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A Scientific Approach to Absolute Pitch

For immediate Release
A Scientific Approach to Absolute Pitch
Media Contact: FelixTheCat@listening-singing-teacher.com

By F. Rudin
June 2, 2016

Absolute Pitch (or Perfect Pitch) is often seen as the ultimate ability for a musician. Many great musicians have or had Absolute Pitch.

But, can Absolute Pitch be used to measure your musicianship? Barely. Since the answer to the question, - you have or not -, doesn’t say a lot about your abilities. We also know that only a small percentage of the population has it. Absolute pitch covers a broad range of musical abilities. In this way, it is better to test the individual subjects each on its own. This gives a much better picture about your musical abilities.

However, - to my knowledge -, there is no test available that tests, - in my opinion -, the main ability of Absolute Pitch: The ability to reproduce a sound within a predefined precision after a set time period. Now, Absolute Pitch is not time bound, it is assumed that you can name the pitch of a sound without a reference sound.

This assumption is wrong. Since you must have heard a reference sound at least once, before you can assign it a name. So, the time may be years since you heard the reference sound. The reference pitch may have gotten refreshed and more precisely defined over the years, but it still holds true: you can remember a reference pitch you heard before. Many other things, we have experienced only once, we also can remember as if they happened yesterday. But this doesn’t exclude the time as a factor.

To determine our absolute pitch ability we can use a similar approach as in High-Jump sports. However, since Absolute Pitch is defined for an eternal time period, we cannot measure this ability. However, we can define a point that we think is close enough to be accepted as a reference point for the ability to count as "eternal". In this way we have defined Felix’s Pitch Point as the ability to reproduce four pitches correctly after a period of silence of four minutes.

The Pitch-Ability-Method allows you to monitor directly your progress towards the main ability of absolute pitch: The ability to reproduce a sound within a predefined precision after a set time period.

Since the test is reproducible in 20 minutes, it can be used for a scientific classification for the Pitch Ability.

About AlgorithmsAndDatastructures, F. Rudin

AlgorithmsAndDatastructures, F. Rudin is a small company located in Ramlinsburg, Switzerland.

F. Rudin, also known under the Nickname "PitchFeedback" develops software to help individuals to understand music better. The newest program called "SamePitchPlease" is about a more scientific approach to understand and how to acquire Absolute Pitch.

Contact

For more information please visit http://www.samePitchplease.com
F. Rudin
Hombergweg 3
CH-4433 Ramlinsburg
Switzerland