Posted by Wade on December 26, 2003 at 13:46:28:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: absolut pitch posted by Got It on December 26, 2003 at 13:05:24:
I had a girlfriend at UNT that had it better/worse than anyone I have ever come across. She would pitch fits whenever the ensemble pitch rose (in band) or dropped (in orchestra) from her tuning A. That is correct: she was an oboist with perfect pitch. She was so neurotic that I often thought her head might explode.
You could NEVER fool her.
HOWEVER, she only could hear notes as one distinct pitch and not enharmonically. So in four-part dictation she would get every pitch correct but have them spelled wrong on many of the more esoteric chords. She could not hear a German Augmented Sixth chord as such and spell it correctly. She would always misspell and misidentify it as a V7/V that resolved. This was a big problem for her in Gb or F# with lots of enharmonic respellings. Poor girl.
I have a really good "relative pitch" (learned, but imperfectly pitch memory). I need a second to think about it, but I am not usually wrong. If I know a piece, I can usually tell when a record player or cassette deck runs too slowly or to fast because I hear the pitch as wrong.
It is a nearly useless skill and can get in the way. I am glad that it is a skill, however, and not hard-wired into my brain as in your case. That would drive me nuts! At least I can just ignore it when I have to.
How do you work within pythagorean or melodic tuning schemes with AP?
Happy New Year! I sent you an e-mail.
Ciao, Bella!
Wade "" Rackley