I recorded a tune, "Capri," on my first lp (back when people recorded lps)
in the key of Ab. 6-7 years later I played it in a concert, but in G
becuase the melody worked better on the tenor (I had flute on the lp). A
radio Jazz DJ was in the audience and asked me after the concert why I had
transposed the tune from Ab to G. he had remembered just from hearing the
record when he played it on the air. I am still amazed that he remembered
the tune, much less that he remembered the key and could tell the
difference.
Bert Ligon
>Hi,
> I've always been fascinated by people with perfect pitch. As a
>child I think I had a rudimentary for myself but I've now lost the
>ability. I could always tell the key of a piece of music. My father
>used to show me off to his friends. I think I lost the ability at the
>age of 11 when I started playing the clarinet as well as the piano
>because of the transposition. I don't know how I could do it but I
>can remember thinking things like "Its got a few sharps, more than D
>less than E, must be A".
>
>Here are a couple of related anecdotes.
>
>My piano tuner tells me that he has a customer aged over 80 whose
>perfect pitch has gone flat. He has to tune her piano flat in order
>that is sounds OK to her. Aparrently she now finds listening to
>recordings and the radio unpleasant becaus everything sounds too sharp
>to her.
>
>I used to know a classical flute player who at the time was just
>starting to get interested in jazz. One evening we went to see some
>band and they played Round Midnight, a tune he had never heard before.
>He commented that Eb minor was an unusual key for jazz. When I asked
>him if he had perfect pitch he said No but he had been playing a
>couple of hours earlier so he could still remember the pitch!
>
>Ian.