4 ms·

I had "temporarily perfect" pitch when I was younger, especially when I was regularly playing the cello. I could pick up my cello and tune it without a referenc

I had "temporarily perfect" pitch when I was younger, especially when I was regularly playing the cello. I could pick up my cello and tune it without a reference, and I could recognize a note or key that was being played. I kind of took it for granted. Then one year my family went on a long car trip for a few weeks -- without the cello or even a radio since our car didn't have one -- and when we came home, my pitch was gone. It took just a few days to get back, but I realize that I have some sort of short term memory for pitch but do not have perfect pitch. It's not something that I'm concerned about practicing or maintaining. I'm a jazz bassist today, and my pitch is good enough for picking things up by ear, and maintaining my intonation while playing. I wonder if there's a "spectrum" of pitch ability, and also a spectrum of how readily different people can learn it.

mafuyu 2y ago
I've often heard people say that "true" perfect pitch can only be accomplished with synesthesia, but I have no idea if it's true. Back when I played clarinet, I had decent relative pitch and I could ballpark a B-flat tuning note if I thought hard enough. That was enough to work my way to an absolute pitch, but it took a while. I always imagined the mental pathway for people with perfect pitch as being completely different from mine, but I could see it being a spectrum as well.
atto 2y ago
I can also do this, don't have perfect pitch, was also a cello player, and have a guess. Instruments have fairly unique timbres at different pitches, and our brain can pattern match that more effectively than pitch itself. So, you can actually "burn in" the correct timbre, which makes it easier to find. Since I was so used to an A reference note for tuning, I got to where I could get pretty close. Years later, I saw this video, with someone who seems to have brute forced it to approximate perfect pitch using a similar method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT22zqg0jvE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT22zqg0jvE
brilee 2y ago
It sounds like you had something similar to what I had with the clarinet in middle school.

mafuyu 2y ago

I've often heard people say that "true" perfect pitch can only be accomplished with synesthesia, but I have no idea if it's true. Back when I played clarinet, I had decent relative pitch and I could ballpark a B-flat tuning note if I thought hard enough. That was enough to work my way to an absolute pitch, but it took a while. I always imagined the mental pathway for people with perfect pitch as being completely different from mine, but I could see it being a spectrum as well.

atto 2y ago

I can also do this, don't have perfect pitch, was also a cello player, and have a guess. Instruments have fairly unique timbres at different pitches, and our brain can pattern match that more effectively than pitch itself. So, you can actually "burn in" the correct timbre, which makes it easier to find. Since I was so used to an A reference note for tuning, I got to where I could get pretty close. Years later, I saw this video, with someone who seems to have brute forced it to approximate perfect pitch using a similar method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT22zqg0jvE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT22zqg0jvE

brilee 2y ago

It sounds like you had something similar to what I had with the clarinet in middle school.