Pitch Perception Skewed By Modern Tuning

The feed deliverers us news of research suggesting that the use of A as the universal tuning frequency has made our ears less discerning of the notes immediately around it. Here's the abstract from PNAS describing research with people possessing the rare quality of "absolute pitch."

Re:Did anyone

[Adambomb]

Yes, but it was delivered orally in the key of A, so the discrepancy was not noticed.

Re:Frist Psot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody _knows_ the world is flat... :)

Re:Oboe

[Anonymous Coward]

unless there is a fish in the orchestra. In that case, the whole ordeal becomes very difficult: how can you tune a fish ?

Re:Frist Psot?

[El Jynx]

not entirely. The doubling of pitch is the difference in an octave; the complementary pitches in the octave (in other words, the sounds that sound happy, so no minors or sharps) are directly related (e.g. half of the doubling, 1/4, etc).

And on the side, I think anybody who has a mom with a voice as loud as my mom's learns absolute pitch as a natural defense mechanism.

Re:Oboe

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, I can't help you. I can tune a fish to 554.4 Hz, but I cannot tune a filesystem.

Re:Summary is misleading

[Discoflamingo13]

I would like to think I'm not alone in wanting to have something to show for nine years of getting beaten up for keeping my books in my band locker ;-)

Perfect Pitch: Deffinition

[Anonymous Coward]

The ability to throw a banjo into a dumpster without hitting the side.

Re:A435 is old standard

[demi]

I have an enormous desire to see a comic book cover of Superman giving a concert with his superguitar and taunting us all with how we can't hear his beautiful music, like the dick he is [superdickery.com].

Re:Is it not more the case of losing perfect pitch

[onion_joe]

And as an aside, the clarinet only has odd harmonics, therefore the upper register is an octave and a fifth above for the same fingering.

tell me about it. For anyone learning woodwinds out there, I highly recommend learning the clarinet first. Master it and every other woodwind is a transposition and/or embouchure adjustment only.

After learning the clarinet, the saxophone or (for you Jethro Tull fans out there) flute is a cakewalk.

Not to mention you can play some bitchin' klezmer!