Anyone here have absolute pitch?
It's a very rare ability to instantly identify the names of notes being played just by hearing them. I've always had this ability, and it wasn't until 6th grade when I learned that most people don't. I could always tune string instruments to within 10 cents (1/10 of a half-step) or so just from pitch memory (but I'm still more accurate when I do have a reference.)
Interestingly, I sometimes temporarily lose this ability if I focus on intervals (minor 3rd, major 5th, etc.)
Does anyone else have this ability? I suspect it may be more common with autistic people, since the most "severely" autistic cannot speak at all, and I've read about absolute pitch being inhibited in most children in order to pick up language (the English language does not depend on absolute pitches, but rather relative ones.) I couldn't really talk competently until I was 4 or 5.
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Your Aspie score: 98 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 103 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits
AQ: 33
I have the ability it seems, but I don't know it just comes and goes, but it blends with my everyday life and I can distinguish all the pitches!! ! only when I do not feel stressed out, and when I play my instruments tuned, but I am curious about it because, I never had absolute pitch and I have been composed or played instruments for years, however and I was not interested in this ability, but then I listened to some orquestas tuned to specific a=44xhrz, or varying, depending on my mood or the temperature I don't know, it just fixes a little bit high or low, but the thing is quite worrying since even 1hrz down or up can really make my anger present. But I am shocked because I can make it disappear and appear, depending on listening certain pieces of music at a certain tuning, and also at certain scales, it triggers like some weird sensation, and thereafter I retain the ability to discriminate pitches, however I tend to do lot of mistakes in semitones, and have the awkward thing of "imagining fifths or fourths" like if I listen to g, and I know its g, but I want to make it d, and then if I don't make my mind slow down a little bit, it just does not work, because I always get fourths and fifths in tests, surprisingly, never thirds, never seconds, I mean I misjudge c for f for example, that makes me be sure that I have no AP, but then again, I can make my way into having it for whenever I want and never thought such a thing was possible, and it makes music tasteful and colourful and easy and tricky, tricky is the most.
If you think of aboslute pitch as the ability and focus to be able to tune a instrument in perfect pitch by ear, then I got it. I have always been a little lazy to identify exactly what tone I am playing since that has no influence on my playing, just my composing, and depends on what pitch range you want to play in(if you tune your instrument in 430hz compared with 415 hz the system you play on your instrument won't change, so it has been more essential for me to define what tone inside a scale sounds in relation to another tone, the same for harmonies ) . But there is one tone I always will remember, so I guess I could also learn to define exactly how the other tones would sound inside my head, and that tone is C in 440 or 430 hz tuning, I think. I did at some times use this referance note to compose things without any instrument nearby(usually if I took a flight or traveled alone in some manner) but it is a tiring and abit slow process compared to a situation where I have a instrument nearby and can produce the sound instantly without rationalizing about it trough the reference point of C.
I'm the exact opposite, I can't tell pitch without reference. I had no problems picking up relative pitch though, the year I spent studying music theory in college was a joke, I read most of the material in high school and the ear training was already pre-wired in me. While my classmates were learning to distinguish P4s and P5s I was asking for cluster chords and extended harmonies.
That being said, I can't tell tuning at all, it's weird. The note could be 40 cents sharp and I wouldn't even notice. It's like my brain hears "blocks" of sound not individual harmonic bands. That and a complete lack of ability in the counting department made playing music exceptionally difficult, but give me a staff sheet and I can write a good song. I don't need piano, voice, or software, it's all in my head and it gets written like my mind hears it every single time-- I'll take that over pitch detection and rhythm every single day.
You might be interested in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=277059&start=0
It is about perfect pitch, too. I have already written about my experience with it there.
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English is not my native language. So it is possible that there are mistakes in my posts. Please correct me, I´m still learning.
Meistersinger
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Joined: 10 May 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,700
Location: Beautiful(?) West Manchester Township PA
I do not believe in the concept of perfect pitch or even absolute pitch. However, I do believe in the concept of well-developed relative pitch. For example, if I have a cold, i can't hear pitch to save my soul. Besides, the idea of a standard pitch (a=440) has only been a standard for roughly 100 years.


