Does Eddie Van Halen have Perfect Pitch??

**tollman** · 11.06.02, 11:29 AM

I am trying to find out if Eddie Van Halen has what is called perfect pitch or absolute pitch. This is
the ability to identify the pitch of a musical note instantly, accurately and without the help of a reference tone.
Please help me out
GREG

**SgtSchultz** · 11.06.02, 11:56 AM

I just re-read an article / interview of EVH from an early 1981 Guitar World magazine I have and he specifically stated that he does not have perfect pitch, but that he has a very good ear. I can't remember the quote exactly but will look at it tonight with the actual quote if you like.

**Wolfman** · 11.06.02, 11:57 AM

I believe he does. If nothing else he has a great musical "ear".

**Wolfman** · 11.06.02, 11:58 AM

oops - Schultzie beat me to posting the same thing. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

**Brett** · 11.06.02, 12:00 PM

I'd say he's close, and he has a great ear.

**tollman** · 11.06.02, 12:01 PM

thanks for responding, he is a great musician and I had been reading about artists with perfect pitch and I couldn't remember if i read that he had it or not.

**Dr. Love** · 11.06.02, 12:03 PM

I think Ed actually has something called Synaesthesia (I have this as well.)

It's where multiple senses are blended, literally, through extra connections in the brain. It's a disorder where if one sense is stimulated, all connected senses are stimulated. In turn each sense tries to interpret it, so you get some odd effects.

In my case, I have 4 connected senses with hearing being the major sense. I believe Ed has at least 3 senses linked.

Basically, if I (or Ed, I believe) hears something, it stimulates the sense of hearing. But in Ed's case (and mine), his sight is also stimulated, or his tactile sense. Thus, it sounds "brown" or "cheesy" or whatever he might describe it.

It makes perfect sense for someone who has synaesthesia to say, "Man, that sounds green." or "that sounds like sugar."

Whereas, if you don't have it, it makes no sense.

Synaesthetes write music and learn music by associating color with sounds. Green notes go together, and they go with blue notes, or purple notes. Each synaesthete has his own mental associations. So when Ed identifies the note, he isn't exactly doing it by pitch... he identifies the color and knows what it is.

Typically, synaesthetes are considered to be highly gifted musically and linguistically, amongst other things.

**thinlineokc** · 11.06.02, 12:07 PM

I know that Ed suffers from partial hearing loss. He has the hearing of a seventy year old in certain frequency ranges, I want to say around 1khz. But I'm not for sure.

**55starfire** · 11.06.02, 12:11 PM

i, too, have read that eddie admitted he doesn't have perfect pitch-

but i think there is something called "relative pitch" - alot of musicians have it- basically meaning- if you know what key you're in- you can tell a note by just hearing it based on how many steps it is away from the root note of the key- someone who is involved in music frequently develops this over time...

like if i play you a C- and then play a note that is a 5th above it (without telling you what note it is) a person with relative pitch (or a "good ear") should be able to identify it as a G

[ November 06, 2002, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: 55starfire ]

**DLR'sCock** · 11.06.02, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by Dr. Love:
I think Ed actually has something called Synaesthesia (I have this as well.)

It's where multiple senses are blended, literally, through extra connections in the brain. It's a disorder where if one sense is stimulated, all connected senses are stimulated. In turn each sense tries to interpret it, so you get some odd effects.

In my case, I have 4 connected senses with hearing being the major sense. I believe Ed has at least 3 senses linked.

Basically, if I (or Ed, I believe) hears something, it stimulates the sense of hearing. But in Ed's case (and mine), his sight is also stimulated, or his tactile sense. Thus, it sounds "brown" or "cheesy" or whatever he might describe it.

It makes perfect sense for someone who has synaesthesia to say, "Man, that sounds green." or "that sounds like sugar."

Whereas, if you don't have it, it makes no sense.

Synaesthetes write music and learn music by associating color with sounds. Green notes go together, and they go with blue notes, or purple notes. Each synaesthete has his own mental associations. So when Ed identifies the note, he isn't exactly doing it by pitch... he identifies the color and knows what it is.

