Learning absolute pitch from your instrument

[ChristopherS]

Something NickLong said about the Intro quiz got me thinking - He was saying that his sense of absolute pitch is better than he expected, and comes from deep-seated memories of tuning a guitar!

I've had some similar experiences - back when I was playing a lot of harmonica I would mainly play a diatonic in the key of D when playing solo. After a while I found I could reliably tell in songs when the harmonica in the recording was a D harp!

Has anybody else experienced this? Do you spend so much time with your instrument that you can hear its pitches in your head?

[Big Ears]

I've always been remiss about tuning to concert ptich or indeed any reference pitch. I have several guitars all tuned relative to themselves. Might try for some consistency!

[ChristopherS]

I've definitely been guilty of this sometimes with guitar myself!

How about relative pitch then - do you think you hear perfect fourths (and major thirds) any easier from tuning adjacent strings with them?

[kindablue]

there is something about an F chord for me on a guitar. don't know why but F would always stick out. to me it has a fat vibe to it like sticking a square where a circle should be. no open string either. now i can hear F on other instruments.

the open chords are usually a good place to start, they have a ringing quality about them. i used to record myself playing open strings randomly on a cassette and play it back a week later and guess the string.

how come this thread has had over 200 views and hardly any replies???? let's get talking people and throw around some ideas....

[Big Ears]

QUOTE=ChristopherS;71] do you think you hear perfect fourths (and major thirds) any easier from tuning adjacent strings with them?[/QUOTE]

I do hear those more easily (when working with my ear trainer) - I'm not sure if it's to do with using them for tuning though. Minor thirds also tend to leap out at my ear.

I sometimes have trouble getting consistent tuning across all strings by ear. They tune fine relative to each other (using 5th, 7th and 12th fret harmonics) butsopen chords in particular don't sound 'right'. This can happen even when I use a reference pitch. I'm not sure if this is the effect that's been noted by the likes of Buzz Feiten and Harry Partch:

Feiten also patented a new tuning system for guitars, called the 'Buzz Feiten tuning system'. It is a structural system permitting the tuning of guitars and basses more accurately, specifically on the lowest 3 or 4 frets, which otherwise tend to be somewhat out-of-tune compared to notes played on the rest of the neck. The difference, though subtle, is especially evident in the playing of open chords. The system involves some minor alterations to the instrument and can be retrofitted to most guitars that do not already have it. It is installed at the factory on some new guitars and basses, including those bearing the Washburn brand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Feiten

Just to add: David Burge says that absolute pitch will come quickest and easiest on your principle instrument and you may find yourself unable to identify tones from other instruments for some time after you've begun to develop absolute pitch on your main instrument.

[ChristopherS]

there is something about an F chord for me on a guitar. don't know why but F would always stick out. to me it has a fat vibe to it like sticking a square where a circle should be. no open string either. now i can hear F on other instruments.

That's really interesting. In periods when I've been playing a lot of guitar, I've definitely had moments of recognising guitar chords in songs just through knowing what that chord sounds like on guitar... I came across an interesting ear training course called Guitar Intuition which is intended to take advantage of exactly that. Haven't tried it myself yet.

I've tended to shy away from that kind of training as it seems 'fragile' - okay you can hear root-position D, but what if it's played up the neck? Or on another instrument?

That said, it's no doubt a useful first step to full-on absolute pitch, and it's really encouraging to hear that you could take your familiarity with F on guitar and use it to hear F on other instruments...

[NickLong]

There are a few videos of Hendrix where he plays a chord mid song pulls a face and then instantly tweaks the right tuning peg by the right amount. That said his agressive use of the whang bar meant that he was out of tune an aweful lot.

The more time I spend playing the more I can tweak in a 3rd or a 5th in a chord without having to play a unison.

Going back to the origional question I never thought my absolute pitch was that good but I can always tune a guitar very close to concert without a reference. I sometimes wonder if this is because I am so used to feeling the correct string tension.

[kindablue]

nick that is a serious question. try tuning a guitar to an open chord or a ukelle. see how that goes..