Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: JDC on August 02, 2007, 04:47:51 PM

Title: perfect pitch
Post by: JDC on August 02, 2007, 04:47:51 PM
does anyone here think it's possible to learn perfect pitch?

I acquired some CDs on how to do it and I think it's a load of rubbish

this guy just talks blah for ages and then goes on about how this F# sounds round and bold and this A flat sounds duller

my relative pitch is ok but don't ask me to tune a guitar by ear :P
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on August 02, 2007, 04:49:05 PM
I was taught that you can be taught relative pitch, but you have to be born with perfect pitch.
Title: Re: perfect pitch
Post by: Philly Q on August 02, 2007, 05:07:42 PM
Quote from: JDC
does anyone here think it's possible to learn perfect pitch?

I acquired some CDs on how to do it and I think it's a load of rubbish

this guy just talks blah for ages and then goes on about how this F# sounds round and bold and this A flat sounds duller

my relative pitch is ok but don't ask me to tune a guitar by ear :P

Would those be the perfect pitch lessons by David Lucas Burge, which have been advertised in Guitar Player for at least the 26 years I've been buying it?  I always wondered if they were any good.

I can get a guitar "almost" in tune without a tuner, but I suspect it's more to do with the feel of the string tension than anything else - I'm hopeless at picking thimgs up by ear.
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: 38thBeatle on August 02, 2007, 06:34:04 PM
I can pretty much tune a guitar to concert pitch without a tuner but my son truly has perfect pitch.I think it is something that you are born with but can be honed. In my case, I think I have somehow memorised the sound of an E and an A. I noticed, years ago, that I could recall a song in my head that I might not have heard for ages and my memorised version was pretty much exactly in tune with the actual version, so I just think of The Beatles "Norwegian Wood" for E  and either "Get Back" or "Ticket to Ride" for A and so on. I am not infallible though but by and large my method works for me.
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: Davey on August 02, 2007, 10:30:29 PM
like TO said.

after a while you kinda feel which one is right to some extent
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: shaman on August 03, 2007, 01:32:02 AM
synethesia(sp..)??I have it -I associate colors with keys....even sober 8) I think it started in my early years of trying to understand music without having a background in theory...my mind sort of categorizes it by colors..I will hear a song..color pops up...rush home...plug up..usually correct-the unusual keys do not really register, so it is a learned behavior in my case,I suppose(get you some of that,BF Skinner!!)
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: CUBE on August 03, 2007, 03:10:23 AM
i dont even have good relative pitch
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: TwilightOdyssey on August 03, 2007, 03:59:37 AM
Quote from: CUBE
i dont even have good relative pitch

Dude, I won't even go into the torture sessions the lessons were when I was learning relative pitch.

Basically, you turn your back and someone plays a reference pitch (usually C, to keep it simple) and another pitch, and then you have to say what the interval is! (Minor 3rd? Dominant 7? Augmented 5th???)
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: CUBE on August 03, 2007, 04:21:20 AM
i should start doing something like that
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: Elliot on August 03, 2007, 12:22:42 PM
Learning relative pitch is torture, but worth in the long run - but with computers it is now a bit easier

Try the trial of this this program

http://www.earmaster.com/
Title: Re: perfect pitch
Post by: dave_mc on August 03, 2007, 02:16:03 PM
Quote from: Philly Q

Would those be the perfect pitch lessons by David Lucas Burge, which have been advertised in Guitar Player for at least the 26 years I've been buying it?  I always wondered if they were any good.


those adverts freak me out. They have guys grinning inanely as if they've just been released from the psychiatric wing of the nearest maximum security correctional institute.

 :oops:

Quote from: TwilightOdyssey
Dude, I won't even go into the torture sessions the lessons were when I was learning relative pitch.

Basically, you turn your back and someone plays a reference pitch (usually C, to keep it simple) and another pitch, and then you have to say what the interval is! (Minor 3rd? Dominant 7? Augmented 5th???)


haha, i remember that from piano lessons. I actually enjoyed it... i am a bit of an idiot though. Sight reading was what killed me. Man, i hated that. Luckily it wasn't worth many marks...  :lol:
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: sambo on August 03, 2007, 04:04:18 PM
Quote from: TwilightOdyssey
Quote from: CUBE
i dont even have good relative pitch

Dude, I won't even go into the torture sessions the lessons were when I was learning relative pitch.

Basically, you turn your back and someone plays a reference pitch (usually C, to keep it simple) and another pitch, and then you have to say what the interval is! (Minor 3rd? Dominant 7? Augmented 5th???)


we had to do that all the time for our GCSE music course....  :?  :lol:  :lol:
Title: Re: perfect pitch
Post by: JDC on August 03, 2007, 06:13:44 PM
Quote from: Philly Q
Would those be the perfect pitch lessons by David Lucas Burge, which have been advertised in Guitar Player for at least the 26 years I've been buying it?  I always wondered if they were any good


yep it's that one, I think it's rubbish, he talks rubbish 90% of the time

I did music GCSE as well, they just gave us keyboards and told us to bang out tunes pretty much, that or give us a music history lesson, I had no sense of relative pitch, but then my music tastes were simple back then

if I did it now I'd get A***
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: JJretroTONEGOD on August 03, 2007, 07:10:17 PM
Why do you want to have perfect pitch?
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: Elliot on August 03, 2007, 09:57:18 PM
Doesn't everyone?
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: AngusYoung01 on August 04, 2007, 07:57:31 PM
My one music teacher can hear PERFECT pitch, she tuned up like, and entire horn section from her hearing alone - its insane!

And she can say exactly any note you give her... wish I could do that!
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: dave_mc on August 05, 2007, 03:03:28 PM
^ yeah, my school music teacher was like that. it's awesome.
Title: perfect pitch
Post by: Johnny Mac on August 09, 2007, 07:15:15 PM
I knew a girl who had it and she had mild Autism too, I think that things like this somehow go together.