there was no "definite", say, A or F#

yep. i don't know what or if there's a technical range, but notes are definitely recognizable (to me) even if they aren't tuned exactly. it's the difference between "hey man, your A's a little flat" and "hey, your A is an Ab."

i find my pitch 'drifts' sometimes because (for instance) my apartment is freezing and my guitar will gradually flatten. i'll then be listening closely to a record and i'll hear an exact E or whatever and realize that i've been a few hz flat. it gets me back on track (oddly, i've never gone #.)

My best friend (and bass player in our band) has perfect pitch.

Seriously.

matthew wrote:The reason for this is probably the fact that I learned alot from playing along to records, where the pitch can vary and I had to tweak the tuning (and still do, since I still learn mostly by ear) to match the pitch of the recording precisely. I didn't have the benefit (if one might call it that in fact) of being rigorously told and drilled that 440 Hz was the "correct"pitch because I never took music lessons for any extended period. I'm pretty much self taught and aural- I just hear it and know what it is.

I thought about that too. I mean I can understand that kids who grow up in a musical family (dad plays piano, mom plays violin, the kids start to play when they're 6 yeas old.......) can have a AP referring to a fixed pitch. but as you said the pitch can vary in today's music. so thanks for your remarks and making things a bit clearer. (the AP phenomenon is hard to understand if you don't have it....)

thyklopth wrote:I have relative cock.

Is that why it looks like your grandfather?