That young Russian pianist that everyone is talking about has something
like this. I read some articles about him as a boy.
My teacher Don Haas has this and I've observed him use it for many
years.
>Reed continues:
>
>> BTW, there is a funny story about Horowitz that I read. His ex piano
>> technician has been telling all these stories since Horowitz died.
>> Horowoitz used to tell everyone he had perfect pitch and of course
>> nobody was about to challenge him. One time he was saying how in
>> Europe they tune lower and this conductor corrected him and he threw
>> a big fit.
>
>I add:
>Horowitz also had his piano action lightened, which is why he could play
>so fast, and wouldn't use any other piano.
>
>Reed:
>> >And then when our ppp goes to sing a 5th, what kind of 5th does she sing?
>> >A perfect 5th, one would think. Or is a perfect ear even tempered like a
>> >piano?
>
>Me:
>Doubtful; that is a more recent innovation than other types of tuning.
>
>Reed:
>>The even tempered scale has that weird 12th root of 2 equation in
>> >it; it does not seem that it would occur in nature.
>> >
>> >OK, and now our ppp hears a single note that is something other than a
>> >tuning fork sine wave. This can be decomposed into harmonics. Can our
>> >ppp tell us what the weight of each harmonic is like a spectrum analyzer
>> >would? After all, there is no difference between distinct harmonics of
>> >one note and several distinct notes from separate sources.
>> >
>> They hear all the notes. They are not that easily fooled by overtones
>> as someone earlier suggested, at least from my experience.
>
I mean to say they hear the "principal" notes. They know the
tempered scale.
They don't sing perfect 5ths, they sing a C and then a G.
I think alot of them don't really recognize intervals as such.
They have to intellectually reconstruct them from the notes they
hear.
Wherease if some plays C and then G, I hear a pefect 5th whereas
they hear C and G and then intellectually know it's a perfect fifth.
My teacher Don seperately worked on relateive pitch I believe.
>Me:
>That was me. I didn't mean all people with perfect pitch. I
>specifically meant my mom, who can identify any pitch I play on certain
>instruments, but can't reproduce any chord beyond a triad. Personally, I
>can start singing any song I know without accompaniment and be in the
>right key, but that is the extent of it, and unless I think of a song, I
>can't think a specific pitch and tell you what it is.
>
If I play a tune late in the evening, I can often get up
in the morning and sing the starting note of the tune before I
have touched any instrument that day. That's as far as it goes for me.
I think that it's possible for someone to develop perfect pitch
and these other things but it has never been high enough on my
list of things to do. Hindemith claimed it could be taught
as does David Burge who sells that perfect pitch course.
I found his relative pitch course useful but never got that
into the perfect pitch course though I didnt really try that much
either. It did seem to help in unlocking some aspects of perfect
pitch for me but I've never been able to recognize notes outside
of me and know their values absolutely which is what I was interested
in being able to do.
This discussion has made me think about investigating the possibility
of learning these skills.
>Mark
>
>
>