well, it depends on what you mean by the term "perfect pitch". i've most commonly heard that term used to mean "the ability to correctly identify the frequency of a given tone", i.e. if i play a note on a (correctly tuned) piano, and you say "oh, that's A above middle C", and you're correct.
perfect pitch tends to be much more a curse than a blessing to musicians (though it's damn useful if you're a piano tuner), as non-digital instruments are rarely if ever perfectly in tune. it can make it very difficult to play in ensembles (in which it's more important to be in tune with the other musicians than it is to be absolutely in tune).
what i suspect you may have is good relative pitch (which is far more useful than perfect pitch). relative pitch is the ability to correctly distinguish intervals, i.e. the "space between" two tones. melodies are made up of intervals, and being able to tell intervals apart is critical to being able to write or perform music.
(incidentally, ari - how much music theory have you had? is this all stuff you know already? if so, i apologize for boring you.)
if you want to be tested for relative pitch, just ask me next time you see me, and i'll sing a bunch of intervals for you and see how you do (of course, if there's a piano handy, that's even better). i certainly don't have performer-quality pitch, but i can generally do well enough for something like this.
no subject
perfect pitch tends to be much more a curse than a blessing to musicians (though it's damn useful if you're a piano tuner), as non-digital instruments are rarely if ever perfectly in tune. it can make it very difficult to play in ensembles (in which it's more important to be in tune with the other musicians than it is to be absolutely in tune).
what i suspect you may have is good relative pitch (which is far more useful than perfect pitch). relative pitch is the ability to correctly distinguish intervals, i.e. the "space between" two tones. melodies are made up of intervals, and being able to tell intervals apart is critical to being able to write or perform music.
(incidentally, ari - how much music theory have you had? is this all stuff you know already? if so, i apologize for boring you.)
if you want to be tested for relative pitch, just ask me next time you see me, and i'll sing a bunch of intervals for you and see how you do (of course, if there's a piano handy, that's even better). i certainly don't have performer-quality pitch, but i can generally do well enough for something like this.
-steve