Does perfect absolute pitch spoil a listener for imperfect music?
From wiki: absolute ptich Potential problems Persons who have absolute pitch may feel irritated when a piece is transposed to a different key or played at a nonstandard pitch.[30] They may fail to develop strong relative pitch when following standard curricula, despite the fact that maintaining absolute strategies can make simple relative tasks more difficult.
I have perfect pitch only as it related to my instrument (oboe and English Horn) — I can identify tones based on a combination of the pitch and the timbre of the particular note. It is very disorienting for me to hear my instrument electronically pitch-shifted. The same applies if the sampling for a synth version is not a true note-for-note sample. I am not fond of certain transpositions. Just as each note has its own character, so too does each key. I have loads of baroque pieces that were transposed into “band friendly” (ie, flats over sharps) keys by well-meaning editors. I find them horrible to play because they revolve around so many of the weaker notes on the instrument (those that evolved from or still use “forked” fingerings — forked fingering sound thin and dull). Without hearing the oboe as a reference, I don’t have realy perfect pitch. I can tell when something is in tune and that’s about it. For “classic” western music, it will bother me immensely if the musicians are out
I have absolute pitch, and have this argument with others all the time. It stems from my enjoyment of historically-informed performances (HIP). Generally, the older the music, the more likely it is that it was written for an A of other than 440~442. So, when you hear a HIP performance of a Bach violin partita/sonata, it sounds like it’s a whole step lower than the key indicated by the program in your hand (because contemporary scholarship points to a kammerton of A415 in the case of solo violin literature). Inevitably, perfect pitch people complain about how they “can’t stand that it’s in a different key” than what they’ve heard on modern recordings, or what key is indicated in the program. The thing is, the violinist isn’t actually playing the E Major Prelude in Eb, they’re playing it in the E that Bach heard. Those who are so rigid about this, I think, are just complaining in order to brag to people that they have absolute pitch. Although I’m always aware of the key of the music, unl
When I was taking a college music theory class, I specifically avoided telling the instructor I had perfect pitch so she wouldn’t use it against me. One day she played a passage and forgot to give a starting key, and I slipped up and transcribed it anyway. She called me over to the desk after class and asked if I had perfect pitch. I grudgingly admitted it. She said she wouldn’t tell anyone. And indeed, she didn’t. The next day she sat down for transcriptions, played an A flat on the piano, and said, “That’s your C.” Then she grinned evilly at me. She played a simple melody in A flat. Every other student in the class transcribed it perfectly in C. I was sweating profusely, unable to hear the intervals or the passage, transposed it in my head from A flat to C, and barely got it written down in time. She did it every day after that, and it made my life miserable. So… yeah, it can be a disadvantage in places where transposition is common, like choral music or college ear training classe
