Absolute pitch is gifted to one in 10,000??? Really?

[ganesh_mourthy]

The scientific community and the musical fraternity state that only one out of 10000 people are gifted with absolute pitch. Is that really true. We can find the notes of Carnatic pieces rather immediately because of the Sa , Pa reference and much instantly if you are familiar with the raga. However, for western music, this may not help and that is why we refer to a keyboard.

To my utter surprise, I am able to find the note of any music or song, be it western or Indian , and I correspond it to "sa ri ga ma and keeping 1 kattai" ..i.e ,, C as the reference point. I cannot say right away if it is c , or d , or E .. but that does not matter I suppose. However, I cannot find just a single note by the pluck of an instrument or piano . But I can find out if it is elongated.

If after all, I can find out a note, I can already state that the " 1 in a 10,000" is definitely a wrong theory. Can any one of you here make out the notes without aid?

[Nick H]

Absolute pitch, in Western terms, is being able to tell the name of any single note without any other reference. And to know if it is sharp or flat. Being able to tell F because you heard C, or even the obscure intervals in some rare chord, is just being a musician. (not me --- but it is learnable).

Some people who have it call it a curse rather than a gift!

I watched this video a while ago: Why you DON'T want Perfect Pitch

[ganesh_mourthy]

Nick,

No, I did not mean that I could tell F BECAUSE I HEARD C. I meant I cannot translate to the western terms immediately and I do not like to practice it. I can say if it is ga 1 or ga 2 . I can say from a single note if it is held in vocal or played in instruments lengthened for 2 seconds at least. I can make out a violin long g1 but not a guitar quick pluck g1 . If you tap a metal bowl and ask what note it is I cannot. But I can say from a violin or flute even if it is a single note without any drone reference , but it should be a lengthened note . But I cannot find the shrill super top octaves nor the super base octaves. I think that works differently for a westerner's ear. My mind is tuned to 1 kattai permanently and I can sing Sa in oru kattai without any reference , without much problem , and I tune my violin to 3 kattai without any reference. since I am not a professional musician it is no curse to me either. I have always played 3 kattai in violin for several years and the sa of 3 kattai is resonating in my mind and I have checked it , and it works to 90 percent accuracy .

Westerners do not have a kattai either for singing nor playing . they just choose the octaves depending into what they are such as soprano, alto , and they choose major minor note scales. Therefore their processing of notes and recalling them could work differently is my understanding.

[Nick H]

I don't know that it matters if the pitch is called C or Sa or Doh. If you can recognise it alone, I'd call that perfect pitch. Maybe your skill doesn't extend to all the notes on all the instruments, but you are way ahead of most people.

Actually, I too have thought that this note recognition was not so unusual among carnatic folk.

Westerners sort-of have kattai: they transpose stuff. If a song goes too high, they can move the whole lot down a note. Or the other way. East or West, it's intervals that matter, not note names. (names as in pitch frequencies, that is)

As you may well know, my knowledge of both carnatic and western music hardly scratches the surfaces of either. It is my interest, but I don't know much.

Did you take a look at that video? That young guy is very good.

[ganesh_mourthy]

Maybe your skill doesn't extend to all the notes on all the instruments, but you are way ahead of most people.

Actually, I too have thought that this note recognition was not so unusual among carnatic folk.

In fact , I quoted g1 and g2 to mean I can also make out the small difference of seminote difference. I can find all the 12 notes , no problem. Any instrument no problem. The only requirement is it should be a bit long mmmm and not a short 1/4 second m. I checked it with my cousin and he gets it sometimes a semitone wrong. He sings in C# always and may be that could be the reason. ....that mild adjustment or fine-tuning required .

Yes , that video is good. I am trying to find some correlation Indian system of note finding and that of western. I am convinced that there could be some reference inbuilt.

[Nick H]

I'm glad you found the video worth watching.

[shankarank]

Two musicians Dr. BMK and Dr MLV , Dr. BMK for sure I have heard in Western terms, are mentioned to have this ability.

Dr. MLV is known to visualize svaras, may be no body tested the Western absolute pitch with her - most likely she would have it.

[ganesh_mourthy]

I'm glad you found the video worth watching.

I am not convinced with everything he says. As he also cites from a study that 74 % of Mandarin speakers who learnt music early are perfect pitch and you know music is generally part of formative years' training. . Now that stands at a staggering 7400 out of 10,000. We all know how the R-value is played with in scientific studies. Now perfect pitch seem very abstract. What should be the duration of the note? Any octave? any source of sound? If a supersonic plane were to fly ... can they tell the pitch of it?

Shankarank ... you can try yourself ... we are not so pitch-deaf. This one in a million is some baloney. It is just that accuracy may be missing as not all are gifted if 100 percentage accuracy while playing or singing , - none at all rather.

[Nick H]

I wonder what the sample was. Do you have a reference for the study? Did they really test 10,000 people and where did they find them?

Maybe they only tested western classical music students/musicians!

74 % of Mandarin speakers who learnt music early are perfect pitch

Mandarin is a pitch-based language. Actually, that is probably completely wrong, I should probably use a word more like inflection, because the actual pitch won't matter, but the "tune" with which they say the word will give it different meaning.

[Nick H]

Audiocheck.net has heaps of tests one can try, both for checking out electronic audio equipment and human audio equipment. It is a rabbit hole, where one may be tempted to try one test after another for all sorts of things! So it is best to visit it when lots-of-time allows!

Here's a test for perfect pitch if you want to see how you score on a test of "western" origin. I won't: I'm pretty sure I can't identify any note. My music ear is good enough to enjoy music and that's all. Of course, it has got worse with hearing loss but I can still enjoy at least.