About Perfect Pitch
Yo. Thought I might post a little something before going to bed.
It was a good day. Woke up, saw Rick, went to the used book store and bought four books. One has the full scores to Mahler's first and second symphony, one is a book on Beethoven, one on Mozart, and one that I'm half way through on art of the Romantic period. I figured it would be good to use in my Beethoven paper. I also started working on my Mozart paper too. So much work .... so much work .... I actually enjoy working on papers, but the thought of my math test is looming over my head ...
Well this is lovely, I just lost all cable connection. I was on AIM, and now I'm not ... I was on the internet, now I can't get to any web page. I tried restarting the computer, but it's definitely the connection, not the computer. Oh well. Maybe this is a sign that I'm supposed to be going to bed.
Tonight I read a little bit about Riemann (Hugo) and I think I have a basic understanding of his two most important concepts in music theory - dualism and harmonic function. I'm not sure what to think. The book I'm reading presents Riemann both as a genius, and also as someone who was too convinced of his own beliefs to actually find substantial backing for them. The main idea of dualism is that there are two tonalities, major and minor. The major tonalities we hear because of the overtone series, which essentially is dividing a string up by fractions, 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc. However, Riemann believed for a while (eventually disproven) that minor sounds come from undertones, for example, lengthening a string arithmetically, by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. This does not naturally occur of course, when you strike a note on a piano fo example. However, to debate this, Riemann believed that sympathetic vibrations were the cause of the undertones, that whenever a note is sounded, something larger than it vibrates arithmetically, and thus we hear minor as stable as major. I think I got the jist of that from the book so far. He's also discussed harmonic function, and believes that there are only three primary chords - the tonic, dominant, and subdominant, and that all the other chords are merely a combination of two of the aforementioned.
So, I thought I might throw this in here. While I was working at Kodak, I ended up talking to this older guy named Sam from Hawaii, who was a music person and was really interested in perfect pitch. We exchanged a few emails, and I should email him again. I thought though that I might include one of his questions, and the answer to that question. I have so many people ask me this question, and I put a lot of thought into this answer. If you read it, and it helps you understand, let me know :)
QUESTION: Actually, as I was driving around today I did think of something that I wish
> I had asked you. I hope I'm not being a pest but when you hear chords do you
> hear the individual notes or do you hear chord "color". If you hear the
> color then does perfect pitch come into play at all? Does that means you
> would hear the chord the same way we mere mortals do?
ANSWER: I have never heard in terms of colors. Often I have had teachers who tell
me "this melody has a blue color" or "play this red, and this orange".
Honestly, these color metaphors are only that ... metaphors, I don't really
hear colors. Visuals such as "play with a velvet purple sound" or "play with a
red cotton sound" help me to create a different tone, but really don't have any
connection to actual pitches for me. However, I do think it's the perfect
analogy to explain to someone without perfect pitch what it is like to have
perfect pitch. For example, if you were to ask me, "how do you do it?" (a
question I've been asked many times) I would give you this reply: "I don't
konw. It's just like color for you. If I hold up a red circle and a green
square, and ask you what color the circle is, you don't have to think about it.
You just KNOW it's red. How do you know what red is? Technically, sure, it's
wavelengths and rods and cones, but how do you really know? That's just the way
it is with perfect pitch. If you play a "C" I know it's a C. Technically I
suppose it's wavelengths and vibrations, but I really just know."
So for me, this is the only connection I ever make to color and pitch.
Now, to address the chords. I have done quite a bit of jazz piano study since I
was in elementary school, so fortunately I have different chord sounds
ingrained in my mind. If someone were to say to me "Without thinking, tell me
what chord quality this seventh is", I would have an easy time identifying
major, minor, and dominant. However, and I assume this is true of most people,
it's more difficult to instantly distinguish between half diminished,
diminished, and augmented. If you give me a moment, I can name every note in
the chord, and then tell you the quality. I often think this is "cheating", and
have been trying to train my mind in other ways to hear the chords. For
example, after this previous year in school, I have learned to determine the
augmented and diminished chord qualities based on the way I would want them to
resolve. For example, take a b diminished triad. I naturally hear the tritone
between b and f want to resolve inwards to a major third, c and e. I am
learning to hear where I want chords to resolve to, and thus am able to
deterimne what type of chord quality it is.
