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From: Charles Deering
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 18:59:44 -0500
Subject: Absolute Pitch

"Absolute pitch" and "perfect pitch" are used synonymously by
most college professors and professional classical musicians to
refer to the ability to identify pitches outside of any musical
context. "Relative pitch" refers to the ability to identify the
musical context of pitches. For example to name intervals,
scale degrees or chord function or to play (without
experimentation) or notate music heard (but not necessarily in
the same key). At least this is the usage I have been exposed
to in a 28 year career of teaching ear training overlapping with
a 18 year career as a professional French horn player.

"Perfect pitch" is a misnomer which I generally avoid. After
all, standard pitch is a relatively new phenomenon in the
evolution of Western music. The idea of "perfect pitch" must
have been somewhat different to musicians like Handel and Mozart
who found wide variations in pitch from city to city and even
within the same city. Imagine trying to remember the sound of
all twelve tones in all the musical centers of Europe! Those
two illustrious travelers carried A=422 tuning forks mostly to
preserve their own idea of a
standard pitch (and to preserve their sanity). If they came
back today they would have a little adjusting to do.

Some accomplished keyboard musicians with "perfect pitch" are
fairly weak in assessing relative intonation. One told me an A
that was sharp sounded like it had some Bb in it. Another told
me that a choir, singing in E, which was going flat, was
beginning to sing flats instead of sharps.

The consensus among music psychologist and cognitive scientists
is that "absolute pitch" is substantially inherited. I agree
but I'm sure that's not the whole story. I have known only two
out of thousands of college music majors to actually acquire
"absolute pitch" while I knew them. It just happened, somewhat
gradually, with no special training. I knew a third student who
acquired the ability to recognize natural notes but not sharps
and flats! I assume the sharps and flats will follow.

Most professional musicians acquire perfect pitch for their own
instrument but not for others. This is quite valuable in
combination with a well developed sense of relative pitch (If
the French horn is playing E and the oboe is a major 10th above,
she must be on G#.) The ability is based more on tone quality
than pitch. In my youth when vinyl was king, we would recognize
the note played even if the note coming from the record player
was 1/2 step or more off.

What to do? When I was a young student, I read Paul Hindemith's
book, _Elementary_Training_for_Musicians_. He says the first
step is to acquire "absolute pitch." He recommends frequently
trying to sing A and then checking with a tuning fork. I tried
this and soon acquired "absolute vocal configuration" for one
note. I had already acquired "absolute tone" and "absolute lip"
for the French horn so the addition was of little consequence.
After many years as a professional performer, teacher and
composer, I still don't have "absolute pitch." My advise, don't
hold your breath.

Relative pitch is something else. Learn your way around the
major scale (Do Re Mi can help). Learn the intervals, up, down,
simultaneously. Learn to recognize harmonic function (I vi ii V
I) etc. Learn the other common scales and chords. Learn to
analyze the interval content of complex chords. Learn to relate
all of this to all keys. You don't have to learn everything at
once: even a little bit helps a lot.

I'm sure everyone is intensely grateful for yet more on this
subject. ;-)>

Charles Deering