WEBVTT - What is perfect pitch? 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.360 Hello. There, It's me Josh, and I'm doing my live 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.120 show The End of the World or How I Learned 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:11.800 to Start Worrying and Love Humanity on June in Minneapolis 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:15.120 and in Washington, d C. Go to the Miracle Theater 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.439 dot com for d C tickets and the Parkway Theater 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.880 dot com for tickets to the Minneapolis show. I'll see 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.600 you soon. Welcome to Stuff You should know, a production 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:35.120 of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.880 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles w. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:43.920 Chiuck Bryant. F that was nice. And there's Jerry Rowland 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:50.560 over there the jar stir rolling on as always. Don't 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.520 look at me like that weirdly, I said, F what 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.800 was it? I don't know. Let's see you don't know. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.920 This made me think a lot about and singing and 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.560 pitch and stuff, and made me think about you and 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.960 singing and pitched too, did it? Because I tried? I 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.080 know I don't have absolute pitch, but I tried. I 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:11.959 was just like, well, let me test myself. And I 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.720 went to the little quiet room here, and the only 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:16.400 way I knew how to test it was to think 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.640 of a song. I know, that starts and like, see that, 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.560 I know how to play and sing, And then I did. 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.160 I sang a see and then I hit the play 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:30.560 button on the YouTube clip of a C and the 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.080 C was way higher than I was singing it. But 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.240 I think I was in just a different key. It 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.399 wasn't like off like oh, it was like, oh, that 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.480 sounds like a C in a different octave. So the 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.440 way all that works is confusing. Have you have you 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.200 ever heard of Charlie Pouth? No, so you we found 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.040 this guy. She watches the um John Mayor. You know, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.040 John Mayor has an Instagram TV show every week. I 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.080 did not know that, but I know he's big on Instagram. 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.600 It's actually pretty well. He went so far as to 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.440 create a show good for him. He had a guy 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.360 on named Charlie Pooth and Charlie Pooth is has maybe 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:10.400 the most perfect pitch of anybody on the planet. And 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.320 there's videos of this guy like kidding a note and 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.239 he's like here's enough, and like he's got a um 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:19.760 what would you call that thing? A little magic machine 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.280 that shows you exactly what the pitch is? Okay, that 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.120 thing it just peeped like the needle just goes right 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.120 to act or e or whatever, and he just like 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:29.160 he's not even looking. It's it's just out of nowhere. 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.040 It's really impressive. Does you mean like John Mayer? She 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.960 actually has become a fan of John Mayor. All right, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.480 his show is actually worth watching. Yeah, current mood got. 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.120 So we're talking about perfect pitch or absolute pitch, and 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.320 that is we're going to define it right away here, 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.960 unlike us, and that is to do like the poof 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:58.600 does pouf pouf um, which is, if someone says hit 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:03.640 a c with no uh and he with nothing to 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.920 compare to, I can just belt out of sea or 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.839 recognize the see if someone says what notices, it goes 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.240 both ways. It's a double edged talent. It's a double 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.160 edged talent. That's what absolute or perfect pitches. So you 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.680 might say, like, okay, there's some aliens walking around among us, 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.520 and this is how they show themselves. They're able to 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.400 produce a no at will. Right, But really, if you 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.400 step back and the grabster put this article together for us, 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.160 he did a good job. He did. He went to 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:36.000 great links to point out that having absolute pitch, or 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:40.200 what's also called perfect pitch, really is kind of useless. 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:42.200 I don't know if I agree with that he went 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.840 to such links. I became to wonder if the grabster 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.320 is actually jealous of people who well, he makes a 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.560 point quite a bit that you know, it doesn't help 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.640 you wrote a song. It doesn't make you anymore creative. 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.600 So what it sounded like when you're reading it a 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:56.960 little bit? And that is quite true. It does not. 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.640 But make no bones about it. If you're a singer 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.920 in a band, having perfect pitch is an asset. It 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.680 might be annoying to your bandmates, right there's I saw 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.840 this video, these two Japanese kids, and it was what 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.840 annoying things that people with perfect pitch to? And uh 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.719 yeah it was this one kid was annoying the Jesus 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.880 out of another. I could see that cute. I mean, 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.920 it's got to be an asset, I would guess. So 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.160 sure you know, well you like, let me give you 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.719 an example of relative pitch that it gives if you're 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.920 in the shower. If if I'm in the shower and 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:40.240 I start singing, um, some Morrissey song. Let's say it 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.119 starts out pretty normal, but there's some high notes in there. 