back to list

PERFECT PITCH, and human nature......

🔗Sarn Richard Ursell <thcdelta@pop.ihug.co.nz>

3/25/1999 6:21:03 PM

To the gentleman who posted some questions about absolute pitch to the list
a while back, and, also, anyone elesinterested.

For a long time, I had woundered what perfect pitch actually WAS.

And then, one day, in 1993, reading throughh KEYBOARD magazine, David L
Burge advertised a course for aquireing perfect pitch.

So, I saved for 3 months and brought the course.

Well, to cut a very long story shorter, David Burge explains that PERFECT
PITCH is "color hearing", which has, nothing at all to do with a phenominon
called "Synasthesia", where the sences become blended, as with LSD trips.

He expalins that PP is the ability to hear colors in sound.

So, for all you non12ers with keyboards, C SOUND, try this little experiment:

Play the note F#.Use a pure sine wave.

Do you notice its sort of twangy sounding, or vibrant?
DO NOT TRY TO LISTEN FOR THIS, or you will ruin the effect.
Let it come naturall, without straining the ear.

Now play the note Eb.
Does it sound "mellow"?"Subdued"?

Now A.
Does it sound sort of "clear", or "bright"?

Well, I must admit, that I DID sort of hear the colors mentioned above in
the notes, albeit fleetingly, and better on some days than others.
And never when I tryed, or tryed not to try.
A sort of "Zen" state of hearing!

David L Burge also explains that people with REALLY developed PP, hear sound
in a color spectrum, up to 1/128th notes.
And this is true for all timbers, by the way.

Well, I had tryed and tryed to hear the colors for about 2 months, and I had
gotten no where-it was tantalizingly subtle.
I was about to give up, but then.........

One night, in a darkened room, I was very tired, and just for a litle joke,
I played a B on the chromatic 12ET scale, and.....

BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HEARD THE COLOR.

How can I describe it?

Well, it was a color, allright, but an aural one.
Try to describe green to someone blind?
You can't, as its perceptual.

How would I describe B color note to you?
Well........, it was sort of a soft, stupid sound, like pink, or lilac
(purple mixed with white-a bit more to the reddish shades).

This sensation lasted only for about 2 seconds, and to this day, I have
never, ever been able to recreate it.

Ever.

So, here I am, as confused and bewildered as I ever have been.

What can I do about it?

I have been kicked out of my Polytech course for sexual harassment, and I
sit at home, completely smashed over by humans nature.
Truth is, I don't actually remember harassing anybody.

WHAT MORE CAN A POOR BOY DO???????????????????

I have considered hypnosis, meditation, drugs (including mild---> powerful
hallucinogens), including Kava Kave-the women at the organic hemp said that
Kava can be fairly strong with some) for altered states of conciousness,
abstaining from my sexual pleasures for 2 weeks (nearly unthinkable),
bashing my head against a wall till I see stars, electric shock therapy, a 2
day fast.

Have any of you people got any ideas?

I am at my wits end......

Sarn.

Blind Tom-if he heard microtonal?Fuzzy intervals/hybrids,
galaxys/sharemarket, biology Trib-nature (another glaaxy), acm->inst,
N-bocinni, quiggle maean
constants and equations, mathematical recording, sonogram art, PP (note B),
timbre and ratios, why primes, temperaments togther, Marylyn Manson (heat
stroke), irrational compos, IQ, all ratios/temps good, Mbrot noise C++ do
for me?, key acceleration pressureect conditional splits, sonogram life,
positional drums, who is Elliott Carter, surreals, parallels in nature