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Just wondering if any other TL musicians have perfect (absolute) pitch. I was lucky enough to be born with it, and it's kind of fascinated me ever since I realized that I have it.
Here's a simple flash game you can use to test your ear.
http://detrave.net/nblume/perfect-pitch/
You can also see if you have relative pitch using that game. If your guesses are very often a half or whole step off, than you have relative pitch, which is good enough for most musicians.
I've also wondered where I got perfect pitch from because my Mom and Dad don't have it and from what I've read it appears to be genetic. But I guess it's forthcoming is also attributed to your exposure to music at a young age, which would make sense for me because my Mom plays piano for a living.
I hope my kids have it, lol.
Cheers,
  
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not even close
but who cares i play drums
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Do you have active perfect pitch (I think that's what it's called...) where you can like hum or sing any note you want rather than just being able to identify what a note is from listening to it?
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On February 25 2009 09:41 tube wrote:
not even close
but who cares i play drums That's awesome.
I actually did alright. I took Piano for a few years when I was young but I was never very musical.
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United States24773 Posts
Doing well in that game isn't just something you are born with...
It's also the culmination of practice in music I think.
I'm decent at observing music, but when I go to produce it, the sound in my head is way different than the sound that comes out of my mouth :-/
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I had active perfect pitch as a child and it was pretty badass. Its what skyglow described.
I played piano from ages 4-13 and I reached a pretty high level for an amateur. I also sang in the Atlanta Boy Choir for 2 years so that helped a lot.
I've kinda lost it now, and I don't believe its as genetic as information tends to say. I mean yes, I think its a gift especially since when I was younger I'd hear studio recordings or albums and be bothered because they were always slightly flat or high but it can be trained. I guess its kinda like saying to go far in basketball you should be a certain height, but that doesn't mean you can't have short players in pro basketball. My parents certainly don't have it.
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can you still identify the pitch if the note is produced from a different instrument or something that isn't even an instrument?
for me the flash game was easy, probably because I've been playing piano for a long time
I don't recall being able to do this in my early years, so I probably wasn't born with the ability
I also have more difficulty identifying the pitch when I'm playing other instruments that I am less experienced with such as the clarinet and the violin
The difficulty with the clarinet might come from the instrument being Bb and having all the notes assigned to a pitch that is different by a whole step?
Also I think the characteristics of your most-used language helps with developing absolute pitch, because apparently 90% of mandarin-speaking music students possess absolute pitch, whereas their counterparts in western nations have less than 10% of their music students possessing perfect pitch. the book where i read this from also said that students of chinese ethnicity who were born in a western culture and never learned to speak mandarin had the same statistical probability of having perfect pitch as students of other ethnic groups born in the same culture
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Just playing around with the game (I've never played piano), this seems like it definitely can be a learned thing.
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Rofl~
I score better with the sound off.
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On February 25 2009 09:50 micronesia wrote:
Doing well in that game isn't just something you are born with...
It's also the culmination of practice in music I think.
I'm decent at observing music, but when I go to produce it, the sound in my head is way different than the sound that comes out of my mouth :-/
Don't comment about stuff if you are not actually a musician
The OP is correct. Perfect pitch is congenital. Relative pitch is what most musicians employ.
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We're all born with "perfect pitch", and then we lose it very quickly because we usually don't need it.
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meh this game is ez lol, not that my pitch is "perfect", but to most people, i suppose its perfect enough
Im probably just good at it because of piano though, but hmm yeah its not something I personally consider very beneficial for my life
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United States24773 Posts
On February 25 2009 10:09 NoobsOfWrath wrote:Show nested quote +On February 25 2009 09:50 micronesia wrote:
Doing well in that game isn't just something you are born with...
It's also the culmination of practice in music I think.
I'm decent at observing music, but when I go to produce it, the sound in my head is way different than the sound that comes out of my mouth :-/ Don't comment about stuff if you are not actually a musician The OP is correct. Perfect pitch is congenital. Relative pitch is what most musicians employ.
Well I played piano for seven years, did chorus for about the same... not sure if that counts or not.
But I am still correct in what I said. I didn't say "perfect pitch can be trained." I said more or less "doing well in this game can be trained" which is true, at least up until a point.
