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I had a music theory teacher who suggested that to acquire absolute pitch, you listen to a tuning fork at A = 440 for 10 minutes a day. Everyone in the class co
by pclmulqdq 2y ago
I had a music theory teacher who suggested that to acquire absolute pitch, you listen to a tuning fork at A = 440 for 10 minutes a day. Everyone in the class could do all the intervals by ear, so with a strong memory of an A reference, you can fake it.
However, my sister does have absolute pitch (I don't), and the difference between "studying a known reference and knowing the intervals" and true absolute pitch is crazy. She can tell you what pitch the fluorescent lights are vibrating at, she can tell you what pitch your speaking voice is at, and all sorts of other things. My understanding of the psychology is that this is more like synesthesia than like something that you can study.
There are some people who suggest that kids who hear a lot of "atonal" music (modern jazz, modern classical, etc. - things whose pitch is hard to predict) at a young age are more likely to develop absolute pitch, which makes sense to me but also seems like it might be pseudoscience.
- musicale 2y ago> listen to a tuning fork at A = 440 for 10 minutes a day The people who impress me are those who can count cycles and identify/sing A440 vs. A415 (perhaps for a Baroque ensemble), different temperaments, etc.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoIdentifying A440 vs A415 and knowing baroque temperaments are completely different skills. A415 is about a half step below A440, but without absolute pitch you can't really tell. Tuning is mostly about counting the beat frequency between overtones of two notes in an interval, and then you sort of learn the "color" of the exact interval. Things like equal tempered fifths and the Werckmeister F4-A4 third become pretty recognizable when you know them.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- aqueueaqueue 2y agoTo me it seems like there is a Fourier Transform in their head.
- jampekka 2y agoEverybody[1] has a frequency domain transform in their ears. The absolute frequency gets lost at some point at the nervous system, a bit like you can't see absolute luminous intensity. See e.g. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3280891/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3280891/ [1] Everybody with a functional cochlea at least.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoIt takes a bit of work, but you can learn to isolate specific overtones by ear.