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Hey all,

I don't have perfect pitch, never saw much of a need to get it. Most great musicians don't seem to have it, so why would I? Still I always thought it would be neat, and probably helpful for the little bit of jazz improvisation I do.

So I saw an ad for the David Lucas Burge "Perfect Pitch" mastercourse or whatever it's called and was intrigued. A friend of mine actually spent the gastly amount of money on it recently and said he's going to erm... lend it to me. Anywho, it got me thinking: Even if the course does work, can perfect pitch be a detrimental thing? I mean, can you get so perfect that a few wavelengths would drive you nuts? I'm not sure I'd want that. Like I said, I basically only would want it for improvisation and maybe some composing away from the keyboard. Plus you could be a hit at nerdy-music parties. :)Tuning on the ol' oboe would probably improve as well. But I don't want to make the world of music a miserable place for me, just because some piano is a few cents flat. Know what I mean?

One other thing, even if you guys say "go for it" and I do, then decide I hate it, can you just "lose" perfect pitch if you don't practice it? Maybe that's a silly question...

Thanks!

As far as I know, perfect pitch is a thing someone's born with. The only way I could see anyone teaching it is by making it relative. And I don't think being taught would get someone so "perfectly-pitchy" as to them recognizing a few cents difference.

Of course, I don't really know. Just using the old logic...

Well, I know it can be taught, I know several people who've learned it. But it seems to vary in degrees of "perfect-ness".

Perfect pitch can be annoying in that if you hear something even slightly off-pitch, it is like a thousand fingernails going down a chalkboard. However, it does come in handy in music theory class.

perfect pitch is not that usefull... relative pitch also has downsides....

i have an acurrate but not perfect pitch... i can recognize when a piano is 442, or 440, or above 443, but i dont suffer when i hear untuned things... maybe sometimes i noticed them but i dont bleed from the ears...
everyday you hear unpitched things so you get acostumed to it... I dont know if you born with perfect pitch... but im sure the first years are critical for it... i don't remember when i start to have this "thing", in fact... i always thought it was a common thing to musicians until 2 years ago when i learn about it... anyway... i think relative pich can be trained, but perfect pitch... is weird.. like a diesase...

I have pretty decent relative pitch, but definitely not perfect pitch... I don't think I would ever want it. I also don't think that "true" perfect pitch could ever be learned. The closest thing (IMHO) would be to develop good "pitch memory". For instance, with lots of practice I have been able to tune my E-string on my guitar without any reference point, because I have slowly "memorized" that particular pitch. Another way of doing it is to memorize your own vocal range, and recognize pitch in relation to that.

I actually bought the course a few years ago. Let me give you a small little review.

Basically, David Lucas Burge sounds like a salesman. First when you read about the course on his site, and then it's worse when you listen to the course. Not only is he a complete salesman on the course, but he also goes over everything for sooooo long, when there is absolutely no need to do so. He could present the same information given in the (12 cd set? I'm not sure...) in probably 2 or 3.

HOWEVER! This guy knows what he's talking about. I personally found the excercises sooo boring I couldn't go through with them everyday, so I never got very far. However I had a pretty big group of friends in highschool that got perfect pitch from it. And no, it's not some fake thing, it's the real thing. I knew so many people that were born with it was ridiculous. These friends of mine that aquired it aquired exactly the same thing. They could hear if something was out of tune, they could recognize any note with out thinking etc, etc...

Take the course, Mr. Burge explains everything and it's definately not going to hurt you.

Correct me if I'm wrong perfect pitch people but this is how I understand it. Think about concert pitch... A440 right? Now that's not something that is magically in someones head. So some people say if it's not A440 you're going to scratch your head off right? I don't see how that could happen. A440 is an agreed standard pitch. Actually it hasn't always been A440... I don't know the history behind it but I do know that it has changed quite a bit over the years. So why would someone get grossed out if it wasn't perfectly intune? You can notice, sure but it won't kill you. As long as the orchestra, piano, or whatever is intune to itself. That is one thing though, you can notice if something is not intune to itself better. So if you're listening to a highschool perform you might have problems. But really, I don't have perfect pitch but I can't listen to a highschool perform either!

Also one more thing, relative pitch. Very important, completely different from perfect pitch. It would benefit you greatly if you had both. So look into that other course too, I hear it is very good.

MEB, are you David Lucas Burge?!

:p

DUN DUN DUN!!! The truth comes out! :p

I happen to have perfect pitch, but most people get along just as well with relative pitch. So I believe you could invest your time and money better on other more worthwhile endeavors.

Perfect pitch only exists in musicians.

I think I do have perfect pitch. This topic reminds me of my graduate school admissions tests. There were about 100 of us in the room. We had to take dictation on the theory test. The melody (or parts) happen to be on a tape recorder (this dates me, HA) which was a half-step sharp. They announced that the key was in Bb. A few of these perfect pitch " smart -a--es" transposed the whole exercise in B major. They got the whole thing counted wrong as they could not transpose it down. I did it in the stated key but noted that it sounded in the key of B. I got a perfect score!!
It also bothers me to use a transposer on electronic organs. I feel like my equaliberium is off.

I get more annoyed at listening to intervals that are out of tune, rather than single notes. A perfect 4th interval and major third especially bother me when they are out of tune!

I don't have perfect pitch (not even close) but do have a musician friend who does. It drives her nuts, because things are never in pitch. She will be listening to or performing in something in, say g minor, and it will annoy her that it's not being performed really in g minor, but actually a tiny step or two off.

I don't know why anyone would want or need perfect pitch... you can get through music theory classes with relative pitch only.

Nina