Do you have perfect pitch? (See game/test in post text)

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Do you have perfect pitch? (See game/test in post text)
I have some musical training and do badly on easy difficulty. 15%  15%  [ 2 ]
I have some musical training and do OK on easy difficulty. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I have some musical training and do OK on medium difficulty. 23%  23%  [ 3 ]
I have some musical training and do OK on hard difficulty. 31%  31%  [ 4 ]
I have no musical training and do badly on easy difficulty. 23%  23%  [ 3 ]
I have no musical training and do OK on easy difficulty. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I have no musical training and do OK on medium difficulty. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I have no musical training and do OK on hard difficulty. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I have no clue what this is about. 8%  8%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 13

SplendidSnail
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25 Aug 2017, 7:45 pm

The following link is to a game/test about perfect pitch:
http://detrave.net/nblume/perfect-pitch/.

Perfect pitch is the ability to, with no reference note to compare to, identify a note that is sung or played, or to sing a note on demand with no reference note to compare to.

On medium difficulty, I was able to get to level 6 without making a mistake. On hard difficulty, I got the first note wrong, but then made it to level 2 before making another mistake. I'm saying I can do pretty well on medium difficulty.

Of course, with no musical training at all, you probably can't do this even if you do have perfect pitch.

Apparently, among the general population, about 1/10,000 people have this capability. Also apparently, it is a much higher percentage among those on the spectrum (although probably still a minority, so don't feel bad if you can't do this!).


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28 Aug 2017, 2:51 am

I managed to get to level 2 on easy difficult. I believe that means that I did badly on easy difficulty. I don't have any formal musical training, but I do like to play around with FL Studios and make little beats and stuff. So I definitely do not have natural perfect pitch, however I'm pretty sure that if I were to put my mind to it I would be able to memorize each note. I think I might keep playing to see how much I can improve.


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B19
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28 Aug 2017, 4:31 pm

I recall reading a very interesting study of perfect pitch in virtuoso musicians. It was expected that this would be relatively common amongst them, though it wasn't; only 2% had perfect pitch. It seems to be much rarer than people think.

However the study looked at musicians, rather than singers, and I surmise that the rate may be a little higher in virtuoso singers. It is often said that the late Karen Carpenter had perfect pitch, and that may have contributed to the success of that duo.

I don't have perfect pitch, though I am quite musical and can recognise notes on the scale.

This link discusses autism and perfect pitch:
https://iancommunity.org/ssc/perfect-pi ... -rare-gift



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28 Aug 2017, 4:57 pm

I suck at this and I do not know what key it is just from the sound. I think it's because I don't know musical notes even though I did choir but I learned the songs by rote even though you are supposed to read the notes to learn how the song goes. I can also memorize keys too by learning what keys to hit when playing a song and learning how to play a song by memorizing the keys.


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28 Aug 2017, 5:14 pm

I took piano lessons as a kid and still play occasionally, and I'm learning how to play the guitar. I tried about ten, and guessed two correctly. Clearly I don't know what the different notes sound like :lol: When I read music, I think of the position of the notes on the instrument, not the name of the note (not that that did me any good in this test :wink: ). I can, however, tell immediately if several instruments are playing at the same time and one is just the slightest bit off.


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29 Aug 2017, 2:04 pm

I don't get it. I thought perfect pitch was the ability to tell which note was being played without hearing a reference note first. But the test only tests that with the first response. For all subsequent responses, you've already heard at least one note and had it named for you. So in my case I got the first response completely wrong, (it was F and I thought it was C) and then did quite well for the rest. It seems to be measuring the ability to know relative intervals rather than absolute pitches. Or have I got the definition of perfect pitch wrong?



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Glflegolas
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29 Aug 2017, 6:42 pm

I certainly do have perfect pitch. And I can play the piano, and am a great singer. Play almost any song and I'll know what key it's in.


