Monday, July 1, 2013

What's better than Perfect Pitch?

What's more valuable than perfect pitch? The determination to study music theory and learn to hear intervals.

In Let's Play Music, you'll come out singing on pitch with Echo Ed and identifying intervals like a charm. What's better than perfect pitch? A friend like Echo Ed!


Perfect Pitch Doesn't Matter

"I wish I had perfect pitch"

I can’t tell you how many times in my teaching career students have come to me telling me stories of friends that have “perfect pitch.”  They’ll tell me some story of an amazing musical feat and add the disclaimer “but he has perfect pitch.”  “I wish I had it,” I’ll often hear them say.  “Then everything would be so much easier.”
But I’ll tell you a secret: it doesn’t matter.  That’s right—perfect pitch makes absolutely no difference to your skills as a musician.

Why perfect pitch doesn't matter

I often illustrate this point to my students with this example:  I sing for them the Star-Spangled Banner in some key that I pick out of the air, then I ask them to name that song.  Normally, they look at me as if I’m a fool for thinking this is a challenging question, before answering “The Star-Spangled Banner, of course.”  Then I present them with another challenge.  I say “OK, now name THIS song:” Then, choosing a different key, I sing the Star-Spangled Banner again at a different pitch level.  “Now, what song was that?” I ask them.  Even more confused, they answer “Um…The Star-Spangled Banner?...”  “How do you know?” I ask. 
And here’s where their theory about the magic of perfect pitch crumbles.  Because when they think about it, they realize that they recognize this song because of the intervals, the rhythm, and the harmony the melody outlines.  And the point of this illustration is this:  Music is not about the frequency—vibrations per second, or which note is a C or an A—of the notes we hear, it’s about the RELATIONSHIP between the notes we hear.  We recognize any song based on the relationship of the pitch and rhythm to each other, not the frequency of those notes.

What you think of as "perfect pitch" is actually...

In fact, we should really make a distinction between two facets of this idea.  “Perfect pitch” is really a misnomer.  Actually, there are two different phenomena that have to do with hearing pitch perfectly.  The one that people usually refer to when they say “perfect pitch” is more accurately called “absolute pitch,” meaning that a person can hear and recognize frequency as a note name.  And there are people who do hear music in this way.  They can pick out a B-flat or an F-sharp when they hear them, or know an F minor chord when they hear it because they know the frequencies of the notes F, A-flat, and C.
The much more important way to perfect your impression of pitch is a phenomenon called “perfect relative pitch.”  This simply means that given any note, the listener can find an exact interval from it—for instance, being able to sing a perfect 5th or a perfectly in-tune minor triad if given the fundamental note.  Any musician can, and must, work on and perfect this skill.
While it may seem that those with absolute pitch have an easier path in their ear training and their musical skills overall, this is certainly not the case.  In my college years, I had a friend who was an excellent violinist in our orchestra and had absolute pitch.  I remember one concert in which she had an extended violin solo and had worked very hard on it, but to her misfortune, the orchestra had tuned very sharp that night.  As a result, every single note of her solo was flat, and she, along with the audience, cringed through every moment of it.  She knew it was out of tune and sounding dreadful, but because her mind was so attuned to the absolute frequency of notes, she could not play in tune with an orchestra that was playing sharp.  In this case, her supposed gift for absolute pitch worked very much against her.

Absolute Pitch is a disadvantage

Even in a more fixed setting, like in an ear training class, where absolute pitch might seem a tremendous advantage, it can work against those who have it.  Because while it might seem that being able to sing or sight read relying on one’s absolute knowledge of frequency, this can actually be a way to cheat oneself of a true understanding of musical function.  Often, those who have been able to lean on knowledge of frequency find themselves bewildered and lost once music classes progress to the ideas of function and harmonic relationships.  (This is why, in my Ear Training classes—including the Ear Training course in Musivu—I often have students write and read in a different key than I’m playing, or sing in a different key than is written.  This ensures that any students with absolute pitch are understanding function as a product of scale degree and not cheating themselves by relying on frequency.)
 I often find my students mythologizing the idea of “perfect pitch”—believing that the perhaps 3% of the population who have it are immeasurably blessed while they who do not are simply doomed to be second-rate musicians.  And this is simply false.  Those who have absolute pitch simply hear music a bit differently that the rest of us—like myself—who do not.  Listening for scale degree as it relates to the key center, listening for the bass line, listening for the function and quality of the harmony—all the things we work on in the Musivu Ear Training courses—these are the important things, and the areas on which you should spend your time and energy improving.
“Perfect pitch” is not always an advantage, and it’s not always a disadvantage—it’s just different.

What's better than perfect pitch

What to know what’s a hundred times more valuable?  The self-discipline and willingness to work hard to be the musician you want to be.  Knowing a B-flat or an A when you hear one will never compare to the value of that.
Dr. Kris Maloy has written and produced popular music, arranged music for jazz orchestras and small and large ensembles, and had his original compositions performed at many venues including Carnegie Hall.  He has performed as a saxophonist, pianist, and singer, and has taught music at 5 institutions of higher learning in the U.S. as well as many private students.  He is the founder of and instructor at Musivu, the Music Virtual University.

No comments:

Post a Comment