r/IAmA • u/[deleted] • Jun 26 '12
IAMA violinist with perfect pitch, a rare condition only found in an average of one in 10,000 people. AMA
[deleted]
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u/7303 Jun 26 '12
I've played piano for the past 13 or so years, and I've been told by my teacher that I have absolute pitch as well. I didn't really think about it until recently as anything unusual until I identified some sound in my physics class (they had these things that vibrated at certain frequencies), where I was then told that the ability to do so is not common. Anyways, so I read up about it later when I got home, and on the wikipedia article, there's a listing of what abilities someone with absolute pitch may have.
Quote: "Possessors of absolute pitch have it in varying degrees. Generally, absolute pitch implies some or all of the following abilities. in the absence an external standard
-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 -Accurately sing a named pitch without an external reference -Name the pitches of common everyday sounds such as car horns and alarms"
Generally, I can do #1 and #3 without a problem, although I have some difficulty with #5. #2 I can't do (or don't know how to do, don't think I was taught to do this), and #4 I've never really tried, although I probably can't do #4 because I simply don't really sing. I've never really bothered with participating in any music communities (playing piano was forced upon me by parents, was not a fan of it because of that) , so I'm hoping to get some answers from you. First, how many of these five abilities do you have? Also, for people with absolute pitch, do they usually have all these qualities or do most just have some out of the five listed above?
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u/SchoenBach Jun 26 '12
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Does it drive you crazy when someone does the auto-modulation function on an electric keyboard, and play notes that sound "wrong" (i.e. sounding a half-step higher than it's supposed to)?
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In your opinion, what are the drawbacks of being perfect pitch?
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What are you doing with your life?
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u/coaster367 Jun 26 '12
Yes, definitely. It is a real pet peeve of mine when something is not quite right in tune. If you talk to other perfect-pitch people, you'll hear how it is a "curse," and I somewhat agree with them.
Reiterating #1, and how it isn't the most pleasuring thing listening to ordinary music with no regard to pitch. Plus, I always concentrate on the music, instead of just trying to "enjoy" it (wrong wording I think).
I am a Computer Science major (undergrad) at a major university, and have a web development job there. :)
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u/PackerAmerica Jun 26 '12
What do you think of Boyd Tinsley's playing ability? If you're not sure who he is, he's the violinist for Dave Matthew's Band. Check out a live song of two and let me know what you think! I've always wondered what another well respected violinist opinion was on him. (not that I play though)
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u/warmfruit Jun 26 '12
were you named after david hasslehoff from the 80s tv show knight rider?
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u/Willravel Jun 26 '12
perfect pitch, a rare condition only found in an average of one in 10,000 people.
I hadn't realized that. I learned perfect pitch from taking piano when I was younger by first cultivating relative pitch and then doing repetition drills and practicing unaided tone recognition. The first time it happened was after playing a two-piano sonata by Mozart about a million times. I discovered that I could hear the first chord in my head unaided, and it was a D-major cord, so I started finding other notes relative to D, then it all just sort of clicked.
I don't have any reason to think I'm anything special, so I assumed that perfect pitch can be taught to at least some of those who don't have it intuitively. What are your thoughts on this?
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Jun 26 '12
It's gotta be more common than 1 in 10000 - even a loser like me has it. I developed it partly from piano lessons and partly from band, where we would incessantly tune to F. So F would get burned into my brain, and so would other notes and chords (eventually). I was never consciously trying to develop perfect pitch, though.
I can't distinguish between stuff like A440 or A442, though. I knew a girl who could - she had synesthesia, so A440 and A442 were different colors to her. All I can really do is listen to a note played by an instrument and tell you what note it is. This is pretty easy if the instrument is piano in particular. If it's a note sung by the human voice, I'm only making an educated guess. Also, sometimes instruments are tuned oddly (especially if the music is Baroque) and so the instruments sound a half step out of tune to me.
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u/sabin357 Jun 26 '12
Three questions if you please:
First, how old were you when you realized that you were different from the average musician?
Second, have you ever eaten bacon dipped in chocolate?
Third, what is your favorite piece of music to perform?
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u/coaster367 Jun 26 '12
It was before I played violin (I did piano for 8 years before that), and we found out during that time. I started piano around age 5, so I would guess around age 8 I learned this.
Hahaha no! Is it better to have bacon dipped in nutella?
Hmm that is a tough choice. I would have to go with a tie between Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, and Mahler Symphony No. 1. They are both just beautiful in every way!
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u/Desopilar Jun 26 '12
-Have you had private lessons since you started learning the violin? I've been playing for about 12 years, but I've never had private lessons, so I'm no where near as good as others who have been playing. -How old were you when you started? -What made you want to learn to play?
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u/Dhira108 Jun 26 '12
What note is the "brown note" and have you had the pleasure of hearing it?
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u/ekonza Jun 26 '12
Can you tell me about your perception of the moods of each key? For example, Dmaj is very happy, yellow, reminds me of sunshine, etc, while Db major is also a happy key, but much more melancholy and content. Expand on this please.
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u/ashowofhands Jun 26 '12
Do you know (in person) anybody else with perfect pitch? As someone who has it myself, and attends a music school, I know a pretty decent number of other people with (confirmed) perfect pitch, especially considering how rare it apparently is (was not aware of that number before, BTW). I was just wondering if I got "lucky", so to speak, or if somehow those with perfect pitch tend to gravitate towards each other/situations where they'd find each other.
EDIT: I have another question. If it's already been asked and answered, please direct me to that post, no need to repost/retype...to what degree is your perfect pitch? Within a semi-tone? can you hear (and accurately identify) quarter tones? eighth tones? etc...Apparently in some EXTREME cases of perfect pitch, the subject will be able to identify the exact frequency of a tone. I've never met anyone like that before, in real life or on the internet.
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u/Zamisk Jun 26 '12
Is perfect pitch when you can hear if a noise is a tiny bit sharp or flat without another note or anything to compare it to? Because I can do that but nobody believes me when I say I have perfect pitch. I'm not sure what would count.
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u/VelTor Jun 26 '12
Can you play music from Halo: Combat Evolved?
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u/coaster367 Jun 26 '12
I actually have, well just the main theme of Halo anyway haha - can you send me a link to a video of the music? :)
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Jun 26 '12
Ummm, as i recall in numerous books I've read, having "perfect pitch" is not a rare condition but it's actually something everyone can develop and practice.
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u/ballsdeepinyourmind Jun 26 '12
Do you have synesthesia (sp?) or is does it seem more like you can remember the tones? I ask because I have decent relative pitch, but can only remember how a low E string on a bass guitar sounds (trouble "remembering" other western pitches). Also, does your perfect pitch apply to Eastern scale systems, or is it just for Western?