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.640 Maybe if I really stretch, I can hit. Once I 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.160 get to those high notes, I can't even come close. 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.640 The reason why is because I started in a higher 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.040 key than I should have, because I had no reference 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.920 point whatsoever, and it just started singing a big male 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:04.400 strikes again. Oh no, eight, that's way too low, right, 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.599 I couldn't do that. I mean, like that sounds perfect. Yeah, 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.680 I actually do a pretty good Morrissey. Oh yeah, let's 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.880 hear it. Oh I can't do it right now. My 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.640 voice is all podcasted out. I'm not gonna humiliate myself 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.800 on here. I'm sorry. I'll do it for you later 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.920 in the shower. Um be like you got some soap, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:32.640 you have some soup on your own. Sorry, that's my Morrissey. Alright, 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:37.680 So we should talk about reference um, relative pitch and 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.320 having a reference point. That's you can be a great 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:45.120 singer and not have perfect pitch. Um. It is right 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.839 in that, like you know, it's not like, oh, you 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.400 know a perfect pitch, you're probably not gonna be a 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:51.520 good singer. Or you do a perfect pitch, you're like 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.279 such a great creator and songwriter. Those don't have any 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.240 to do with one another. But if you've ever been 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.520 to see a vocal group, sing like star Land Vocal Band. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.280 Never seen them, but Emily, my wife was in a 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.880 show choir and high school, so that's you know, that's 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.720 exactly what they did. Um. I believe they had piano accompaniment. 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.560 Sometimes it was acapella. But but but if you've seen 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.320 an acapella group, you will almost always see a pianist 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.960 hit a single note before they start playing. And here 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.960 that or they might have like akrat tuner, which is 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:26.720 one of those little things you hold up to your mouth. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.600 It's like a round harmonica pitch pipe. Yeah, I mean 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.520 it's a type of pitch pipe. What did you call 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.800 it a krat tuner? It was It's like a that's 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:40.400 probably like saying band aid or something or Kleenex proprietary epidemic. Yeah, 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.920 I think so. Uh, They're all kind of pitch pipes, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:44.720 but this is a little cool round one. It's like 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.000 a round harmonica. Yeah. Yeah, and they usually wear it 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.839 like a medallion around their net. The choir director, do 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.200 they I've seen it? Okay? Um. So they would either 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.279 blow into one of those pitch pipes or they would 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.760 hit a piano key and the choir would all know 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.160 in their head they would have that reference point. Then 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.440 it's like, all right, here's here's where we start with 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.440 our barbershop quartet song. Right. That's either the first note 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.400 of the song or the key that the song sung in. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.160 But either way, once they have that and they're like 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.960 hey or whatever, they can sing the rest of the 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.480 song and key relative to that note. That alone, to 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.880 me is impressive. So even relative pitch is impressive to me, 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.640 let alone absolute pitch. Well, I mean everyone has relative pitch, 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.680 I guess. But if somebody who's like, here's an apoo, 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:33.440 I'd be like, what do you want me to do 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.840 with that? Oh, I see what you mean? Yeah, sure, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.480 you know. I wouldn't be able to necessarily keep up 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.240 with the rest of the song just because I heard 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.440 the first note. Yeah, I almost feel like, yeah, but 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.400 you know the song. So like, once you have your 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:51.000 starting point, you're good. I guess. Yeah, that's a good point. 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.600 That's a good point. Practiced it. Yeah, And I think 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:59.760 about any smoke could do this. Um. I was inquired, 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.120 but we always had piano accompaniment and the piano led 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:03.720 the song. Like, I don't remember a single song we 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:09.760 did Inquire that started with just the vocals acapello. It 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.320 was always like a piano intro, so you know exactly 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:13.680 where you are. I was just trying to come up 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:18.960 with a song that starts out like that Bohemian rapid. Sure, 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.360 you know what's funny. I was just thinking of the 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.640 other Queen song, I Want It All. Oh Yeah, which 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.280 I believe starts talking Queen. I thought that was a 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:35.200 Burger King adds Burger Queen. Alright, so h relative pitch, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.240 that's the deal. I feel like we should cover some more, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.840 Like I feel like the other half of this episode 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.960 should be tone deafness. We did one on tone deafness. 