Joined: May 01, 2009 Age: 32 Posts: 1558 Location: The Autistic Hinterlands
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:29 am Post subject:
Who_Am_I wrote:
MJE wrote:
Always higher? - never lower?
All the cases that I've read of were higher.
Maybe this is related, but I can effectively "turn off" my absolute pitch if the note is up to a semitone sharper than it should be. If it's a semitone flatter, however, it's much harder to do. I have to rely more on the tactile shape of a known piece rather than actually listening to it. _________________ "That leap of logic should have broken his legs." - Janissy
My situation is a bit odd, and I've never heard of anyone else with the same issue. First off, I don't have absolute pitch or tonality. Despite having a music degree and 6 semesters of ear training under my belt I have a lot of difficulty with relative pitch (well, had...I don't really use it much anymore). I can tune a guitar to itself, but I'd need a reference note to make sure it was "in tune." I can usually learn something by ear, but I generally have to use a phrase sampler I have that lets me slow down music without changing the pitch. Sometimes I can hear an arrangement and tell if something is a little off, but I wouldn't be able to say how it was off.
Here's where it gets interesting. Out of frustration I went to several of my teachers for help with this problem during office hours. One of them had a very interesting theory. He had me sing a major scale up and down. He said I had it right, more or less, but I slightly flatted a couple of notes. He said that the notes I actually sang were the same as the overtone series of the root note. He theorized that my ears were too sensitive to pitch and that I was hearing the overtones and that was making it hard for me to get a solid lock on the fundamental.
This was interesting because I remember a group practice session I had with some other students from one of my ear training classes. In the group we had a more experienced student from a higher level class acting as a tutor. During the session another student and I sang a melody. I thought I was singing the same notes, but the tutor said that we were actually singing parallel perfect 5ths (I was the one singning a 5th higher).
I have it. Do any of you other musicians have it too?
I have relative pitch. That is, I can't identify names of notes, but I can match pitches and tell whether or not something is in tune. If it's not in tune, it bugs me in an OCD way. I play a stringed instrument, and sometimes find myself using open strings because I can't stretch my finger enough sometimes and would rather hit the note, even though the open string is a bit awkward. _________________ hannahcamille
http://nldthoughtsandfeelings.wordpress.com
(blog on living with spectrum conditions)
I have it. Do any of you other musicians have it too?
I have relative pitch. That is, I can't identify names of notes, but I can match pitches and tell whether or not something is in tune. If it's not in tune, it bugs me in an OCD way. I play a stringed instrument, and sometimes find myself using open strings because I can't stretch my finger enough sometimes and would rather hit the note, even though the open string is a bit awkward.
How do you feel about quarter tones (as in Swedish music)? _________________ "That leap of logic should have broken his legs." - Janissy
Joined: May 01, 2009 Age: 32 Posts: 1558 Location: The Autistic Hinterlands
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:19 am Post subject:
DarrylZero wrote:
My situation is a bit odd, and I've never heard of anyone else with the same issue. First off, I don't have absolute pitch or tonality. Despite having a music degree and 6 semesters of ear training under my belt I have a lot of difficulty with relative pitch (well, had...I don't really use it much anymore). I can tune a guitar to itself, but I'd need a reference note to make sure it was "in tune." I can usually learn something by ear, but I generally have to use a phrase sampler I have that lets me slow down music without changing the pitch. Sometimes I can hear an arrangement and tell if something is a little off, but I wouldn't be able to say how it was off.
Here's where it gets interesting. Out of frustration I went to several of my teachers for help with this problem during office hours. One of them had a very interesting theory. He had me sing a major scale up and down. He said I had it right, more or less, but I slightly flatted a couple of notes. He said that the notes I actually sang were the same as the overtone series of the root note. He theorized that my ears were too sensitive to pitch and that I was hearing the overtones and that was making it hard for me to get a solid lock on the fundamental.
This was interesting because I remember a group practice session I had with some other students from one of my ear training classes. In the group we had a more experienced student from a higher level class acting as a tutor. During the session another student and I sang a melody. I thought I was singing the same notes, but the tutor said that we were actually singing parallel perfect 5ths (I was the one singning a 5th higher).
Has anyone heard of anything like this?
I could completely see how it would be possible to hear overtones over the fundamental. I find that it depends on the timbre of the instrument. Certain very metallic organ pipes have very pronounced overtones (volume-wise) which make it difficult for me to hear the fundamental. Carillons as well have very pronounced overtones. I could imagine that if your sense of what a note really "is" isn't based on volume relative to its overtones, that you would perceive notes the way you describe.
Have you noticed this to be different depending on what kind of notes you are singing back (i.e. the instrument type)? Have you tried doing it with just electronically-generated fundamentals (very minimal overtones)?
On a somewhat related note, has anyone else ever heard the "eternal" scale upwards? It's a series of chromatic notes that slowly morph the overtones over the scale until, at one point, you realize that scale isn't actually traveling upwards... it's just going around in circles. _________________ "That leap of logic should have broken his legs." - Janissy
This is my first post to this site. I have perfect pitch and Aspergers. I find it very interesting, especially since I studied music at conservatory and university (piano). I find it useful in atonal or pantonal music, which I enjoy very much. I have many different fields of interest, especially music of course, and it is something special which I'm good at (having perfect pitch - which probably doesn't account for much, but I feel special having it, because I don't really have a lot going for me right now, on disability.
I do apparently, I did a test with my piano teacher. But I had to count up or down from C in my head to work it out. One of my guesses was E sharp, even though such a note doesn't exist. It was actually F. I found that funny.
I do apparently, I did a test with my piano teacher. But I had to count up or down from C in my head to work it out. One of my guesses was E sharp, even though such a note doesn't exist. It was actually F. I found that funny.
That sounds more like relative pitch than perfect or absolute pitch. I had a guitar teacher who had middle C fixed in his mind, and could tell what any note was because he could tell how far away it was from middle C.
And there is an E#. For example, in the key of F# Major: F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#.
The notes are just what you call the pitches. Similar to one of my favorite t-shirts:
_________________ "Now I'm a detective because I like the work....And liking the work makes you want to do it as well as you can. Otherwise there'd be no sense to it. I don't know anything else, don't enjoy anything else..."
If you tell me to hum a note without giving me any auditory prompt, I can do it. I'd thought that counted as perfect pitch. In fact, with practise I could probably memorise most notes, at least in the C scale.
I used to have perfect pitch; I do believe it deteriorates once you get out of practice (I was in a choir from the age of three to ten and practiced up to three hours per week).
I don´t think I have it. I hate to sing around people, I´m kind of embarrased about my voice. I´ve been bullied about my pitch and sound since I was little. I´ll try to upload a clip of me singing. _________________ Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
When speaking or singing? I can't imagine what complaints anyone would have about your singing voice.
Both.. At school the teacher told me to pleas not participate when the rest of the class were singing. But I believe I have tuned my voice since back then. But people still tell me I have a weird voice when I talk, and that it is hard to hear the words I say. _________________ Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
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