I suspect I have an advantage due to my musical training and general knowledge of music theory (versus someone without any musical background). While 35% is certainly far from perfect pitch standards, it’s not a horrible starting place. I need to figure out a better recording setup. Not the best audio, especially for an audio-centric challenge. You’ll notice, in the video, I sometimes have a general sense of which area the note is in, sometimes I’m completely lost, and sometimes I miraculously pick the right note (mostly aided by its close relationship to the previous note). In other words, I most definitely do not have perfect pitch. I successfully identified 7 out of the 20, or 35% (which falls on the upper side of the 10–40% non-AP range mentioned above). Using Toned Ear, I set this month’s baseline by attempting to identify 20 consecutive computer-generated notes. The main tool I’ll be using for training is (which I originally read as “Tone Dear”, later realizing that it’s most likely “Toned Ear”). Nevertheless, I’m aiming for 100% accuracy for this month’s challenge. Individuals who possess AP are able to identify the pitch class, i.e., one of the 12 notes of the Western musical system, e.g., C, D, G#, of a sound with great accuracy ( varying between 70–99%, depending on the task, as compared to 10–40% for non-AP individuals, Takeuchi and Hulse, 1993). Interestingly, according to this NIH research paper on perfect pitch (which, in the literature, is called Absolute Pitch or AP), perfect pitch doesn’t actually need to be perfect: I want to minimize any sort of mental computing as much as possible. Importantly, my goal is to be able to instantly (or almost instantly) identify the note being played. I think it will be easier to demonstrate the authenticity of my abilities via the computer, but I think it’s more dramatic with another human, so I’ll do both. Using another human and a piano to generate the notes. Using a computer to generate the notes, and 2. I will likely test my perfect pitch abilities in two ways: 1. In particular, I’m challenging myself to correctly identify 20 consecutive, randomly-generated musical notes without a reference tone. My goal this month is to acquire this ability. In other words, if someone went to a piano and played a randomly selected note, someone else with perfect pitch, whose back is turned to the piano, could instantly and correctly identify the note being played (using the 12-note musical alphabet: A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab). Today, I start a new month and a new challenge: With only one month of practice, can I develop perfect pitch? Defining successĪccording to Wikipedia, perfect pitch is a “rare auditory phenomenon characterized by the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone”.
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