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ToughDiamond
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29 Aug 2017, 7:40 pm

B19 wrote:


OK, so it looks like I don't have perfect pitch after all. My high score on the test just shows that it was measuring something else.



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04 Sep 2017, 12:17 pm

My own experience is that, while it's certainly possible to identify every note based on a comparison to the first one, it will tend to be less automatic to do that with relative pitch than with absolute/perfect pitch.

People with perfect pitch will tend to automatically identify the notes, whereas people with good relative pitch will quickly identify that "that's a perfect fifth above the previous one", but still have to do a calculation to determine that actual note.

I suppose there probably are people who are good enough at relative pitch to do that calculation quickly, maybe even automatically, but my own opinion is that for most people, if you are identifying the notes without consciously comparing it to the previous note, you're using something resembling perfect pitch.

I think, when doing this test, you'll know whether you're using relative pitch or perfect pitch (or some combination thereof) based on how you're doing the test.


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SaveFerris
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04 Sep 2017, 12:30 pm

Tone deaf :P , it took me ages to get to level 2 and I only got to level 3 because the notes were side by side.


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04 Sep 2017, 1:45 pm

I scored well, but did so mostly through reasoning. I play a few instruments and sing.
Sometimes I'll walk into a room and know the note being played, but usually when I haven't been playing in a while I don't know it. More than perfect pitch, I think I just have a decent audio memory.



ToughDiamond
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04 Sep 2017, 1:56 pm

I propose a more specific test:
1. Try to whistle, sing or hum middle C, after at least an hour or two of non-exposure to any reference tones.
2. Record the result using a sound recorder.
3. Compare the result with a recording of true middle C.
4. Repeat the test a few times just to be sure.

Note:
The main weakness of my test is that it excludes subjects who can't hold a note by whistling, humming or singing it. I expect there's another way for them, perhaps using a program that plays a sequence of tones, including middle C, in a random order, and pressing a button when middle C is being played.



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04 Sep 2017, 2:03 pm

I have perfect pitch - I can name notes by hearing them. Keys to me are kinda like colours that you can hear.
I got all the way up to Level 16 on Hard Mode but at that point it started to become buggy (each time I pressed Play, a different tune would play) and I couldn't click on any of the notes.


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SplendidSnail
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04 Sep 2017, 2:48 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
I propose a more specific test:
1. Try to whistle, sing or hum middle C, after at least an hour or two of non-exposure to any reference tones.
2. Record the result using a sound recorder.
3. Compare the result with a recording of true middle C.
4. Repeat the test a few times just to be sure.

Note:
The main weakness of my test is that it excludes subjects who can't hold a note by whistling, humming or singing it. I expect there's another way for them, perhaps using a program that plays a sequence of tones, including middle C, in a random order, and pressing a button when middle C is being played.

Using your test, I can usually get it right if there are no distractions, but maybe 1/5 times I get a B instead. This is the case even if I do it right after I get up first thing in the morning, having not heard a single note since I got up.

People say either you have perfect pitch or you don't, but I seem to have this weird thing where I can only do it if there's no distractions and I'm sometimes off by a semitone.


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ToughDiamond
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04 Sep 2017, 5:58 pm

SplendidSnail wrote:
People say either you have perfect pitch or you don't, but I seem to have this weird thing where I can only do it if there's no distractions and I'm sometimes off by a semitone.

I suspect you have something similar to, but not identical with, the following skill noted in Wikipedia:

"adults who possess relative pitch but do not already have absolute pitch can learn "pseudo-absolute pitch" and become able to identify notes in a way that superficially resembles absolute pitch. Moreover, training pseudo-absolute pitch requires considerable motivation, time, and effort, and learning is not retained without constant practice and reinforcement."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch

Sound perception abilities are downright strange at times. I've read of one sound engineer who, although deaf to high frequencies, could still tell when the treble was cut using filters that were only supposed to operate on frequencies above his hearing range. It seems there must be ways of hearing some things without using the expected mechanisms.