Andrea wrote:
>Yes!!!!! I have tried that and he does not recognize the tune if I >don't put the words... And, singing one wrong note intentionally and >he being able to notice? Not really.. Also tried... > >Again... any ideas?? I have tried everything...
Can he recognize that he has been asked a question if the sentence is not inverted? For example, if "You're going to the store?" is said with a rising pitch at the end, can he recognize it as a question? Is he able to ask a question in this way?
If the answers to those questions is "no", then I think he might be tone-deaf. But I would _still wonder whether he might be able to improve his ability to recognize the difference between pitches.
A story about a woman in my Feldenkrais practice comes to mind. After an initial interview, I asked her to lie on her back on my table. As is the case with most people, once she was on her back I noticed that her head was tilted backward. I guessed that she would be more comfortable with some extra support behind her head, so I put a book behind her head and asked if whether that was more comfortable. She said it didn't matter. I explained that I wanted her to look for even a small difference in her comfort, and I removed the book and then replaced it so that she could make a comparison. She said she felt no difference. I then added another book, which she said made no difference. I kept adding books until her head was raised maybe eight inches, which to my preception was way too high for her to be comfortable. Finally she said she felt a difference. I then spent the rest of the hour varying the height of the support and asking her to make comparisons. By the end of the lesson she was able to detect a difference as small as one fourth of an inch, with the lower support being "horrible" and the higher support being "wonderful".
I've read that eskimos have twenty-seven words for snow. To me (and probably most of you) it is just snow, and eskimos might call us snow-blind. I suspect that if I were shown some of the varieties of snow I would perceive no difference, and it might take me a while to learn to perceive differences that eskimos take for granted.
Andrea, are you anywhere near New York? I would very much welcome working with anyone that seems to be tone deaf and would like to increase their ability to perceive differences in pitch. There may be some people who are absolutely tone-deaf, but I suspect that most people with difficulties in distinguishing pitches have latent ability that can be developed with the appropriate sorts of lessons. If you're not near New York, would you record the two of you having a conversation? I'd like to hear your boyfriend speaking. You could post the recording in our files section at yahoo if you can figure out how to do that, or just send me a copy.
John Link
P.S. How could someone who is tone-deaf possibly recognize a vowel? Two vowels can be sung or spoken on the same pitch and what makes them different, if I've understood what I've read, is that they have different formants. Formants refer to frequency, and pitch is made of frequency!
Andrea, can your boyfriend distinguish "many" and "money" outside the context of a sentence?
http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink Check out my CDs: http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink2 (John Link Sextet) http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink (John Link Vocal Quintet)
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