Re: Perfect Pitch

At 05:26 PM 7/24/2000 -0700, Jim Grossmann wrote:
>Good musicianship doesn't require perfect (absolute) pitch.   There are some
>great singers out there who have only relative pitch.  That's what pitch
>pipes are for.
In some situations, perfect pitch is actually a handicap.  My early music
group does a lot of transposing, because in a lot of the stuff we do, the
written pitches are very badly suited for our vocal ranges.  (In
particular, the countertenor parts tend to be too high for tenors and too
low for (female) altos.)  This would make it really hard for anyone with
perfect absolute pitch; they'd always be conscious of singing a different
note from the one that's written.  But if you're like me, with very good
relative pitch but absolute pitch weak enough so that you can pretty much
ignore it, transposition is effortless.

- Tim

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Tim Smith

"To live outside the law you must be honest."
        -- Bob Dylan