Posted by Rick Denney on October 21, 2003 at 10:52:47:
In Reply to: Re: Know any good D's? posted by My son on October 21, 2003 at 09:10:31:
I wonder if what you describe is really excellent pitch memory. I sometimes have trouble reproducing the pitch I've just heard, and I think there is something that erases the memory of the pitch in the act of attempting to reproduce it. In his book on musical training, Hindemith described a similar problem with one of his students who had been previously described as tone deaf despite the ability to play an instrument. He worked specifically on pitch memory, and the student went one to become an orchestral trombonist.
If what we call "perfect pitch" is really an uncanny talent for pitch memory, it would address the issues others have had with it--such as the remarkable tendency for western musical people to have perfect pitch along equally tempered 12-tone chromatic scales, while eastern musical people have perfect pitch along the scales used in their tradition.
But the story in Hindemith's book suggests that while some may have the talent for it, others may be trainable to levels of reasonable competence. One of these days I'm going to invest in a bit of that training for myself.
Rick "for whom warming up is as much about marshalling limited pitch memory resources as loosening up the lip muscles" Denney