Posted by Wade (w/o misprints) on December 26, 2003 at 13:51:36:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: absolut pitch posted by Got It on December 26, 2003 at 13:05:24:
Mary Ann,
Hey!
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 regarding pitch, no matter how bizarre your attempt.
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 incorrectly. 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, imperfect 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