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Topic: Anyone have success developing perfect pitch?  (Read 1695 times)

Offline Bob

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Anyone have success developing perfect pitch?
on: June 05, 2007, 10:45:01 PM
I've been thinking about that idea again lately. 

Just curious.

What have you tried?

Did you have any success?

Do believe it's possible?
Favorite new teacher quote -- "You found the only possible wrong answer."

Offline mike_lang

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Re: Anyone have success developing perfect pitch?
Reply #1 on: June 05, 2007, 11:16:13 PM
I'm actually working on this right now.  I am using a combination of mental practice, solfège (fixed do), mental sight-singing, and regular quizzing on the pitches that I've acquired, to make sure that I can ID them  (so far I have pretty good accuracy, as far as the absolute pitch goes, with A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, and F#).  I notice as I go on, day to day, that the time required to ID a pitch diminishes (for example, last night, the A and  Bb were nearly instantaneous - relative pitch did not even have time to go into effect).

The answer, in short, is not yet - but getting there, I believe.  I am convinced that perfect pitch is simply an extremely acute tonal memory that can both identify and produce the 12 pitches in its "banks."

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Offline retrouvailles

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Re: Anyone have success developing perfect pitch?
Reply #2 on: June 06, 2007, 12:10:23 AM
I have perfect pitch, and it took a while to hone it in perfectly. I've tried various online quizzes to help and monitor my progress. I have also listened to lots of pieces of music with the score in front of me. Also, I found it easier to identify bass pitches on a piano, due to the certain nuances, if you will, that each bass pitch seems to have. Then, I would transpose it up some octaves in my head to identify that pitch in other registers. Also, when I was in school, I would try and guess what notes the bells ring at. Just random stuff like that helped me.

Offline mcgillcomposer

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Re: Anyone have success developing perfect pitch?
Reply #3 on: June 25, 2007, 10:07:32 AM
I am a bit of an obscure case when it comes to this topic. I was not born with perfect pitch, but I certainly have it now. The strange thing is that I didn't really consciously work to develop it.

I began to recognize patterns from familiar pieces...the first I can remember is when I was sitting in on a masterclass of some Debussy music for four hands, and the bass descended in octaves ffrom G-F#-E-D. Immediately I heard Chopin's etude Op. 10 No. 1.

Similar things happened to the point of becoming a daily occurrence. Eventually I was able to recognize (and sing) any pitch without reference to a specific piece. So, if you start recognizing patterns that allow you to identify an exact pitch, don't dismiss it as a one-time occurrence!
Asked if he had ever conducted any Stockhausen,Sir Thomas Beecham replied, "No, but I once trod in some."
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