Perfect Pitch

Have you ever heard the expression, "perfect pitch"? Absolute pitch (AP), widely referred to as perfect pitch, is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of an external reference. Of course, there also is relative pitch which requires some reference as the initial starting point in identifying the notes that follow. For instance, a choir director might use a pitch pipe to provide that initial starting note. Many experts believe that perfect pitch has a genetic basis while relative pitch, most likely, is a learned behavior and comes from repetitive listening skills. I have my own theory on this which suggests that it is a combination of both, so I thought I just might share that.

My mother has many attributes, including a remarkable tolerance for the antics of her 8 children. However, in addition to her academic achievements, she was an accomplished pianist and accordion player. Frequently, she'd play the accordion at our birthday parties while singing the traditional birthday jingles, and when her Singing Belles group gathered and were without their usual pianist, she'd would "pitch" in to play. Although she had multiple musical talents, her children were, shall we say, more "flat" than "sharp" when it came to our musical gifts. However, since our youth, several members of the family have gone on to cultivate those previously dormant talents.

Naturally, having musical skills, my mother anticipated that at least one of her children would develop an interest in music too. No one really took up an instrument seriously until my older brother took piano lessons when he was about 10. During one of his "practice" sessions, he evidently consistently misplayed one of the notes. From the kitchen, my mother, who was listening, corrected him and shouted that he was off by a half step. In spite of her many distractions, she maintained the same "perfect" pitch, whether it was at the piano, singing, on the accordion, or running the household.

Perhaps few will remember though, but in spite of my own personal musical shortcomings, I actually had perfect pitch for at least one day. Unfortunately for my mother, it was not associated with a musical score. When I was in Little League, I actually struck out 18 men in a 6 inning game. As I recall, there were a few miscues which could have affected that statistic, but in the end, 18 possible outs , all strike outs. More importantly, we won the game 9-4. This was as close as I would ever come to having the "perfect pitch" my mother had in mind.

As you can see, my siblings and I weren't exactly what you'd call musically gifted. However, today my sister plays the piano, another plays the fiddle, 2 sing in their church choirs, and my brother plays and sings in a band. As a family we have, shall we say, a first degree of "relative" pitch, although some was not so musical; as for my Mom however, well she is still absolutely perfect!