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Pitch – It’s All Perfectly Relative
by Jim Bastian
As I sat down to write this column, my
cell phone began beeping at the same
pitch, over and over. Immediately I knew
that the pitch was an interval of a perfect
fifth away from the tonal center of the
music that was playing in the background.
Unable to name the pitch or home key,
I could nevertheless tell that the interval
between them was a fifth, which illustrates
this month’s topic: the difference
between perfect and relative pitch. Being
able to identify intervallic relationships
between pitches is called relative pitch,
while perfect pitch refers to someone
who can name both the intervallic distance
and the actual note names without
thinking twice.
Let’s first look at perfect pitch. A person
who has perfect pitch can do the following
things:
- Assign note names to individual pitches as they are played on any instrument
- Name the key of a given piece of music
- Identify the notes in a given chord
- Sing a pitch without an external reference
- Name pitches heard in everyday life, such as a car horn or alarm.
Keep in mind that this skill – or genetic
predisposition – in its highest levels may
be on a continuum; some people seem
to have a more advanced version of perfect
pitch than others. It is possible that
a person with perfect pitch can do most
of the things listed above, but may not be
able to consistently identify the notes in a
chord or sing a note without an external
reference. Persons from cultures where
there is a greater use of pitch in language
– referred to as tonal languages – have a
greater likelihood of possessing perfect
pitch, especially dialects found in Africa
and Asia where one word may have four
different meanings depending on what
pitch accompanies the word. This gives
researchers reason to believe that early
childhood experiences with pitch may be
required in order for true perfect pitch to
develop.
Individuals with perfect pitch invariably
remember always having had it. In much
the same way we see a color and refer
to it as red, a person with perfect pitch
hears a tone and knows it is a Bb; the
pitch memorization involved associates
a pitch with a note name every time. For
some, the skill is so advanced that the
person can tell how many cents the pitch
is off from the tempered scale. Another
person with perfect pitch has described
it this way, “I basically have twelve
buckets, and every note I hear goes into
one bucket, although I can get fooled
if you give me a note that’s in-between
pitches.” More often, this does seem to
be the type of perfect pitch that most
people possess, where a pitch occupies a
predefined pitch area.
Despite the fact that home ear-training
courses have been around for
years promising the development of
perfect pitch, experts and researchers
with surprisingly few exceptions
seem to agree that genuine perfect
pitch cannot be learned later in life. In
a recent study by Levitin and Rogers
Deptartment of Psychology and Center
for Interdisciplinary Research in Music,
Media, and Technology, McGill University,
Montreal, the conclusion was that “absolute
pitch, the rare ability to label pitches
without external reference, appears to
require acquisition early in life.”
Assuming that all of the above is true
about perfect pitch, as a musician without
that innate ability, what can you do? Like
the vast majority of aspiring musicians, I
was left with only one option – developing
my sense of relative pitch. There is
no doubt that this skill can be learned.
Relative pitch involves the practice of
hearing pitch relationships. A person with
well-developed relative pitch can do the
following once an external reference note
or chord has been provided:
- Assign interval names to pitch relationships heard – such as perfect 4th, minor 3rd, etc.
- Hear and name ranges of sounds – major, minor, diminished, augmented, etc.
- Determine and name chord qualities – major7, minor7, etc.
- Repeat phrases and melodies on their instrument as soon as they are heard
- Hear key movements and know the distance
For players interested in improvisation,
these skills are indispensable. Next month
we will take a Hardball look at concrete
things you can do to develop your sense
of relative pitch to advance your improvisational
skills.
Jim Bastian
A clinician and jazz educator, Jim Bastian is a 10 year veteran of teaching
guitar in higher education. Jim holds two masters degrees and has published
6 jazz studies texts, including the best-selling How to Play Chordal
Bebop Lines, for Guitar (available from Jamey Aebersold). He actively
performs on both guitar and bass on the East Coast. An avid collector and
trader in the vintage market, you can visit Jim’s store at premierguitar. (dealer: IslandFunhouse).
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