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What is Pitch Perfect?

No not the wildly popular Cup Song artist.

No not the musical comedy.

I mean perfect pitch in music.

It can be with a wind instrument such as the voice.

Who has it naturally?

This is what one author has to say on the subject:

“What is perfect pitch? This is a phenomenon that a few people are born with and millions more wish they had. It is the marvelous ability to simply hear a note (or chord) played and be able to recognize and name that note (or chord). I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that this trait is a really big asset to have if you’re in the musical performing business or even if you’d just like to go out with friends and sing karaoke without seeing other people plug their ears in pain when it’s your turn to sing!”

Another author goes on to explain it this way:

What is perfect pitch? To be able to recognize or recreate a musical note at will, you must possess perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch. The ability benefits musicians because they are able to sing in a particular key at will, transcribe melodies easily, and tune instruments to concert pitch without a tuner. Although the ability is quite rare (about 1 in 10,000), many musicians who have it are adept at both identifying and recreating notes.

Theory of Perfect Pitch

What is more important is the question of “how?” We all know what perfect pitch is, but how do this minority of people recognize these supposed elusive “qualities” of the notes? How does the ability work and what are the “qualities” that people say separate the notes? Some of the world’s most accomplished musicians do not have perfect pitch, however, most of us exhibit amazing skills of aural recognition every day. For example, we can easily recognize our mother’s voice amongst hundreds of other voices and sounds. So, why can’t we hear the tone qualities between different notes?

To answer these questions, we need to understand a few basic acoustic principles. To start with, tonal sounds from any source contain fundamental frequencies of the notes being played as well as harmonics of those frequencies. Harmonics are also called overtones and all tonal sounds contain them. Even if a single sine wave tone is generated and output to a loudspeaker, there will be harmonics in the sound. This is because of the physical nature of waves to create other waves. These harmonics are multiples of the fundamental frequency of the note playing. When you play an A440 on your instrument, the sound you hear is made up from 440 Hz, 880 Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz, 2200 Hz, and so on. The energy of the fundamental (440 Hz) is often the highest and the energy of each increasing harmonic decreases, as a general rule, but not with all instruments. The second harmonic as also called the “first overtone”. This article will use the terminology of harmonics to avoid the confusion.

The harmonic spectrum for each instrument is different. For example, a clarinet has a strong fundamental with stronger odd harmonics than the even ones. The guitar, on the other hand, has a higher second, sixth, and seventh harmonic.

Obviously, the harmonic spectra are different. The instruments do not sound alike at all. The harmonic spectrum of a tonal sound is what gives it its own timbre, as well as noise components. We can easily tell the difference between a flute and a saxophone because they have very different harmonic spectra.

In summary, the unique “quality” or timbre of a tonal sound is always determined by its harmonic levels.

When it comes to perfect pitch, we can say that there are “qualities” that distinguish the notes and musicians recognize these differences in timbre to tell the notes apart. We know that composers with perfect pitch may choose a certain key for its characteristics, depending on the mood of the piece. So how does this fit in with the harmonic spectra of the notes when we know this to be determined by the instrument? Well, the shocking, but obvious truth is that there is no physical difference in “timbre” between the different notes. It only takes a moments’ thought to realize that any actual difference would have been measured a long time ago and the mystery of perfect pitch would be no more. The perceived difference between the notes is due to the frequency response and resonant frequencies of the human ear.

The ear is like a microphone, with moving parts, which resonate at certain frequencies and is better at hearing some frequencies than others. The ear will respond differently to the various harmonic components of any tonal sound. We hear some frequency components as louder than others when they actually have the same loudness.

The response of the ear is seen on an Equal Loudness curve and is the same for everyone with good hearing. The ear is most sensitive at 4000 Hz and a sound at 30 Hz has to be almost one million times as powerful as one at 4 kHz to be perceived the same.

The ear has resonances because of certain resonating parts. For example, the auditory canal has a resonance at about 3 kHz. Other sources for non-linearity in the ear are the complex cochlea behavior, the vibration of the eardrum, and the bones in the middle ear.

Of course, the equal loudness response of the ear is only part of the story of human hearing. The ear is always exposed to many different frequencies and there are many complex phenomena at work. For example, when one frequency masks another and how this depends greatly on the values of these frequencies.

So What is Perfect Pitch?

In summary, the perceived difference in harmonic spectra between the notes of the scale is at the root of perfect pitch. First, there exists the actual harmonic levels of the sound. Then there is a perceived spectrum resulting from the response of the ear. The brain is extremely complex and those who have perfect pitch are simply able to tune in to the spectrum of the sound resulting from the resonances of the ear and can distinguish this from the physical spectrum created by the instrument. The harmonics of the notes are not given nearly as much attention in musical training as the fundamental tones and intervals, which leads to perfect pitch being very rare. Learning the skill of perfect pitch is about learning to listen to the harmonics of tonal sounds, which is certainly achievable.”

Oh for Pete’s sake.

It’s not sounding sour. If it’s perfect it doesn’t grate on the senses.   But he does say that it can be learned.

Good, there’s hope for me.

Another author puts it much more simply:

“….here are a few facts about it you might find interesting:

There are two types – Relative pitch is when you can tell where different notes are in relationship to each other. Perfect or Absolute pitch is when you can hear a note and then name it. Most people have relative pitch as opposed to absolute. Either quality is wonderful to have for the hopeful performer.
Non-musical people can have it – There was a new test developed recently that checked people to see if they had the ability to recognize pitch or keys and they discovered that many of the people found to possess this ability had no musical training at all. It seems that tests in the past had been made only for people with musical training. This new test, based on the process that babies use to recognize words or phrases, made it possible to test anyone.
Absolute pitch can be learned – That’s right! It use to be thought (and is still thought by many) that it’s an inherent trait. That is not true. It’s a skill like anything else and can be developed as such.

So, what is perfect pitch? It’s a necessary talent you need to have if you want to perform music well.”

This guy says I can learn it too.

Wonderful! Where do I start?

Well, that’s a topic for another time.

Oh, so you are impatient? Okay then, here are some resources you can acquire to learn at your own pace.

Here’s a course you can get from Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Pitch-Training-SuperCourse-version/dp/0942542584/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

This course has mixed reviews. One reader said it was hard and referred to this quote:  “You might gain some traces of perfect pitch, but generally people who learn it are never as good as people who were born with it and retained it.”

Whereas another said: “5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Wonderful…complainers didn’t follow CD’s instructions.
The good things about this product have already been said multiple times. The bad comments, though, need some correction.”

And he went on to explain and answer objections.

(If it were me, I’d get a used course for $90 as opposed to a new one for $120. I’m always trying to get the best deal as I’m sure you are.)

http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Pitch-Training-SuperCourse-version/dp/0942542584/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Catch you next time.

Jay

 

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