> -----Original Message----- > On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 12:54 PM > > So, Steve with the perfect pitch, which instrument was your > first choice earlier in life? I am curious. Forgive me if > you already stated that, I tried to read through all of the > posts, but I missed that detail that interests me greatly. > Incidentally, you are hardly a "newbie" with the discoveries > that you have already made and techniques you are adapting.
Well, I did say I wasn't a newbie to music, didn't I? :) I have an interesting (I hope it's interesting to someone else) history with perfect pitch. I grew up playing the guitar (my father's choice for me, I don't remember being asked) and had no clue I had perfect pitch. I did no school music, only private guitar lessons with a jazz teacher who, at my father's insistence, also taught me classical guitar. As part of my agreement to get out of high school a year early, I had to take classes at the local community college and decided to take "Intro to music" and just loved it, so I decided, not having any particular career/study plans, to enroll as a guitar major there. At the community college, everyone was required to sing in the big chorus. At my audition I was given the starting pitch for the tenor part to some rather involved accompanied chorus piece, which I schlepped through as best I was able. The piece modulated at least once. When we stopped, the conductor said something like, "Not bad, Steve, let's try it again from the beginning" and, before he could give me my pitch, I sang it, correctly to him. He asked me if I had perfect pitch and I answered, "What's that?" It took a while before it dawned on me and I used to answer "No" to the question until people around me started getting irritated with me and said things like, "Steve, if you _never_ make any mistakes, I think you have perfect pitch." So I started to work on it because it still didn't come completely naturally to me - I picked a few notes and tried to memorize what they sounded like and, lo and behold, things started to gel. By the time I was a couple of years into music school, I was able to sight read from Modus Novus (20th century, atonal sight-singing exercises). My oldest son, who is 12, still can't produce pitches on demand but he seems to always sing, e.g., band parts he's playing in exactly the right key without thinking about it, so I suspect he's going to be a late-blooming perfect pitch person as well. -S- > Dee Anne Proctor > Nashville, TN > _______________________________________________ > post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > unsubscribe or set options at > http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/steve%40fridaysc > omputer.com > _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