Also don't be snooty. "Don't comment about stuff if you are not actually a musician" hahaha and it's better since it's just semantics.
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It is trainable. It's true that you can be born with a certain affinity for it, but it's also something that can be observed and trained.
A very simple way to start learning perfect pitch is to observe a song that you know incredibly, incredibly well. Something that you can hear in your head perfectly. Take the first note in the song and learn what it is. That way, if you ever hear a note that's not that note. you just find where that note is relative to the note you have learned. And as you train it up, you can learn a song that starts on each note. Once you have a few notes down that you can hear in your head as a reference, it also helps with keeping the other songs in line. For instance, if you hear a note that you think might be the starting note in a certain song, but you're not certain, you can try the song "Above", and if that too doesn't sound right, you know you're probably in the wrong key.
I don't know if this is an established method, but it's one I've sorta come up with and has helped me a lot in ear training.
edit: Ah yes, the difference between "perfect pitch" and "relative pitch". =p Call it what you want, but this game and pitch recognition is trainable.
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Piano makes this easy -.-. (I finished grade 10 piano in 3 years)
/brag
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Belgium6775 Posts
Im more of a relative pitch man. I had to hear all the notes one time before getting them right 90% of the time in that game
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@skyglow1 and blue_arrow: yes I have active perfect pitch. If you tell me a note to sing I can produce it, and if you play any note on any instrument I can tell you what it is. I actually didn't know that that was referred to as "active" perfect pitch.
One day in 3rd grade my music teacher played a scale and out of the blue she asked if anyone knew what scale it was, and I knew it was the D scale. I didn't know how I knew it, I just did, lol.
Also, that language correlation is interesting. Do you remember the book that you read that in?
@Ack1027: I didn't know you could lose perfect pitch. Crap. I hope I don't lose mine, haha. I utilize it almost every day though. btw, how old are you now?
@404.Nintu: I've read about that. The most simple example I heard was just pounding into your brain the first note of "Hey Jude", which is C. And then, once you can recall that note for sure, every time, you can figure out the rest of them.
I guess you could use a similar method to be able to "sing" any note out of the blue, but I think this one would be harder for most people. Those with relative pitch are fine once they have a reference point, but if there's no reference point at all I could imagine it being harder for some.
One of the coolest things I've been able to do with perfect pitch is transcribe any tune/song or melody that's in my head or that I know. If it's in my head, I know what the notes are, and if I know what the notes are, I can write them down. /brag
The worst part that I've found after many years is that I literally CANNOT play any instrument that's not in the key of C. I play the trombone and the piano, and I've tried learning instruments like the trumpet, but I have absolutely no chance. Because, I see a Bb on the page, but when played, it's a Concert C, and that just messes with my mind. So I guess for music teachers, who have to pretty much learn all the instruments, NOT having perfect pitch would be more beneficial. Or I'm just dumb.
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
I got to level 12 without getting a note wrong on easy. Then I screwed up 1 note so I gave up lol
currently doing medium
edit: hmm I get most of them. But the last note gets hard for me once they start playing 3 notes 
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i have a good knowledge of what my vocal range is, and based on the strain or ease my voice feels, I can guess very close to what note it is.
but i dont have perfect pitch
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After hearing a note I can play the game, but If I just out of the blue had to play it and try to get the note correct it would just be a guess.
From what I've hear, people who grew up speaking languages that actually have some kind of importance on pitch(like Chinese) are much more likely to develop perfect pitch. I think at least 80% of the people I know who have perfect pitch are korean though. It's really imbal since dictation is no problem for people with it.
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lol, got to the two note part on med... pretty hard for me ....
would rather make music on the thing...
or jam out with it...
brb...
*walks off and grabs bass
buduh... buh buh budah....
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I wish I had perfect pitch. Never really had any musical training that required notes to be known, rather than just knowing what to press/play when that note appears. i.e. I know how to play a C, but won't be able to name a C when I hear one.
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I dont have the perfect pitch, but i have the perfect A, probably with all the times i tuned my guitar, a A is in my head now. Since i have a good relative pitch with my the help of my solfege classes, its easy for me to sing any other notes.
