11 December 2020

Absolute pitch ("perfect pitch") demonstrated


The video should be subtitled, since the audio doesn't pick up the boy's poorly-vocalized responses, but we'll trust them on the details.  It's an impressive talent.
Generally, absolute pitch implies some or all of the following abilities, achieved without a reference tone:
  • Identify by name individual pitches (e.g. A, B, C) played on various instruments.
  • Name the key of a given piece of tonal music.
  • Reproduce a piece of tonal music in the correct key days after hearing it.
  • Identify and name all the tones of a given chord or other tonal mass.
  • Accurately sing a named pitch.
  • Name the pitches of common everyday sounds such as car horns and alarms.

    (Reposted from 2015 because it's an awesome talent) 

8 comments:

  1. No point in my trying this. I have no pitch. I struggled to master the piano, but finally realized I just have no talent. My youngest daughter, however, sings like an angel and plays piano beautifully.

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  2. Many years ago, I visited the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. I don't think I shall ever forget when I walked into one of the larger spaces and saw the massive painting titled "The Discovery of America." I don't know what my face looked like, but inside, my mouth hit the floor. For the first time ever, I suddenly grasped the difference between being really, really smart...and being a genius.

    It's not just the next floor up, so to speak. Genius TOWERS over just being really, really smart. I saw that amazing painting and realized that even if I had a century--perhaps a thousand years--could I ever come up with something so utterly epic.

    Likewise, this young boy is articulating chords (not just notes) that I would take me several seconds to even play, and several seconds to even SAY.

    This doesn't mean that a genius is better in all areas, of course. But in those fields where they are true geniuses, it is too much for me see that and to believe there is not a God.

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    Replies
    1. http://archive.thedali.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=1297;type=101

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    2. This??

      http://blog.barcelonaguidebureau.com/girona-and-the-fearful-flies-of-sant-narcis/

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    3. “I don’t know [why we're here]. People sometimes say to me, ‘Why don’t you admit that the humming bird, the butterfly, the Bird of Paradise are proof of the wonderful things produced by Creation?’ And I always say, well, when you say that, you’ve also got to think of a little boy sitting on a river bank, like here, in West Africa, that’s got a little worm, a living organism, in his eye and boring through the eyeball and is slowly turning him blind. The Creator God that you believe in, presumably, also made that little worm. Now I personally find that difficult to accommodate…”
      ― David Attenborough

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  3. Another thing....

    This is a father and son. I had never known of the son before, but the dad has a number of great videos about things like the best opening riffs, or the greatest lead guitar solos, etc. Well worth the watch.

    Better yet, he seems to be a genuinely nice guy.

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  4. This is Rick Beato and his son. Rick has an amazing Youtube channel where he analyzes songs and teaches music theory at an extremely high level.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Beato

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJquYOG5EL82sKTfH9aMA9Q

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