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LOL, that's exactly what happened! I got 12 out of 12. Theoretically, I have perfect pitch. Yet I know I don't. I hear a few notes perfectly, D being one of them, so I got the first note right. After that it was RP all the way. Just goes to show that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
It's a very nicely designed little test, and I will recommend it to good students with the idea that it is a good start for testing or working on intervals.
After all, it is not even an octave range (A to G#/Ab) and only single notes.
If you have perfect pitch, your sense of hearing complex figurations and notes can get better, but I don't think there's any way to bridge the gap between having it or not.
Working on: Chopin - Nocturne op. 48 no.1 Debussy - Images Book II
If you have perfect pitch, your sense of hearing complex figurations and notes can get better, but I don't think there's any way to bridge the gap between having it or not.
wrong, this is called color hearing - a ideal and most suitable for musician hearing.
When I was young, I couldn't name any notes upon hearing them, but I had a good musical memory and always hear in song in my head in the same key. Using that, I taught myself to identify pitches based on songs I knew - Bolero begins with a C, the DSCH moniker in the 8th quartet begins with a D, Ravel's Pavane begins with a G, and so on. I can recognize some notes more easily than others (G's are EVERYWHERE in everyday life), and for others, I need to use relative pitch. If you always hum your favorite tunes in the same key, you should be able to train your ear this way, but beware - I'm convinced some of my favorite recordings are in different tunings, which has really messed with my head
I was able to use absolute pitch for ear training exercises back in college, but even if you have that ability, I would NOT recommend it! I really regret not working on my relative pitch - it's much more essential than naming a note out of the air - but it's a neat party trick
I'm the original poster.... I found out my pastor had perfect pitch when I put together a short Christmas program in my recording studio - bits of this and that, and I used some pre-existing printed music for portions of it, even though it was off by 1/2 step for one of the songs - didn't think anyone would notice. It drove him nuts - he could hardly sing because what he was singing didn't match what he was looking at.
Also, in reply to one of the comments about developing PP wrong with an instrument that is poorly tuned as the basis - that has definitely happened.
On another note, I think I'll start another thread one of these days about how PP can drop 1/2 step as one ages... it's happened to me and a couple other musicians I know. Strange....