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.000 We did I Swear to God. We did one called 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.839 his tone deafness Hereditary, and we talked about how in 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.640 the Philippines, if you sing my way in a tone 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.160 deaf way at karaoke, you may get stabbed because people 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.760 have been stabbed before. I don't remember that one. You 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.200 don't remember that, not at all. We talked about tone 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.520 deafness for sure, So your plan just fell apart. Yeah, 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:05.160 but I mean there's a lot of I never study 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.080 music theory, so I'm an air learner as far as 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.760 guitar and all that stuff goes. Did Jarry just preview right, yeah, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:16.760 she just faced me. Um, but it gets a little 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.040 like convoluted when you start talking about keys and octaves 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.840 and half steps and whole steps and stuff like that. 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:24.920 The thing that calms me down is when you talk 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.840 about science, right, So let's talk science here. When you 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:36.000 talk about pitch pitches all relativity, right, Yes, you're talking 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.920 about one note in relation to another note. Is that 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.040 other note higher or lower? That's really what pitches, right, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:48.600 It's it's the gradations of notes and relations to one another. Right. Okay, Um, 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.160 if you if you look at what you're talking about scientifically, 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.400 you're talking about a sound wave. So really what you're 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.600 talking about is the frequency of a note is what 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.559 gives it? It's A or it's B or is it 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.199 C sharp or something like that, And there is a 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.120 whole step between an A and a B, but there's 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.880 actually a half step in between. Okay, you know all this? Okay, 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.960 how am I doing so far? Am I explaining it? Right? Yeah? 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.680 I mean like if you sit at a piano, a 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.640 half step is the very next key, whether it's a 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.160 black or white, and a whole step is skipping a 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.000 key and going to the second key. But I thought 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.080 there were some stretches where there are two white keys together, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.680 and that was a full step, which are called natural tones. 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.720 There's no half step in between those notes. That's not 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.920 how I understand it. That's the that's the piano demo 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.040 I saw. Yeah, and the other thing that struck me too. 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.600 I never knew this before ever. So you know, like 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.839 there's a B B flat and a C sharp or 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:53.480 actually I think could be a B sharp and a 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.959 C flat same note. Yeah, what with the whole reason 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.760 those things exist? And it's a half note sharper flat is, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.760 but the whole reason it exists to tell you which 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.480 way to go on the scale up or down a 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.840 half not a half note. Yeah, like I'm trying to 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.800 think about in band, you can play an A and 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.360 if you move that up one bar, that's an A sharp, 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.640 but that's also a B flat because B would be 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.800 the next thing up from that middle point. So I 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.199 never really knew there were rules for why you would 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.720 refer to it as an A sharper a B flat. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.719 From what I understand is to know, all right, you 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.240 want to go down, So you're going to going down 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.200 to A sharp from a B or you're going up 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.400 to a B flat from an A interesting that I 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.079 think I probably just got it wrong, that we're mangling 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.680 so many things. But what we're talking about is is 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.840 what's called the Western musical scale. It's a twelve note 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.640 scale and it's made up of ten octaves that humans 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.479 can hear. And if each note is a specific wavelength 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.480 of frequency of a sound vibration that's the same every 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:04.839 single time, and A always has the same frequency and 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.199 B always has the same frequency. If you double that frequency, 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.120 you've just gone up an octave, right, And that scale 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.640 repeats itself and ascends or descends going into higher lower octaves. 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:21.760 So that was good. People with perfect or absolute pitch 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:26.200 will be able to hear any note on at any 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.720 octave on that scale and say, oh that's a A 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:38.080 seven or a B six sharp right, Um. They just 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.600 from hearing it, or they'll be able to reproduce it. 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:42.800 So it's not like they can just memorize twelve notes. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.760 They can memorize twelve notes over say ten octaves, they 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.160 can recognize them. Yeah. And if you're someone who plays 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.560 instruments by ear and sings by ear and can't read music, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:59.520 um it can you really appreciate Um? Two things, the 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.840 simply city of people who write three chord major songs, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.720 and then the complexity, even though it's frustrating of like 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.120 an Elton John. So like, if I sit down to 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.920 play guitar to an Elton John song, I'll look up 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.280 the chords and the words, and nine times out of 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.080 ten I'm like, I don't what. I don't even know 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.599 this chord. Yeah, and I gotta like go to a 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.120 chord book and figure it out. He did all kinds 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.720 of crazy chords. That's really diminished minor. I mean, minors 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.200 are simple enough, but but but that's in that's it 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.200 was still in the Western musical scale, or was incorporating 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.880 tones from other musical scales that weren't. No, it was 