Typically, synaesthetes are considered to be highly gifted musically and linguistically, amongst other things.

Interesting, I always used to say that I hear music color(well sort of, I used to say I could sort of see it in color), nothing that I ever tried to hone or focus on, but interesting at least. I never knew there was a term for this. Music to me has always had a texture and color to it. Ah well.....

**Dr. Love** · 11.06.02, 12:49 PM

check it out on the web. There's a few good resources. You'll find out some very interesting things. Your description sounds accurate enough... you see it, but don't really see it.

**Canyon Carver** · 11.06.02, 12:57 PM

Cool concept!
I can relate to textures more than colors myself; like cheese or mud, or water, and the like...

**SgtSchultz** · 11.06.02, 01:00 PM

Originally posted by 55starfire:
i, too, have read that eddie admitted he doesn't have perfect pitch-

but i think there is something called "relative pitch" - alot of musicians have it- basically meaning- if you know what key you're in- you can tell a note by just hearing it based on how many steps it is away from the root note of the key- someone who is involved in music frequently develops this over time...

like if i play you a C- and then play a note that is a 5th above it (without telling you what note it is) a person with relative pitch (or a "good ear") should be able to identify it as a G

Yeah I know waht you mean. Especially if you are playing on a very regular basis. The notes are in your head all of the time and you can get pretty darn close to the perfect pitch quickly.

**Crazy from the Hemp** · 11.06.02, 01:13 PM

True perfect pitch is a very rare phenomenon and, from what I've seen, is almost as much a curse as a blessing.

A friend of mine who's easily one of the most talented players I've ever heard has it. His sense of pitch is so finely tuned that he can tell if a note is out of a pitch by as much as a microtone, and it physically annoys him. Think of every bend that goes slight past a full tone or two strings that are ringing in less than perfect harmony and you can understand how often and how annoying this can be. He explained me to one time that since standard A440 is a bastardization of actual tempered tuning to accomodate multi-strings instruments, almost all western music sounds slightly out of tune to him.

Having said that, he is one of these people that demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there's no substitute for a God-given gift. He played me a composition one time that used a non-decaying echo repeat to combine every possible sound you could make on a guitar, from scratching on the pickguard, to playing above the nut, to harmonic chimes, etc. The whole thing combined into a symphony that he could play live on the spot with one instrument. It was truly impressive.

**willyum** · 11.06.02, 01:54 PM

Originally posted by DLR'sCock:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Dr. Love:
I think Ed actually has something called Synaesthesia (I have this as well.)

It's where multiple senses are blended, literally, through extra connections in the brain. It's a disorder where if one sense is stimulated, all connected senses are stimulated. In turn each sense tries to interpret it, so you get some odd effects.

In my case, I have 4 connected senses with hearing being the major sense. I believe Ed has at least 3 senses linked.

Basically, if I (or Ed, I believe) hears something, it stimulates the sense of hearing. But in Ed's case (and mine), his sight is also stimulated, or his tactile sense. Thus, it sounds "brown" or "cheesy" or whatever he might describe it.

It makes perfect sense for someone who has synaesthesia to say, "Man, that sounds green." or "that sounds like sugar."

Whereas, if you don't have it, it makes no sense.

Synaesthetes write music and learn music by associating color with sounds. Green notes go together, and they go with blue notes, or purple notes. Each synaesthete has his own mental associations. So when Ed identifies the note, he isn't exactly doing it by pitch... he identifies the color and knows what it is.

Typically, synaesthetes are considered to be highly gifted musically and linguistically, amongst other things.

Interesting, I always used to say that I hear music color(well sort of, I used to say I could sort of see it in color), nothing that I ever tried to hone or focus on, but interesting at least. I never knew there was a term for this. Music to me has always had a texture and color to it. Ah well.....</font>[/QUOTE]I think I would qualify as having this as well....I've always seen and felt music as tactile....

I think even Clapton described this when he explained he was a "pattern player," that played shapes on the guitar.

I wonder how many of us were orginally attracted to Ed's music because of having this in common with him? And maybe why we're so fanatically connected the music to this day.

I think it would be interesting to know how many people here could be described that way.