strewth_mate
Bench
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Reading a post in the guitar thread got me thinking about this. I think perfect/relative pitch is a hugely interesting subject and has a sizeable bearing on someone's approach to music and the level at which they appreciate it or the way they listen to it.
I was just interested in hearing people's views on it. Does anybody else have it? Do you think it can be learned, or is intrinsic at birth? Is it really the 'special gift' it's made out to be? Would it affect the way you listen to music? Is it a blessing or a curse? Or am I just being a tosser asking irrelevant questions (I think I know the answer to that one anyway)?
I think it comes in very handy sometimes and helps with things like sight reading and learning new songs, given how little I practise, but it's also extremely annoying and painful if I hear a song that's in the wrong key or a little out of tune making it impossible to sing along to without manually calculating the intervals. I also find I automatically try and notate a song in my head when I listen to it and while that can be a thrill when I work it out it means I can't really appreciate the music without analysing it, which sucks. Plus it makes me a snob when I hear someone who can't really sing in tune, and a hypocrite because I am a worse singer...
I also think everyone has the capability to recognise pitch in some way, like everyone knows if something's out of tune or in the wrong key because it just 'sounds different'. I have friends that don't play an instrument and reckon they don't have a musical bone in their body, but when they hum a tune it's always in the right key (or so I assume) so I don't think it's really linked to musical ability. I have heard insane stories about people being able to identify the specific frequency of a note too, in Hertz, which blows my mind, and people being tortured by their ability to recognise the exact pitch of say a door creaking and crackles in an LP, and memorise entire parts of all instruments in whole songs from one listen. While I wish I could do that sometimes, I also can't understand how someone can't listen to a note and just 'know' it's an A, for example, if you please forgive my snobbery...
If nobody thinks it's an interesting subject feel free to ignore or delete this but I'd like to hear some people's thoughts nevertheless. Cheers
I was just interested in hearing people's views on it. Does anybody else have it? Do you think it can be learned, or is intrinsic at birth? Is it really the 'special gift' it's made out to be? Would it affect the way you listen to music? Is it a blessing or a curse? Or am I just being a tosser asking irrelevant questions (I think I know the answer to that one anyway)?
I think it comes in very handy sometimes and helps with things like sight reading and learning new songs, given how little I practise, but it's also extremely annoying and painful if I hear a song that's in the wrong key or a little out of tune making it impossible to sing along to without manually calculating the intervals. I also find I automatically try and notate a song in my head when I listen to it and while that can be a thrill when I work it out it means I can't really appreciate the music without analysing it, which sucks. Plus it makes me a snob when I hear someone who can't really sing in tune, and a hypocrite because I am a worse singer...
I also think everyone has the capability to recognise pitch in some way, like everyone knows if something's out of tune or in the wrong key because it just 'sounds different'. I have friends that don't play an instrument and reckon they don't have a musical bone in their body, but when they hum a tune it's always in the right key (or so I assume) so I don't think it's really linked to musical ability. I have heard insane stories about people being able to identify the specific frequency of a note too, in Hertz, which blows my mind, and people being tortured by their ability to recognise the exact pitch of say a door creaking and crackles in an LP, and memorise entire parts of all instruments in whole songs from one listen. While I wish I could do that sometimes, I also can't understand how someone can't listen to a note and just 'know' it's an A, for example, if you please forgive my snobbery...
If nobody thinks it's an interesting subject feel free to ignore or delete this but I'd like to hear some people's thoughts nevertheless. Cheers