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.920 still the Western. But you know, instead of playing an 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.240 F it would be like an F sharp minor seventh 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.679 or something. So what do is minor and major? Then? Well, 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.160 minor is the saddest of all keys. A minor that's 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.320 his final tip reference. So you still get it. Thank 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.360 you for explaining it though, and not just letting all 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.200 the listeners right in and laugh at me. Um, I 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.360 mean I don't know how to explain. I mean, a 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:03.160 minor is variation of the major, but it sounds completely 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.960 different and much more like it does sound more sad 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.000 and like if I played you in a in an 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.920 A minor in a B and a B minor, you go, oh, 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.280 we need to get a piano in here for this one. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.719 Can we expense a piano? Maybe we should take a 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.920 break while we go get a piano. Let's do it, okay? 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:49.840 In things like chuck and chuck. Sorry, alright, so one 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.080 thing we should say chuck when we're talking about as 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.800 I'm sorry, absolute, Do you feel like people are keeping 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:57.400 up with this or we just throwing out so much 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.720 random information? A little both. I think that music majors 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.200 are really just like, oh guys, oh lord, nobody likes 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.720 them anyway. But for normal people, you think that they're like, okay, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.960 now I understand what pitches because that's really the goal 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.360 here a little bit. We're not we're not explaining anything 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.920 to music majors that they don't already know, and we're 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.920 actually mangling the stuff that they do know. Right. Uh. 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.160 One thing we can say that's pretty easy to understand 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:26.000 is though, is that perfect pitch is? Um, it's a 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.800 bit of a on a sliding scale. It's hard to 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.880 define like it's either perfect or not perfect, because you 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.640 have a range from tone deaf to perfect pitch, and 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.840 you may be way closer to perfect pitch and may 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.640 even say I have perfect pitch, but not have like 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:46.320 absolute perfect pitch at the time when tested right exactly. 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.600 So it's not it's not binary, right, there's it's not 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.400 whether they're one of those you have it or you 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.400 don't have it kind of things. And it's suggested, is 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.520 when we'll talk about it a little more, that everybody 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:01.240 has some level of absolute pitch. It's just some people 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.320 are way better right than others, so so much so 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.960 that they seem like they have perfect pitch compared to 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.480 everybody else. Yeah, I'm not sure I understood that part either, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.360 but we'll get to that. Um. And it's interesting to 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.320 note too that this, uh, even if you do have 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.120 absolute pitch, you might have trouble identifying the same notes 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:25.480 at different octaves. Um, you're not supposed to. You can't 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.920 call yourself a perfect pitch person. Yeah, I guess so right. Yeah, 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.600 you have to hang your head in shape. But that's tough. 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.320 Identical notes and different octaves are tough, and it results 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.080 in some weird um phenomena like the Shepherd tone, which 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.640 is really neat um. If you've ever been to a 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:46.720 Christopher Nolan movie, Um, specifically dune Kirk. Did dun Kirk 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.840 use it? Well, he uses it all the time, Like 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.960 the sound of that motorcycle had a specific name, but 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.560 the one batman rides with the two big fat wheels 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.840 the cycle. Yeah, I think that's what it's called. Okay, 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:01.800 I think I had another name, didn't it? Or no, 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.880 well maybe I think of the Adam West's bat cycling 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.400 so um, but he uses that sound. Um, it's called 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.040 the Shepherd tone, and it's basically several tones from different 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.720 octaves layered on one another. The highest tone gets quieter, 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.359 the middle tone stays loud, and the bass tone uh 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.959 as sinds and volume, and if you play them all together, 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.520 it's this mental trick that your mind can't process. And 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.160 it sounds like something that's either going up or down 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.800 into infinity basically right, But it's really just the same 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.159 thing on a loop over and over again. But it sounds, yeah, 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.879 clearly just going up and rising in pitch constantly for infinity. 