I have perfect pitch - A(440)MA!

[ShackUp]

Fire away!

Same OP! I won't hijack but it was discovered in school when I was 12 by my music teacher.
I can sight sing, play most songs without the manuscript, provide a natural harmony when singing (my voice is a good 'support' voice - not solo quality) and I understand most instruments so can achieve playing level fairly quickly although the flute is giving me a bit of gyp. I can also tell you the key of songs and all notes played and key changes, major/minor changes and it grips me terribly when someone plays the wrong note, sings off key or even worse - relies heavily on the sustaining pedal.

You can learn it- sort of. I have relative perfect pitch from years of intensive violin practice, rather than absolute perfect pitch. I know what certain notes are (C and A) and I work out what every thing else is from those. I can do it pretty much automatically so it has the same effect as absolute perfect pitch, but it’s a bit different. It was a great skill to have in school when doing theory!

aynrand no it's not, in fact perfect pitch makes transposition difficult, because I'm looking at a C and trying to sing an E. Impossible!

Question but do you have to be able to read music to be able to have perfect pitch?

As a child my DM always said I had a ‘musical ear’ because I would sit at my Granny’s piano and be able to pick out tunes (from the radio or off the TV) without actually being able to play. As an adult I can still do this, my DH can’t understand how I know where the notes are and in which order but I just do. I wish I’d actually learnt an instrument (apart from the recorder at school!).

When you sight sing, do you look at each note in isolation to pitch it? I don't have perfect pitch, so if I'm currently singing a C and the next note is an E, I'm thinking 'major 3rd', but do you just see an E and sing it?

Friends who've done piano to diploma level tell me that the exam includes being able to transpose at sight (e.g. the piece is written in C, but they have to play it in D) so it must be a skill you can learn. Is it one that still eludes you?

I have perfect pitch as long as the note in question is the D above middle C.

That's a joke obviously, since that's not perfect pitch. But I do have that note in my head and if I had a few seconds to think about it, I could identify other notes from that one by counting the intervals. Is that 'a thing' or is that just something that anyone who is reasonably musical can do? Does everyone have at least one identifiable note in their head?

I wish I’d actually learnt an instrument

It's never too late

I have excellent relative pitch and it's the best of both worlds.

• I can sing in tune (and stay in tune even when singing unaccompanied)
• If the accompanist wants to transpose up or down a tone, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Does everyone have at least one identifiable note in their head?

I can remember the C above middle C reasonably accurately, for a slightly weird reason. We have a bell we use to call our children to the table (3 storey house, large garden, the alternative would be yelling). It happens to be a handbell tuned to the C above middle C.

Do you see chords as colours? For me, the key of D is very yellow, F is kind of blue and A flat has a maroon sort of feel to it. I don't have true perfect pitch but I nearly always know what key things are in and can find chords easily on a piano. Does that make any sense? I have always wondered about the colours thing.

I know what C is in my head. And I can tune a guitar by ear. But I can’t play one.

@Crwban
(Or anyone)
Can you explain more about what pains you when the sustaining pedal is overused (I’m tone deaf!)

Do you see chords as colours? For me, the key of D is very yellow, F is kind of blue and A flat has a maroon sort of feel to it. I don't have true perfect pitch but I nearly always know what key things are in and can find chords easily on a piano. Does that make any sense? I have always wondered about the colours thing.

That's synaesthesia. I have that too.

Can you explain more about what pains you when the sustaining pedal is overused

I don't have absolute pitch like the OP, but for me (relative pitch), it means that one chord continues on even after a new (potentially clashing) chord has been played.

To me, that just sounds weird rather than painful. What I find hard to cope with is if one person in an ensemble is singing or playing flat/sharp (e.g. 1/8 of a tone out) compared to the rest of the group - it makes me feel queasy and on edge.

Thanks Third, interesting. As I say, I’m tone deaf and struggle with the pedal. My teacher changes what I do and it sounds no different to me and he says “much better”. I’ve never really thought about why, just that Teacher Says! At least I’m spared the pain of my pedalling, a benefit to not having perfect pitch!

Ps you’d DIE if you heard me ‘sing’

The best comparison I can think of is that relative pitch is like having a good sense of direction and knowing which way you're heading even after lots of turnings. Absolute pitch is that plus always knowing which way is North.

When my children were small, I sang to them all constantly. DH does not have the same sense of pitch that I do, and whenever he sang, DS2 would cry. It became a bit of a family joke.

DS2 turned out to have the best developed sense of pitch out of the four children and is the most musically talented of them. He also has sensory issues (as do I) and I've wondered if there's a connection.

Ds has perfect pitch. Recently we had an argument about a recording of a musical theatre song played on the radio. He said it had been transposed. I said that wasn’t the case. He was right. He is also autistic. He says it physically hurts to hear out of tune singing or playing. Does that feel the same to you?

@Shackup
How do the notes get labelled inside your head? When you hear a note, do you 'see' it on an imaginary stave?

@shackup

aynrand no it's not, in fact perfect pitch makes transposition difficult, because I'm looking at a C and trying to sing an E. Impossible!

Then just sing what you see but in bass clef? (Only good thing I took from the French system!)

How horrible is listening to this for you?

I don't have synasthesia but I do know people with pp who do have it. I do have sensory issues lthough these have lessened with age. I can't explain the transposition thing, I just find it so difficult!

Oooh Freddie's nearly a semitone out!

Shackup how do you feel if forced to endure China in Your Hand by T'Pau?