Perfect Pitch?


Heard a prof from McGill University this am on the radio researching perfect pitch and its evil cousin tone deafness. He has devised ways of ascertaining if a person as such a gift even if that person is not a musician and, therefore, does not have the musical vocabulary to express their perceptions. Question: how many of you have perfect pitch and do so-called golden ears ipso facto have such a gift?
pbb
I second that,just about everything has pitch problems. How could you enjoy anything?
I think some may be confusing 'perfect pitch' with sense of relative pitch. If there is really such a thing as 'tone (should actually be 'pitch', I suppose) deafness', that would be the inability to recognize discordant relative pitch, and I for one don't really believe this exists, though obviously there will be different degrees of proficiency in recognizing subtle disharmony or wandering intonation. 'Perfect pitch' is supposed to be the ability to correctly identify pitches as named notes, not some extraordinary sensitivity to out-of-tuneness in ensemble, which based on my own experience is easily enough perceived even by those who don't possess perfect pitch. However, I have heard where those who do have perfect pitch ability can sometimes be driven to distraction when a piece is played in fine and consistent relative harmony, but just a bit off from what their brain tells them is the 'correct' absolute frequency of the key in question.
I have it and I am partly happy with it and partly not. The good thing is that I can adjust to a higher pitched piano in a concert hall f.e.without being distracted too much. The great thing having perfect pitch is a deeper sense of listening INTO the music. Like looking at a very colorfull picture and being able to see all the little hints of different colors very precisely.
The drawback is that all the "historical" recorded or played stuff really is confusing at times when you know it should be b-minor and actually is b flat minor for your hearing. The worst is that it is impossible to sing or play different notes from those on the paper if you are making music. A written c has to be a c or you get crazy.
Aida_w, not to be impolite or anything, but how could you possibly know whether or not you hear the music any differently than me, other than being able to identify pitch names correctly, and maybe being bothered by 'off-pitch' keys?
William Schumann and others demonstrated that true tone deafness is as rare as ptomane poisoning. Pitch recognitions can be taught and learned. By using Curin hand signals and Solfege syllables,the intervalic relationships among pitches can be kinesthetically reenforced.
I hae seen Kodaly trained music teachers in public schools get first graders to the point where they can recall and sing an A after about four or five minutes without singing. Yes,you can activate and make more coordinated the parts of your brain that function as a "mind's ear" to recall tone.
Can you hear tones in your brain? If you can, you can improve your pitch recognition-with practice.