4 ms·

>Think of a song you know best, one you've listened to hundreds of times: can you sing it or hear it in your head pretty accurately? If so, congrats, you have t

>Think of a song you know best, one you've listened to hundreds of times: can you sing it or hear it in your head pretty accurately? If so, congrats, you have the capacity for perfect pitch No, this is relative pitch. You might be singing it in the wrong key. That's why you can sing something a capella and it sounds right and then you add an instrument playing the correct notes and it doesn't.

zeroxfe 2y ago
It's not. You should actually try out the exercise. (I used this approach to build partial perfect pitch, i.e., to sing/identify a small number of specific pitches.) Close your eyes and try to imagine a song that you know really well. Imagine the original version playing on your phone/mp3 player/cd/record. Pick a stable note from that song (for me, the third note of the beginning of "Tears in Heaven" is a solid A.) Try to sing it and match the pitch in your head. As you practice it you'll get better, and do it faster, and over time even be able to recognize it in the wild.
- Rooster61 2y ago
  Wild. I read the bit about "Close your eyes and imagine...", and immediately also thought of the third note of "Tears in Heaven" without having read the rest of the comment. Those are either crazy odds or that's just THAT memorable of an opening to a song
appleorchard46 2y ago
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm referring to songs you know intimately enough that you can sing a capella (or at least hear in your head) in the right key. Edited original comment for clarity. This might not be something you personally can do, but for those who have memorized a song in that way it's a convenient way of demonstrating that perfect pitch isn't as unattainable as it might seem.
- viraptor 2y ago
  That's a different exercise though... wrong direction. Absolute pitch recognition is hearing -> pitch. What you describe is memory -> performance -> comparison <- hearing.
  - appleorchard46 2y ago
    I'm not sure what you mean. > Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is the ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. [Wikipedia] This is what I'm describing: knowing a song well enough that you can 'hear' it in your head, and use that to accurately identify and re-create a note from it. This is a few more steps than being able to simply 'know' a note upon hearing it but nonetheless can demonstrate the capacity to do so for those who haven't specifically practiced it.
    - Aurornis 2y ago
      This study is specifically about the ability to identify heard tones. It's literally the first line of the abstract: > Absolute pitch (AP) refers to the ability to identify the pitch of a tone without external references.
- yongjik 2y ago
  I have trouble understanding your comment. To me, it sounds like saying that, if I have absolute pitch (i.e., being able to start a song in the right key), then I have absolute pitch. Well, sure, the problem is that I don't have absolute pitch!
  - appleorchard46 2y ago
    Well, yes, I suppose that is what I'm saying. Kudos for the perspective. I think what it is, is that it's murky whether perfect pitch is the ability to name notes, or the capacity to learn to be able to. Historical thinking has mostly been that the two are the same, however I'm referring to it more as the former whereas you're referring to it more like the latter. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the two aren't the same, which is more or less what's being supported by the paper. People might have the capacity to learn the ability (as the 'listen to a song in your head' exercise I described aims to demonstrate) and think they don't, because the common perception is that if you don't have the ability you don't have the capacity to learn it. Or something like that.

zeroxfe 2y ago

It's not. You should actually try out the exercise. (I used this approach to build partial perfect pitch, i.e., to sing/identify a small number of specific pitches.) Close your eyes and try to imagine a song that you know really well. Imagine the original version playing on your phone/mp3 player/cd/record. Pick a stable note from that song (for me, the third note of the beginning of "Tears in Heaven" is a solid A.) Try to sing it and match the pitch in your head. As you practice it you'll get better, and do it faster, and over time even be able to recognize it in the wild.

Rooster61 2y ago
Wild. I read the bit about "Close your eyes and imagine...", and immediately also thought of the third note of "Tears in Heaven" without having read the rest of the comment. Those are either crazy odds or that's just THAT memorable of an opening to a song

appleorchard46 2y ago

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm referring to songs you know intimately enough that you can sing a capella (or at least hear in your head) in the right key. Edited original comment for clarity. This might not be something you personally can do, but for those who have memorized a song in that way it's a convenient way of demonstrating that perfect pitch isn't as unattainable as it might seem.

viraptor 2y ago
That's a different exercise though... wrong direction. Absolute pitch recognition is hearing -> pitch. What you describe is memory -> performance -> comparison <- hearing.
- appleorchard46 2y ago
  I'm not sure what you mean. > Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is the ability to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. [Wikipedia] This is what I'm describing: knowing a song well enough that you can 'hear' it in your head, and use that to accurately identify and re-create a note from it. This is a few more steps than being able to simply 'know' a note upon hearing it but nonetheless can demonstrate the capacity to do so for those who haven't specifically practiced it.
  - Aurornis 2y ago
    This study is specifically about the ability to identify heard tones. It's literally the first line of the abstract: > Absolute pitch (AP) refers to the ability to identify the pitch of a tone without external references.
yongjik 2y ago
I have trouble understanding your comment. To me, it sounds like saying that, if I have absolute pitch (i.e., being able to start a song in the right key), then I have absolute pitch. Well, sure, the problem is that I don't have absolute pitch!
- appleorchard46 2y ago
  Well, yes, I suppose that is what I'm saying. Kudos for the perspective. I think what it is, is that it's murky whether perfect pitch is the ability to name notes, or the capacity to learn to be able to. Historical thinking has mostly been that the two are the same, however I'm referring to it more as the former whereas you're referring to it more like the latter. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the two aren't the same, which is more or less what's being supported by the paper. People might have the capacity to learn the ability (as the 'listen to a song in your head' exercise I described aims to demonstrate) and think they don't, because the common perception is that if you don't have the ability you don't have the capacity to learn it. Or something like that.