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From:  John Link <johnlink@n...>
Date:  Tue Dec 17, 2002  3:42 pm
Subject:  [vocalist] Re: tone-deaf?

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
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http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink2 (John Link Sextet)
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  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
21546 Re: tone-deaf?Andrea Soto Véres andreasotoveres Wed  12/18/2002  
21553 Re: tone-deaf?John Link johnlink010254 Wed  12/18/2002  
21554 Re: tone-deaf?Andrea Soto Véres andreasotoveres Wed  12/18/2002  

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