Perfect pitch

[jwoods986]

Has anyone here tried the David L. Burge Perfect Pitch course (www.perfectpitch.com)? I remember seeing his ads in guitar mags back in high school (late 80s). Then, three years ago when I got back into playing, I picked up a new Guitar World and --- there's the ad still (23 years now!). Call me a skeptic, but I'm not honestly expecting to go from an OK relative pitch to true, absolute perfect pitch. But if it helps me get to having a really good relative pitch so I can learn songs by ear quicker and improvise better, then it's worth my money.

[thetroy]

Re: Perfect pitch

I'm as far from an expert as you can get, but I don't see how paying to take a course will help your ear any more than practicing on your own for free.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: Perfect pitch

i hear perfect pitch is horrible because then you hear everything is off.

[MOSHWITZ]

Re: Perfect pitch

i bought it back in the early 90's....i don't know if they changed anything in it, its like a couple of tape of D.L.B. talking about LISTENING to the notes and hearing the different (flavors/colors) of but in a nutshell it tells you to....listen to the notes and hear how they are different from each other.

it also had a little insert that suggested a particular order to learn them ,,,,I'll see if i can find it,,,unless someone else has it and could post it.

i would check out some of the freeware programs that are out there, before you chunk down the bucks...pitch train comes to mind. its like a quiz prog. that starts you out with 2 notes then adds one then adds another...and so on.
and i also have the Relative pitch course. thats a little better. i knew a guy that had it first,who was kind of a dick,so i bought it,,then we kinda became friends so i would just go over to his house and work on it with him, so mine has sat here in the box with like 20 or so tapes with just the first one open,,oh,...BTW..both courses suggest using a partner.

if you want that pitch train prog, shoot me a PM and I'll send it to you.

MOSH ON
DAVE

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: Perfect pitch

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm wondering about something related to this.

How may here have either PERFECT pitch, RELATIVE pitch, or neither (read music only)

I can't find the "add survey" function...so....

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Perfect pitch

Shredmonster posted a site in that thread of his with a site that had a pitchtrainer for anything from chords to notes to scales, etc. Real good stuff.

[No Use]

Re: Perfect pitch

i have relative pitch and can read music...i'm still trying to figure out how perfect pitch works. If you ask them to sing a random note they can do it, i have to work it out in my head, then i can do it. and apparently they have trouble transitioning between instruments in different keys. but i don't have a problem with it... hmmm.

sorry if i jacked this thread up, hehe.

[ChickenScratch]

Re: Perfect pitch

I have both perfect pitch and relative pitch and let me clear up a few things. It's something you can develop, my music teacher in high school started me down the path and by the time I was in college everyone envied me. Also when you have perfect pitch you don't hear everything as being off. A pitch like a color is a range, a red can be dark or light but it's still red even though it might not be exactly where it should be (in the western system). Also people tend to belive that if you have perfect pitch you can't transpose key, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact hearing improves evrything you do reguarding music since music is a listening art.

People who bitch and moan about it are people who want to call attention to the fact that they can do something you can't and "Oh, it's such a burden." "Oh it's such a burden I can see in color too." Why would someone make it seem like a pain to be able to hear better, and a musician at that!

[thetroy]

Re: Perfect pitch

I don't have either. It's something that I want to develop but I'm focusing on my playing for now.

[skidd]

Re: Perfect pitch

[ QUOTE ]
I have both perfect pitch and relative pitch and let me clear up a few things. It's something you can develop, my music teacher in high school started me down the path and by the time I was in college everyone envied me. Also when you have perfect pitch you don't hear everything as being off. A pitch like a color is a range, a red can be dark or light but it's still red even though it might not be exactly where it should be (in the western system). Also people tend to belive that if you have perfect pitch you can't transpose key, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact hearing improves evrything you do reguarding music since music is a listening art.

People who bitch and moan about it are people who want to call attention to the fact that they can do something you can't and "Oh, it's such a burden." "Oh it's such a burden I can see in color too." Why would someone make it seem like a pain to be able to hear better, and a musician at that!

[/ QUOTE ]

Relative pitch can be taught but perfect pitch really can't. It is something you are born with. One of the exercises my old guitar teacher had me do was to record a series of notes on cassette, play the note wait about 3 seconds and then name the note, fret and string. Once you are comfortable with that, then play intervals, then chords etc. I would listen to these tapes everyday, plus at bedtime, it made a huge difference. I have relative pitch; I have never had a problem figuring out anything by ear.

[jazzman]

Re: Perfect pitch

I think relative pitch is easier. You can train your ear to hear a specific pitch or two and be dead on. Perfect pitch is way more. I think it can be learned, but you have to train your ear way more. With relative, if you know how to hear intervals, you can figure out what a note is by figuring out the interval from the note you can hear. I can hear A440 well. That is my reference tone.

But, honstly, if anyone wants perfect pitch to learn tunes, I don't think it's the right reason. For learning tunes by ear, you need to be able to match pitches. You don't really need to have perfect pitch to learn tunes. If you can hear a note and then hum it (don't matter if it's sour, it just has to be the same note) that's all the hearing you need.

The real trick to learning tunes, is knowing when to stop your CD player. If you listen to too many notes, it's harder to figure out.

[ChickenScratch]

Re: Perfect pitch

You both have it wrong. Perfect pitch is the ability to match tones, relative pitch is the releationship between notes. Yes you can learn both, don't resign yourselves to ignorance.

I'll explain more in the morning, now I'm drunk from the Dimebag partying.

[RacerX]

Re: Perfect pitch

There is already a thread on the Perfect Pitch guy. Do a search!

[Deneb]

Re: Perfect pitch

I believe I've got pretty good pitch. I don't know if I would call it perfect pitch. My guitar teacher (after 10 years I've decided one is a good idea) says I've got really good ears.

I've got a Korg DTR2000, and I'm always thinking I'm out of tune. I've checked my shit with an oscilloscope, and it's as close as it can get *everyone knows guitars can't be in perfect tune* and it still bugs the crap out of me. Certain people compensate by tuning to suit certain chords and crap, others just deal with it.

It's sad that, I can check intonation, and be dead on with what my tuner says (as far as too sharp or flat), and in reality, it's easier with my ears, because then I listen to the note, and not the heavier attack at the beginning or the decay at the end my tuner sees (think about it, every little thing makes a difference in tuning, to how hard you press the strings, to action, to gauge, to how hard you pick)

That said, you don't want perfect pitch. If what I have is anywhere near it like my teach says, then I want to go as far away as I can...it's awful.

[jazzman]

Re: Perfect pitch

I used to hum A 440 into my tuner. Man am I fukked up! [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]