Today at work I brought up the Taylor/Stevie Grammy debacle again, mentioning a couple of articles I had read about the incident. The conversation then turned to the pitch of singers in general, with mention to Kelly Clarkson as having perfect pitch.
But what is perfect pitch, really? Wikipedia states that it is such:
Possessors of absolute pitch exhibit the ability in varying degrees. Generally, absolute pitch implies some or all of the following abilities when done without reference to an external standard:[4]
Identify by name individual pitches (e.g. A, B, C#) played on various instruments
Name the key of a given piece of tonal music just by listening (without reference to an external tone)
Identify and name all the tones of a given chord or other tonal mass
Sing a given pitch without an external reference
Name the pitches of common everyday noises such as car horns
Identify the numerical value in hertz of a given note.
Almost all of the above examples require some knowledge of music theory. How many people even know what hertz means? If you can reproduce musical notes, then does it mean you do not have perfect pitch if you cannot name each note? I don't understand how this works. I mean, I have a little musical training. I play piano by ear, I can recognize musical dissonance, and I can reproduce any note that is played for me (even if I have to do it in a different octave). But I couldn't tell you if I'm singing an A flat or a B. That's awfully difficult, unless you regularly sing with sheet music or compose music. Wikipedia also (in a link to a separate article) has a list of famous people with supposedly perfect pitch. Has there been a study done on this? Does someone have the capability to reproduce a note and suddenly say they have perfect pitch? How do they know this? And why does this bother me so much?
Thoughts, anyone?
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The Wiki definition stated one would possess *some or all* of those qualities listed, so having one and not the others, would still qualify. Of course they said "Generally" which really means, that the standard is not agreed upon definitively.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think of perfect pitch as their fourth definition. Where I say "Give me an A flat" and the person sings/hums at A flat, exactly. Additionally, I ascribe perfect pitch strictly to vocals, so piano players would not qualify, IMHO.
IDK why it bothers you, but I can tell you that hertz is a measure of oscillations/second. Specifically, middle C is 440Hz, so when you play it on a guitar, that string vibrates 440 times per second. If you play it on a synth, the cone of the speaker it plays through vibrates at 440/sec. I didn't use the piano example, since most pianos, when you play any single note, you are really striking multiple stings with the hammer for that note. I suspect at least one of those strings vibrates at 440, (for middle C) but others may not. I don't know enough to delineate that one.
It's cool to have a synth connected to a speaker, where you can pitch down continually. You get down to 20Hz and below, and you can SEE the speaker oscillating.
Thanks for the info on hertz. I knew the term but not the definition.
ReplyDeleteThe Wiki article also stated that possessing perfect pitch was not an indication of actual musical talent, and I don't see how that is possible.
I guess why the idea of "perfect pitch" bothers me so much is that no matter how keen an ear someone has, I don't believe that it is humanly possible to be on pitch without fail every time. What about if you have a head cold and your ears are all stopped up? You don't have proper audio perception. So if you can't hear yourself, how do you know if you're hitting the right pitch?
Sorry, I just overthink and overanalyze EVERYTHING.