If she has trouble singing on key just have her switch to singing country music then no one will notice.

Having 'perfect pitch' is when someone is able to sing any requested note that is named (by someone else) arbitrarily in thin air, and without another note needed to be played first, while 'relative pitch' is when someone is able to sing any requested note, after an inital note (such as C) is played first.

Having 'perfect pitch' is a very rare gift (or curse to many). You are either born with it or not. It cannot be learned or developed. Here's a link to some informative articles re: Perfect (absolute) vs Relative Pitch:
http://www.amarilli.co.uk/piano/perfectp.asp
http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~musie139/PerfectPitch.html
http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/perfectpitch.htm

Here are a few famous musicians/singers who possess perfect pitch:

Julie Andrews
Ludwig van Beethoven
Mariah Carey
Nat King Cole
Bing Crosby
Ella Fitzgerald
Yo-Yo Ma
Wolfgang Mozart
Oscar Peterson
Frank Sinatra
Barbara Streisand
Stevie Wonder
Brian Wilson (Beachboys)


BTW (just in case you're wondering) I myself don't possess 'perfect pitch' , but have developed good 'relative pitch' recognition thru interval ear training. Curious who on this forum actually has 'perfect pitch'.

Scott

I may have it, Scott! I always tended to sing things in my head at the correct pitch, but I can't sing at all!

So I just went over to my piano and hummed a middle C, played a middle C and they were spot on! Well, I waited five minutes and tried it with F. Spot-on! Problem is, I had to register C in my head and then mentally go up the scale to get F. I imagine real perfect pitch people could just immediately produce the F.

But with middle C I am 100% on at all times (I've tried it about ten times now and it's always right).

So I guess I have semi-perfect pitch!

Tommy

I have a friend who has perfect pitch. He is blind. You can hit any chord, or even dis-chord and he can immediately tell you every note. He remembers and recognizes phone numbers by the pitch of the beeps.
He is also a wonderful musician and vocalist. He plays keyboard, clarinet, sax, flute, harmonica and BAGBIPES, all equally well.
He no longer plays music for a living but now works as a computer troubleshooter. His music is now dedicated to church services, and he is also an ordained minister.
He has two brothers, also blind, and they all have perfect pitch. His sister, who is not blind, can't sing a note on key.
DonM

What does this exactly mean?


Also Scottyee I tried a couple of those programs but they all seem geared towards training your ear to catch the right note. Is there a program that will train you to HIT the right note?

This is interesting subject for me and I may have a phenomenon that no others have, but then again maybe many others have.

when I hear from one ear the TONE is a bit off relative to hearing it from the OTHER ear! My ears are not in TUNE lol. But really, this is true, and I tested it many times.

My ears both have very close if not absolute pitch, and I can take a guitar and tune it by ear better than any scale tuner, BUT when I sing I sometimes am a bit OFF pitch and I HATE THAT WHEN I HEAR IT IN MY RECORDINGS. I am not sure if its due to my "ear" problem and I sing once hearing tone in one ear and once in the other and thats when I go off tune a bit (and its like maybe 1/8 tone off not more). Can this be trained to go away?

I play/sing arabic music as most of you know by now, which is based more on melody than chords. I have only been singing for 2 years (I been playing for 23 years though - 14 on keyboards). I will take any advise you can give on text (how do u train for abdominal breathing for example)...and that thing that UD talked about.

I would go take a training course, but my work schedule does not allow it, so the advise I get here is the next best thing.

Thanks

OUCH!....Right on, Tom....or is it "Buck" Cavanaugh?

Keep "pickin and grinnin",

Russ

I thought I would get a rise out of my good buddy Don but he chose not to bite. He knows me too well! Sometime when his guard is down I'll get him.

It's no secret that attractive women help sell ANYthing. Beer, cars, songs - whatever.....

so, if the sunger wears the right stuff and HAS the right stuff ..... well, the pitch is not so important I guess. ( to SOME )

Personally, I'd rather have an ugly singer that had great pipes than a bad singer with great ***s !

I have perfect pitch. Have had as long as I can remember. Transposers on keyboards really screw my brain up. Capoes on guitars are not a problem for me though, probably because guitar doesn't have black keys and white keys. Perfect pitch is how I learned jazz chords not knowing a speck of music theory. When I went to college I started learning the science (or math?) of the complex chords I had learned from listening. I too can tell you a phone number from the beeps.

Something along these lines that has perplexed me. Why are horns in such stupid keys? Why can't all horns be in C? I understand they call whichever key is easiest on a horn the C, but that's just weird. I play tenor sax and it just is dumb that a concert F is a tenor G. That would be a symphony writer's nightmare! Especially if he has perfect pitch!

This is actually what most people who are supposed to have perfect pitch do.
It helps if they are quick with singing intervals. (C-F instead of C-D-E-F)
It is probably learned from a very young age, of course without being aware of it. Some children will always sing in the same key - somewhere that fixed tone is remembered. From there it is always relative to that fixed tone.
People who are not musical in any way can have this.

BTW: I don't have "it".
------------------
drdalet

[This message has been edited by drdalet (edited 09-14-2004).]