Re: where do so many tenses come from?



6 Apr 2006 12:46:06 -0400: hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Herman Rubin):
in sci.lang:

The use of pitch for high-information communication
requires that the listener can distinguish not only
semi-tones but quarter-tones or more. This gives
48 separate pitches per octave. There are not many
people with this standard of absolute pitch.

Absolute pitch (absolute hearing) and the abililty to distinguish 12,
24 or 48 pitches per octave are totally unrelated.
Absolute pitch means if someone plays a note you telle whether it is A
of A flat etc. **without a reference tone **.
I can't do that myself, but I can pretty well distinguish many pitches
in an octave, **given something recent or immediate to compare them
with **.

A common misunderstanding.

--
Ruud Harmsen - http://rudhar.com
.



Relevant Pages

  • Re: notes in an octave
    ... > ask what was the maximum number of pitches playable on musical instruments ... > more than n pitches per octave? ... The third answer is a little clearer, at least for the lyre: ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: A question on Theory
    ... Many cultures have separated the octave into a different # of pitches. ... the breaking of the octave into smaller units is what separates music ... scale, is a matter of the different tuning methods some of which in use ...
    (alt.guitar.beginner)
  • Re: electric tuner questions
    ... The numbers indicate which octave the pitches belong to. ... What it means to your tuner may be very little. ... see what the tuner says for the open 3rd string. ...
    (alt.guitar.beginner)
  • Microtonal Music/Was Re: Now Now Children
    ... the history music..in zillions of combinations are miraculously ... wonderful piece with 29 pitches to the octave. ...
    (rec.music.opera)
  • Re: Is perfect pitch trainable?
    ... >> ability at very young age relative whatever pitches one is trained to ... >> historical epochs use different pitches in the musical language. ... One can perhaps compare with natural languages. ... So, returning to the absolute pitch, I think that one possibility is that ...
    (rec.music.theory)

Loading