Posted by Dean Norman on April 02, 1999 at 15:03:13:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Being so well in tuned to the tuba posted by Fred on April 02, 1999 at 11:02:04:
Yes, that's what I meant. Generally stuff on the radio is very predictable. When you get into the more twentieth century "a-tonal" things I get a little messed up, but for the most part, I can write down/play whatever you give me as you give it to me. The only thing that would stop me from doing that is my lack of writing speed, but I can do that with playing as much as you'd like. Play something, I'll play it back. All I have to know is the key it's in. The rest is simple interval recognition/scale recognition. Chord changes are harder, but generally follow a nice pattern, or are fairly easily discerned.
To me, different intervals feel differently. Different chords feel differently as well. I can tell one type of chord from the next and I can tell you what two chords you just played, but only if you give me the key you were playing in. Perfect/absolute pitch is totally different; Something I haven't bothered with. Kinda interested, but it's not worth my time. My grandfather bothered to learn perfect pitch. He liked it. I liked playing with his perfect pitch. I could jumble ANY bunch of notes together on the piano and he could get ALL of them...exactly. Crazy. Me? I just can tell one note from the next, but I can't tell you what notes they are without a reference pitch. Make more sense?