[Blindtlk] absolute pitch

[Don Mitchell]

According to research I have seen about 5 percent of the general population 
in the united states have absolute pitch. In China, where pitch 
differentiation is a part of the spoken language the percentage goes up to 
48 percent. Working at the piano tuning school and being a musician I find 
that the percentage of absolute pitch seems to be higher in blind people. 
Based on what has been found among the Chinese I surmise that because we are 
blind we listen more then sighted persons and because this is much more 
significant for us to listen some develop this skill. I do know sighted 
persons who have absolute pitch. I am not aware of studies on the subject so 
my ideas are just observations and not necessarily the complete truth.

Don Mitchell
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Poire" <rpoire at comcast.net>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 5:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] absolute pitch


> Hi all,
> I don't know of any studies done to prove the point either way.
> In my experience, the blind people I know, don't seem to have any 
> prevailance in absolute pitch.
> I have very good relative pitch, and am stil a few hertz off when trying 
> to pull a string to the correct pitch.
> Since I am a piano technician by trade, I will use my pitch perception to 
> put a new string in the ball park, or correct a piano's pitch with more 
> than a 1/4 tone deviance.
> If a group of blind people prevail in having absolute pitch, that just 
> happens to be the way the ball bounces.
>
> Merry Christmas,
>
> Ron Poire RPT
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <kishia.mason at gmail.com>
> To: <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 12:55 AM
> Subject: [Blindtlk] absolute pitch
>
>
>> Goes anyone have a theory as to why many blind people have perfect pitch?
>>
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