![]() ![]() Being able to identify one single isolated tone (= perfect pitch) is of little use for musical interactions and group performances. Music schools and universities will teach you relative pitch, not perfect pitch. What do music teachers say about perfect pitch and relative pitch? Because if the grand finale of a song is ending up in a long improvisation, all the musicians with good relative pitch skills will be able to interact together, to sing or play melodic phrases back to each other, to improvize on the same scales and modes, etc. Why? Simply because if a song is played in another key, they may transpose everything easily. Perfect pitch is highly regarded by the general public because of its name ('perfect' must be good, right? ), and because it is a great gimmick, but serious musicians actually train and use their relative pitch skills. The art of putting notes together, of understanding their relationship, is provided by relative pitch. In any case, those artists have also a very accurate sense of relative pitch, for otherwise they would have had a hard time performing live and improvising with their musicians. Sometimes it is true, other times it is just PR or bare ignorance. Many artists are said to have perfect pitch. identify and understand the relation between tones). Music starts when tones are combined together to create melodies and harmonies, and it is that very relationship between the tones that makes music, hence the importance of relative pitch skills (i.e. As we have seen previously, as soon as a second tone is played, you start measuring the tonal distances between tones, which means that you start thinking in terms of intervals: you are using relative pitch. It is the ability to recognize isolated tones instantly without any musical context. Having perfect pitch means that you can put a name (C, D, E, etc.) on a frequency. Perfect pitch is often described as a musical gift, but there is not much music about perfect pitch. Furthermore, its limited benefits in regard to musical learning and performance lead most professionals, students and educators to disregard it as a desirable skill to train. The learnability of perfect pitch is highly debated and generally not accepted as an established fact. As soon as a second tone is played and the name of the first tone has been established, you are not using absolute pitch any longer but relative pitch. For instance a tone is played and you can instantly determine what it is without the use of a reference tone. Perfect pitch, or absolute pitch as it is also referred to, is the ability to identify a tone without any reference, out of any tonal context. Why is that? we will try to answer this question here, and demonstrate why you would be much better off focusing on your relative pitch skills if you primary goal is to become a great musician. A bit also about relative pitch but not as much. ![]()
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