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:47.080 It's really interesting, really tension creating it really puts you 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.800 on edge, not like nails on a chalkboard on edge, 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.800 but more like like what's gonna happen? This is still 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:58.280 going on? Uh, And shout out to um Roger Shepherd 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:03.840 from Stanford. He's a psychologists in who I guess discovered 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.160 this audio illusion. There also another shout out to Diana 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.960 Deutsch who was a researcher for m audio illusions, which 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.520 are really interesting. It's like the sound version of an 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.680 optical illusion and reveals a lot about how the brain 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:22.440 processes information. Um. She has a site I guess that 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.000 you see San Diego that I want everybody to go 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:31.159 to right now, pause the pause the episodes and go 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:35.359 to Deutsch d e U T s C H dot 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.320 U C S D dot E d U slash psychology 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.320 slash pages. Here's where it gets tricky dot pH P 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:48.960 question mark lowercase I equals to one too. Why didn't 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.399 you get a your L shortener for that? I don't know, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.679 Just do it and and thank me later. But it 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:59.600 has She has these um these audio clips that show 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.720 how when you hear something spoken over and over again 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.439 enough times, the same thing over and over again, it 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.639 turns into music to you. It turns into being sung interesting, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:12.879 and the way that she has it laid out and 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.119 demonstrated it is the most mind blowing thing I have 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.840 heard in ages. I loved. I went right. I was 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.360 like you, you've got to hear this, and it's it's 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:26.600 like I'm watching John Mayre. Shut up, who sings better 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.720 than him? This Diana Deutsch, Lady, Wow, I'll have to 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.959 hear that. That's pretty cool. You're you're gonna love it. 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.720 You will love it, Chuck awesome. Okay, it has really 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:38.480 nothing to do with perfect pitch, but it is just 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:40.560 kind of one of those things where it's like this, 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:45.040 this is worth mentioning to the world. Okay, all right. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:50.400 So there's this guy named Nicholas uh Slanemski who's a 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.680 composer and a music lexicologist and a conductor. He wrote 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:59.520 in his autobiography about having absolute pitch. Basically how like 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.160 he kind of um, it was a party trick when 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.080 he was a kid, and then when he went to 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.760 school to music school, of course, um, he kind of 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.320 like kind of thought his s didn't stink because he 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.920 had perfect pitch and they didn't have to work his hard. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.120 And he was a little snotty about it, I think 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:22.080 from what I gather from ed summation. And apparently while 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.520 he was off just like, hmm, I've got perfect pitch, 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.399 all his classmates are actually busting their butts and working 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:31.320 hard and actually writing really good music, and he fell 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.399 behind him was like, how could I be falling behind? 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.159 I have absolute pitch and he's just leaning on that 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.359 too hard he was, so he had kind of a 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.119 a moment of inspiration where he's like, Oh, I actually 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.000 have to put in the work too, And I think 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:46.159 this is where Ed was kind of getting that it 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.920 doesn't actually help. It's good, it's a neat thing to have. 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.240 You can't write your own ticket though in the music business. 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:54.480 Because he had perfect pitch, it doesn't help you be 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:56.680 any more creative or anything like that. And as a 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:59.760 matter of fact, Slominski Um points out in that Auto 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.720 by bography that, um, there have been plenty of people 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.200 who were just master composers like Tchaikovsky and Wagner were 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.560 both um. Neither one of them had perfect pitch. And 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:12.840 yet you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who's like 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.960 those guys were hacks. You know, they were pretty good, 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.280 and they didn't have perfect pitch. So you can do 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.399 quite well in music and not have perfect pitch, especially 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.639 if you have one of those little round harmonic as 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:28.959 you were talking about Lenny Kravitz harmonica pitch pipe. Um, 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.800 it's hard to tell how many people have perfect pitch. Um, 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.320 you hear one in ten thousand a lot, But as 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:37.120 Ed points out, it's kind of hard to find any 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.920 reference for this that really is accurate or legit. Yeah. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:42.760 I think he ran into that same thing where you 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:44.800 see the same info on the internet in the same 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.320 way everywhere. It means that it's probably not real. I 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.520 think so, um, because it's got to be more than 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:53.520 one in ten thousand. Well, he said he found one 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.159 that that's found about four percent of the population has it, 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.320 so it would be four hundred and four it out 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:05.280 of ten thousand, four times greater than what was previously thought. 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:08.520 That's right. Uh. And you're more likely to have and 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:10.959 this is where it gets interesting, of like where does 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:15.640 it come from? Nature or nurture. You're definitely more likely to, um, 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.200 have perfect pitch if you start your training in music 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.080 before the age of six. Yeah, there's a critical period 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.119 for the brain where it's just mush waiting to be 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:35.000 molded into smarts. So things like language, foreign languages, music, um, 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:37.960 basically anything you can think of that requires talent that 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:41.320 not everybody can do kind of falls into that critical 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:44.240 period where if you start to learn that early on, 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:46.880 before age six, you're going to be able to learn 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.040 it way easier than somebody who's an adult trying to 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.920