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United States10774 Posts
On February 25 2009 09:41 tube wrote:
not even close
but who cares i play drums
hahahaha yep, same with me!
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On February 25 2009 11:11 dm47 wrote:
@Ack1027: I didn't know you could lose perfect pitch. Crap. I hope I don't lose mine, haha. I utilize it almost every day though. btw, how old are you now?
I'm 20 now. I played piano from 4-13 and did the choir thing from 11-13 I think. Anyway, I've played other instruments for short periods [ like a year ] drums, violin, cello etc but I haven't touched a melodic instrument since I quit piano so that would probably explain why I lost active perfect pitch.
I did really well on the flash game on medium 9/10 and around 6/10 on advanced since I did that one first. I wouldn't say that you can definitely ' lose ' your active perfect pitch, it may just well be that I'm one of those people who trained enough to perform my brain in that way.
In fact, I wouldn't consider myself very musically talented, just above average.
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according to the game i have perfect pitch when presented with the challenge of discerning the pitch of two notes in a row. gameh4x ftw
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Valhalla18444 Posts
i went through level 12 and then closed it
any one i got wrong was a matter of remembering the notes in the thing i was supposed to play, i don't know what an A or a G is but counting from the bottom note up the scale and matching the pitch to the button proved to be 100% effective
i dont know shit about piano and i learned to play guitar by ear
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Yea I got through that game extremely easily because I've play piano. However, I don't think I have active perfect pitch. I can guess a pitch upon hearing a piano note easily, but other instruments might give me more trouble.
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I had a friend who had active perfect pitch and like a car would horn and he'd be like that was between C and C sharp haha.
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On February 26 2009 16:03 skyglow1 wrote:
I had a friend who had active perfect pitch and like a car would horn and he'd be like that was between C and C sharp haha.
Yeah this is real perfect pitch.
There's definitely the two kinds - one where you're born with it, and the other where you learn pitch memory and use the pitch you've memorized along with relative pitch to recognize pitches out in the open.
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I actually have three friends who have perfect pitch...it's amusing. I used to be in a band with a couple of them, and somehow it never failed to amuse to use them as tuners instead.
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On February 25 2009 10:19 404.Nintu wrote:
It is trainable. It's true that you can be born with a certain affinity for it, but it's also something that can be observed and trained.
A very simple way to start learning perfect pitch is to observe a song that you know incredibly, incredibly well. Something that you can hear in your head perfectly. Take the first note in the song and learn what it is. That way, if you ever hear a note that's not that note. you just find where that note is relative to the note you have learned. And as you train it up, you can learn a song that starts on each note. Once you have a few notes down that you can hear in your head as a reference, it also helps with keeping the other songs in line. For instance, if you hear a note that you think might be the starting note in a certain song, but you're not certain, you can try the song "Above", and if that too doesn't sound right, you know you're probably in the wrong key.
I don't know if this is an established method, but it's one I've sorta come up with and has helped me a lot in ear training.
edit: Ah yes, the difference between "perfect pitch" and "relative pitch". =p Call it what you want, but this game and pitch recognition is trainable.
I'm having trouble finding it, but a survey was done (I think) last year studying perfect pitch. The basic conclusion was that you either have it, or you don't. You can train a very good ear, but it won't hold shit against a person born with perfect pitch...especially if they've had even a little training with it as well.
Perfect pitch on a person born with it can be much more powerful than just being able to quickly identify a pitch from a memorized reference point.
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I don't know if what i have is perfect pitch
i could score a perfect on that flash game but just because i can sing an "A" and i would just figure out the interval from A
Is it perfect pitch even though the only note i can hum without thinking is an A?
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The game name is a misnomer. It in no ways can teach you perfect pitch, because for me once I hear the first note and know what it is, I can automatically get the rest of them. I did "hard" and got to level 6 without missing all but the first note. I have really good relative pitch, but pretty much all music majors who've passed Aural Skills 151 could do it. I don't have perfect pitch but I know a lot of guys who do. They're usually the kids who started on Violin at the age of Three and did the Suzuki program. It's nothing special really... but it sure is handy to have.
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EPT
