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Re: fingers & perfect pitch

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: fingers & perfect pitch
From: Gordon Lehany <glehany@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 14:28:28 +0100
In-reply-to: <000001c0f8e3$a99edfc0$3561063e@sircombe>

Hi Nick,

Firstly, speaking as a medic.....

Who says it's not healthy? Skin naturally becomes hard and thickened
anywhere where you repeatedly stress it. This is your skin adapting to
your lifestyle. If you walk without shoes a lot the skin on your feet
becomes hard and thick. This is normal. So long as the lump is not
causing you discomfort, either physical or psychological, then there is
nothing "unhealthy" about it. I would qualify that with a caution that
if this lump is over a finger joint you could cause damage to the joint.
Again however, if you are not experiencing pain you   are unlikely to be
doing anything too bad to yourself.

If you are genuinely worried then go and have a chat with your family
doctor who will be able to give you specific advice. Possible things you
could try are rubbing olive oil or baby oil into the lump to soften the
skin.

Speaking as a cornet player.........

Do you have a teacher with whom to discuss your technique? If you are
developing callouses on your hand from playing do you have a
particularly unorthodox way of holding your cornet? Could you try
holding the cornet differently?

I hope that's of some help!

I'm on a roll so...........perfect pitch.........To my knowledge it's an
innate ability which some unfortunate souls possess. Most advanced
musicians have a degree of ability to pitch accurately 'cold', but
usually this is a reflection of good relative pitching ability and good
memory for note pitch. In other words, you heard a note an hour ago and
retained it.

True perfect pitch is picked up early  in life and sticks. Unfortunately
it sticks at whatever pitch you learnt, so if your parents had a flat
piano your "perfect" pitch will be stuck out of tune! Another problem
with true perfect pitch is that it is inflexible. If you have to play in
a band which is at a different pitch to your inner perfect
pitch.......you're stuffed! This can be a huge problem for example for
people who want to play with period instrument ensembles which vary in
pitch, I believe down as far as A=400Hz.

Believing yourself to have perfect pitch can have other, more subtle
effects. It can sometimes be equated to being a better musician and can
lead to a false sense of superiority. I don't for a moment say that you
are so afflicted, but it is something to watch. Many great musicians
rely on tuning machines to standardize pitch!  What matters in music
with regards to pitch, and what all good musicians have is good relative
pitch.

I think I've waffled enough now.

Gordon Lehany
Cornet, Whitburn Band(& Doctor when I have to be)

--

Follow-Ups:
- Re: fingers & perfect pitch
  - From: Laura Dawson

References:
- fingers
  - From: Nick Walkley

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