Do you hear chords in colors? I certainly believe there are people who do hear
chords in colors, but I'm not exactly sure what this means. Do they actually
get a "red" visual in their mind? I don't know how that works.
I can tell you that it is definitly different to name a note on an instrument
other than the piano. I can do it, but every instrument sounds different. I'm
not just talking about the obvious difference, but a C on the piano registers
very different in my mind than a C being sung, or a C on clarinet (concert
pitch). I'm not sure how to explain it, but I do know that when I hear a C on a
different instrument, it has qualities of other notes. ::Sigh:: I don't know if
this is going to make any sense. Let me try to explain a little better.
To me, a C on the piano sounds like a C, and an A sounds like an A. If the
note, take A, is out of tune, then A sounds like A, but also with a little bit
of maybe E's sound. I'm not certain if the harmonics are ringing in my ear
differently, but I certainly hear other sounds which I generally relate to
specific notes. This happens when I hear a note on a different instrument.
Maybe a color analogy will work well.
Say I have painted a picture using a pure red acrylic paint and a pure blue
acrylic paint. Half of the canvas is red, and half blue, split directly down
the middle. But say on accident I brushed against it when it was still wet.
(Like a piano going slightly out of tune). Now the blue covers up just a little
bit of the red. And although it's still blue, it's so slightly different, that
you realize there's a little bit of red to it. This is what a note sounds like
to me when it is out of tune, like there is some other hue of a note to it. Now
say I held up my acrylic paint canvas next to a chalk artwork. Although I have
used a pure red, it looks slightly orangish to you. Even though it's red, and
if someone says "what's that color" you can say "red", you have the thought in
the back of your head "well, it's red, but it's a little orange ...". This is
what it's like when someone plays the C on the piano, and then C on the
clarinet, for example.
So that's all, that's the rant that I went on. I'm going to talk online, now that I'm back on. Have a lovely night, everyone. I'm so glad it's the break.
We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent
of what nature has revealed to us.
Albert Einstein
It was a good day. Woke up, saw Rick, went to the used book store and bought four books. One has the full scores to Mahler's first and second symphony, one is a book on Beethoven, one on Mozart, and one that I'm half way through on art of the Romantic period. I figured it would be good to use in my Beethoven paper. I also started working on my Mozart paper too. So much work .... so much work .... I actually enjoy working on papers, but the thought of my math test is looming over my head ...
Well this is lovely, I just lost all cable connection. I was on AIM, and now I'm not ... I was on the internet, now I can't get to any web page. I tried restarting the computer, but it's definitely the connection, not the computer. Oh well. Maybe this is a sign that I'm supposed to be going to bed.
Tonight I read a little bit about Riemann (Hugo) and I think I have a basic understanding of his two most important concepts in music theory - dualism and harmonic function. I'm not sure what to think. The book I'm reading presents Riemann both as a genius, and also as someone who was too convinced of his own beliefs to actually find substantial backing for them. The main idea of dualism is that there are two tonalities, major and minor. The major tonalities we hear because of the overtone series, which essentially is dividing a string up by fractions, 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc. However, Riemann believed for a while (eventually disproven) that minor sounds come from undertones, for example, lengthening a string arithmetically, by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. This does not naturally occur of course, when you strike a note on a piano fo example. However, to debate this, Riemann believed that sympathetic vibrations were the cause of the undertones, that whenever a note is sounded, something larger than it vibrates arithmetically, and thus we hear minor as stable as major. I think I got the jist of that from the book so far. He's also discussed harmonic function, and believes that there are only three primary chords - the tonic, dominant, and subdominant, and that all the other chords are merely a combination of two of the aforementioned.
So, I thought I might throw this in here. While I was working at Kodak, I ended up talking to this older guy named Sam from Hawaii, who was a music person and was really interested in perfect pitch. We exchanged a few emails, and I should email him again. I thought though that I might include one of his questions, and the answer to that question. I have so many people ask me this question, and I put a lot of thought into this answer. If you read it, and it helps you understand, let me know :)
QUESTION: Actually, as I was driving around today I did think of something that I wish
> I had asked you. I hope I'm not being a pest but when you hear chords do you
> hear the individual notes or do you hear chord "color". If you hear the
> color then does perfect pitch come into play at all? Does that means you
> would hear the chord the same way we mere mortals do?
