fel bautista wrote:So how do you synch the pitch of notes on a page to a pitch you can hum or sing or whistle or.... I've seen people pick up a musical score and start lilting the tune. How do you do that????
Inquiring minds, etc
People with perfect pitch can read the notes just like you're reading the words on this page.
For most of us, when we see notes on a page, we just see them in relation to one another...this is a third above that, and so on. If we're good at it, we're said to be "good sight-readers." A good sight-reader can certainly pick up a score and hum or lilt the tune, especially if it's not particularly complicated...that doesn't require absolute pitch. In fact, choirs do it all the time...it's called a read through.
The difference is that, to a person with absolute pitch, the notes correspond exactly to the pitch they represent. If I look at a score, if I'm good at reading, I can start on any note that will allow the tune to fall within my vocal range and, by singing the intervals correctly, sing the tune. It probably won't be the tune as written...it may be higher or lower...but it will be recognizable. To the person with absolute pitch, however, that middle C will always be a middle C...it will never be a D or a B. They see that little dot on the staff, and the note pops into their heads, just like when you or I see the word "music," that word pops into our head. That's why it's hard for them if they have to transpose a tune without having the opportunity to write it out in the new key...it's like it would be for me to read this paragraph silently in English and simultaneously read it aloud in Irish.
Does that help?
Redwolf