# Senses of Rhythm and Pitch



## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

I’m just wondering if there are any members here who are aware that they have stronger than average senses of either rhythm or pitch. If there are, how did you find out and have you identified things that come naturally to you (that may not have anything to do with music), but not to others? Have you come across any disadvantages?


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## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

My pitch is nothing special - mostly relative, but I can recognize and reproduce A 'perfectly'. Like, I have perfect pitch on A, and use my relative pitch to find any pitch from there. It's nearly as efficient as perfect pitch, taking only an extra second, and arguably more beneficial, because those with perfect pitch learn to rely on it whereas those with relative are always strengthening their intervalic abilities - which are the key factor in mastering melodic dictation and sight singing. It's a huge benefit not to get distracted if you have to transpose song to adjust to your range - I don't sense a difference whereas those with perfect, have claimed to.

One prime example of a possible flaw in perfect pitch came in my ear training class this year. There was a girl who seemed to be really confused on her rudimentary stuff, and had perfect pitch (given the issues she had, I'm not exactly sure how she ended up in this class.) The teacher was quizzing us on harmonic intervals. He played her a major third which happened to be B - D#. She said it was an augmented third, and after the teacher corrected her, she looked incredibly confused, and asked how that was possible when he had previously said C to E was a major third, and F to A was.

Obviously the underlying issue was that she didn't understand the basic theory of note distances in the diatonic scale, but she was totally hindered by the note names - this was ear training, and all that was supposed to matter was training the ear to hear intervals and chords correctly. To call a M3 an augmented third based on note names seems a pretty big issue. The note names popping into her head were distracting her from recognizing the differences in the quality of the sound regardless of note name, and that's really important to be able to do. 

Additionally, during the same interval practice, she would do little things like call minor sixths augmented fifths, because the notes she would hear automatically were Db to A. Not wrong, but really not the way to learn the interval - it should be called minor before it's called augmented; we shouldn't give the fifth three names before the sixth has two.

Anyway, sorry I went off on a tangent. I do hear minor sixths everywhere, and so often that my sister will always tell me when she hears one.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I think my sense of both rhythm and pitch are average, or maybe a little above average thanks only to some training. I have a few relatives who are completely tone-deaf which is a little mystifying to me. But I think their sense of pitch is below average.

One interesting thing is that I've encountered people with a significant amount classical training (but still amateurs) whose sense of rhythm is pretty bad.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

I have an above average sense of rhythm, which I noticed at a young age. Percussion instruments always stood out to me, and as a kid I'd bang on anything I could. In order to save the house from being destroyed, my parents got me a drum set, and I've been playing for over 30 years now. Even as a kid, I could pick up pretty complex rhythms quickly, and it was always mystifying how some people can't manage to clap on the beat.

Pitch is another story. I can hear intervals and whether or not things are in tune, but I can't reproduce pitches with my voice and have never been any good at tuned instruments. Yeah, I can work out a melody on a keyboard with music; by ear, though, even a simple melody is practically impossible for me to figure out. None of that stops me from singing in the car, though. :lol:


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

T Son of Ander said:


> I have an above average sense of rhythm, which I noticed at a young age. Percussion instruments always stood out to me, and as a kid I'd bang on anything I could. In order to save the house from being destroyed, my parents got me a drum set, and I've been playing for over 30 years now. Even as a kid, I could pick up pretty complex rhythms quickly, and it was always mystifying how some people can't manage to clap on the beat.
> 
> Pitch is another story. I can hear intervals and whether or not things are in tune, but I can't reproduce pitches with my voice and have never been any good at tuned instruments. Yeah, I can work out a melody on a keyboard with music; by ear, though, even a simple melody is practically impossible for me to figure out. None of that stops me from singing in the car, though. :lol:


I think we may just be twins separated at birth!

I suspect that hearing intervals has at least as much to do with rhythm as it does with pitch. Despite having relatively poor pitch, I hear semitones very clearly, unfortunately because they jar on me. As a result, I struggle with a lot of German composers because they used them so much.

Have you found any advantages outside of music? For example it gave me a real head start understanding spoken French and German, the only 2 foreign languages I've learnt. (Conversely, attempting Chinese or one of the other languages that rely on pitch as well as sound would probably be an absolute nightmare.)

I'm really curious as to what comes naturally to those with perfect or near perfect pitch, that is baffling to the rest of us.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

"Have you found any advantages outside of music?"

I'm not sure this has to do with rhythm, per se, but I do have a knack for patterns of all kinds. Not just sound, but also visually and things like weather patterns or work flow and volume at my job.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

T Son of Ander said:


> "Have you found any advantages outside of music?"
> 
> I'm not sure this has to do with rhythm, per se, but I do have a knack for patterns of all kinds. Not just sound, but also visually and things like weather patterns or work flow and volume at my job.


That's interesting, although I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean!

I'm still making discoveries. When something is innate, you don't necessarily realise that it's not common to everyone.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

Well, I think one aspect of rhythm is pattern. Being a drummer, in addition to the rhythm of the moment, I'm also conscious of the rhythmic structure of a section, a phrase, a verse, a chorus, or a whole song. Also, the slight variations between different verses or choruses of a song. I think being able to easily recognize those patterns or pattern shifts is similar to seeing patterns in other things besides music.


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## E Cristobal Poveda (Jul 12, 2017)

I honestly have a terrible sense of rhythm.
And I'm a percussionist. But, when it comes to playing music or creating it on the spot, I've found that I can excel in that area.


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## JeffD (May 8, 2017)

The only thing I have in abundance is tenacity. But with that I have been able to develop the rest to an adequate degree.


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

T Son of Ander said:


> Well, I think one aspect of rhythm is pattern. Being a drummer, in addition to the rhythm of the moment, I'm also conscious of the rhythmic structure of a section, a phrase, a verse, a chorus, or a whole song. Also, the slight variations between different verses or choruses of a song. I think being able to easily recognize those patterns or pattern shifts is similar to seeing patterns in other things besides music.


Ah, right, now I'm with you. I think you've probably just explained why I never learnt to count in my dancing days; the only explanation I could give to my teachers was that the music told me what to do, so I didn't need to count. Indeed, I doubt I could have remembered some of the more complex routines without the music there to guide me through them. (It will probably come as no surprise that although I've had a go at several types of dance over many years, my favourite and the one at which I was best, was tap!)


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