ANSWER: I have never heard in terms of colors. Often I have had teachers who tell
me "this melody has a blue color" or "play this red, and this orange".
Honestly, these color metaphors are only that ... metaphors, I don't really
hear colors. Visuals such as "play with a velvet purple sound" or "play with a
red cotton sound" help me to create a different tone, but really don't have any
connection to actual pitches for me. However, I do think it's the perfect
analogy to explain to someone without perfect pitch what it is like to have
perfect pitch. For example, if you were to ask me, "how do you do it?" (a
question I've been asked many times) I would give you this reply: "I don't
konw. It's just like color for you. If I hold up a red circle and a green
square, and ask you what color the circle is, you don't have to think about it.
You just KNOW it's red. How do you know what red is? Technically, sure, it's
wavelengths and rods and cones, but how do you really know? That's just the way
it is with perfect pitch. If you play a "C" I know it's a C. Technically I
suppose it's wavelengths and vibrations, but I really just know."
So for me, this is the only connection I ever make to color and pitch.
Now, to address the chords. I have done quite a bit of jazz piano study since I
was in elementary school, so fortunately I have different chord sounds
ingrained in my mind. If someone were to say to me "Without thinking, tell me
what chord quality this seventh is", I would have an easy time identifying
major, minor, and dominant. However, and I assume this is true of most people,
it's more difficult to instantly distinguish between half diminished,
diminished, and augmented. If you give me a moment, I can name every note in
the chord, and then tell you the quality. I often think this is "cheating", and
have been trying to train my mind in other ways to hear the chords. For
example, after this previous year in school, I have learned to determine the
augmented and diminished chord qualities based on the way I would want them to
resolve. For example, take a b diminished triad. I naturally hear the tritone
between b and f want to resolve inwards to a major third, c and e. I am
learning to hear where I want chords to resolve to, and thus am able to
deterimne what type of chord quality it is.
Do you hear chords in colors? I certainly believe there are people who do hear
chords in colors, but I'm not exactly sure what this means. Do they actually
get a "red" visual in their mind? I don't know how that works.
I can tell you that it is definitly different to name a note on an instrument
other than the piano. I can do it, but every instrument sounds different. I'm
not just talking about the obvious difference, but a C on the piano registers
very different in my mind than a C being sung, or a C on clarinet (concert
pitch). I'm not sure how to explain it, but I do know that when I hear a C on a
different instrument, it has qualities of other notes. ::Sigh:: I don't know if
this is going to make any sense. Let me try to explain a little better.
To me, a C on the piano sounds like a C, and an A sounds like an A. If the
note, take A, is out of tune, then A sounds like A, but also with a little bit
of maybe E's sound. I'm not certain if the harmonics are ringing in my ear
differently, but I certainly hear other sounds which I generally relate to
specific notes. This happens when I hear a note on a different instrument.
Maybe a color analogy will work well.
Say I have painted a picture using a pure red acrylic paint and a pure blue
acrylic paint. Half of the canvas is red, and half blue, split directly down
the middle. But say on accident I brushed against it when it was still wet.
(Like a piano going slightly out of tune). Now the blue covers up just a little
bit of the red. And although it's still blue, it's so slightly different, that
you realize there's a little bit of red to it. This is what a note sounds like
to me when it is out of tune, like there is some other hue of a note to it. Now
say I held up my acrylic paint canvas next to a chalk artwork. Although I have
used a pure red, it looks slightly orangish to you. Even though it's red, and
if someone says "what's that color" you can say "red", you have the thought in
the back of your head "well, it's red, but it's a little orange ...". This is
what it's like when someone plays the C on the piano, and then C on the
clarinet, for example.
So that's all, that's the rant that I went on. I'm going to talk online, now that I'm back on. Have a lovely night, everyone. I'm so glad it's the break.
We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent
of what nature has revealed to us.
Albert Einstein