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A Question about "Perfect Pitch"

October 30, 2008 at 1:54 AM

Often we hear the term “perfect pitch”(not to be confused with intonation)My students ask me often as to what it is. They will confuse the ability to improvise with perfect pitch, which is also an error in terms. I can only give a theory but not an answer, as I believe it is a process of the brain that I cannot explain. We are amazed at someone who can name the note played on a piano. Would it really be more realistic to consider the talent not as a phenomenon of nature, but simply a keen understand of intervals? I am perplexed, for the fact that today’s standard of A’=440 MHz was not always the standard. It is only a reference point, and was instituted for logical reasons. What if on played an A’ on an early piano-forte, such as Mozart or even Beethoven would have known, that was tuned A’=415 MHz or slightly higher or lower, respectively, but not A’=440? Would that mean that someone who possesses perfect pitch would name the A’ as G#’? How could this happen, unless they have an established and recognized reference point within the brain? Or is it just relative interval recognition?

Jerald Franklin Archer

Well put, Jerald. You've put into words something that I've wondered about myself when people have talked about perfect pitch.

It's also a relevant question when thinking in terms of learning in the first place.

Before I can play a note, I have to know what that note sounds like. So for those of us without perfect pitch, there can be a long, long learning process of recognizing pitches and equating them to note names before we can even approach correct intonation.

Neil

Good food for thought. And don't European orchestras tune to 442?
There is a thread somewhere in the archives where I asked people on the site with perfect pitch how it sounded when they heard a period performance with different tuning. You should check out that thread.