Perfect Pitch

[chet1952]

If someone would like to practice their pitch, you can sing any note in any guitar tuner (with a microphone built)and see if the note you have in mind will correspond to the tuner and if you're in tune.

Take care
Jean-Francois

[rhirvine]

hi david,

I never considered that perfect pitch enables one to sing without using vibrato but then I never worked with singers as you have (john denver). in my recollection of his singing i don't remember him using vibrato. Is that so? I don't have any albums of his to listen for it. thanks.

rich irvine

[thenorm]

There's some John Denver on YouTube and he does have a bit of vibrato when he holds out a note...

Not all singers use vibrato and, not being a singer myself, I don't know if is a natrual effectr or a learned one.

________

an add on about perfect pitch

I knew a family of three brothers and a sister. They took early music lessons, violin and piano. All of them had what we call 'perfect pitch'. Play a note and they could name it.

They thought it was no big deal since the whole family could do this. One of them told me it was 'aquired' perfect pitch.

One of the brothers had a more accurate perfect pich than the others. He could name the notes by their cycle per second.
He could tell how many beats or "cents" (pronounced 'sonts') a note was.

[David Elliott]

I never considered that perfect pitch enables one to sing without using vibrato

That's an interesting point Rich, and I don't know the answer. Personally, I don't "equate" pitch, with tremolo, but that may be just a mis-use of words by me. I believe most very good singers (like Eva), utilize a tremolo effect when a song requires a rather long or extended note to be sung, as an aid in staying on key, as opposed to an uninterrupted note in which they might "drift" up or down slightly in key. But then I'm no voice instructor, so I may have it bass-ackwards!

While we're "off topic", here's an example of a child prodigy of sorts, a little 10 year old in Pittsburgh, who has what I would describe as a phenomenal voice, (for that age) and an illustration of someone who uses an almost constant tremolo effect when singing! Her name is Jackie Evancho, and she was on national television not too long ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFZcu9U ... re=related

David

[thenorm]

I agree with David that a touch of vibrato as an embellishment to sustained notes is an aid to singing. It is a question , acutally, better suited for a vocal coach. In my mind's ear the singers that stay with me are the ballad singers and suchlike...rock singers don't interest me... and what my mind hears is a singer hitting the sustained note accurately and adding vibrato to it after a beat, the vibrato staying for the duration of the note. I'm sure the singers that were memorable to me used vibrato

I think it's safe to say that good horn players to this, classical guitarists use it,, steel players certainly use it as do your better fiddlers and violinists and so on. That's why I find Alison Krause so unusual...she has no vibrato yet she doesn't go off note. It works very well for her.

Trust me. Having vibrato is no assurance you won't be off note. Even with vibrato you still have to be singing in tune.

It's an embellishement that to some is natural and to some it may be a little forced.
Personally I always thought Kitty Wells (for one) had too much vibrato but she was billed as the 'queen of country music' for decades.

So then it becomes a matter of personal taste. From the use of vibrato by the singer and ultimately, to the ear of the listener.

That's how it looks to me...

[David Elliott]

In reading over some of these posts again, I think the terms "Vibrato" and "Tremolo" are sometimes used interchangeably, while in fact, they are really two different things.

I know that even guitar and amplifier manufacturers seem to vary in their terminology when using these terms.

About the most concise description I’ve been able to find are the Wikipedia examples below. In my interpretation of them however, about the only real difference I can see between the two definitions, is the amount of volume involved, and neither seem to use the terms when applied to the human voice!

Anybody ever really research this?

I think we’ve all heard the terms “Vibrola”, “Vib”, “Tremolo Bar”, etc. and about the only term I’ve ever heard that made no sense at all to me is “Whammy Bar”!

What the hell is a “whammy bar”? Does that mean it makes a "WHAMMING" sound when you push on it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremolo

David

[Ray Bohlken]

I think that a Whammy Bar is the abuse of a tremolo bar and should be reported to the proper authorities! Here is a prime example of tremolo abuse. Don't watch for too long, though. It has possibilites to warp your mind!

Ray

Tremolo abuse on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svhArIZjnwg

[RandeDager]

Ray, this isn't meant as any offense to you because you didn't name it, but I feel that the term "whammy bar" is to "tremolo bar" as the term "boom chick" is to "fingerstyle". By the way, the most sickening aspect (to me) of the video you directed us to is the heavy distortion that clutters up the sound so much that I hear very little distinction between the notes that are being bent.

I know that there are some very technically articulate guitarists who use distortion, and that will always continue to baffle me. Why spend all of that practice time to develop the ability to play high speed passages with distinct and perfectly timed separation between notes and then clutter it up with a disguise? I can understand it for those who could never execute clean scales and runs with a setting that would expose them.

[David Elliott]

I think that a Whammy Bar is the abuse of a tremolo bar and should be reported to the proper authorities! Here is a prime example of tremolo abuse. Don't watch for too long, though. It has possibilites to warp your mind!

That is beautiful...I wonder if he knows 'Tenderly'?...

David

[Ray Bohlken]

Rande, I think some players can get a great tone just at the edge of distortion - Santana for one - and that sounds fine to me, but the massive distortion and gain thing eludes me completly. I just don't get it. I always prefered the clean sound. I only heard Chet do the distortion thing once in his version of There'll Be Some Changes Made in a live performance with Paul. I know that song was a satire and he was doing it as a put on.

David, if that guy knows Tenderly at all, he's only worked out a rough version at best.

Ray