[xavriley]

An aspect of Pat that I don't see discussed much is that he had absolute pitch according to various comments I've seen online.

I'd be very curious as to whether that was affected by the surgery. I think it would also have helped him with the remarkable recovery as well.

[maroonblazer]

I don't have absolute pitch but pretty good relative pitch and can't see how it would've helped.

Someone with absolute pitch doesn't, necessarily, understand the relationship between notes. That has to be learned by studying music. I.e. being able to hear that a C and and Eb have been played doesn't tell you that they form a minor third and that minor third can be used to form all sorts of different chords/sounds.

At least that's my conjecture. I'd love to hear from someone who has perfect/absolute pitch if they agree.

[yesenadam]

(Perfect pitch here, jazz pianist.) Yes, what you say sounds right. Although I don't remember a time before I knew lots of things about minor 3rds, so I don't know what that's like, or which came first. I don't know if there are many people with perfect pitch and without childhood music training/practice—I don't think so.

I also have no idea why it would help with brain recovery.

[xavriley]

Perfect pitch for a jazz improviser is a bit like a super power. Audiation - the audio equivalent of visualisation - is a key part of jazz improv. Having absolute pitch means you don’t have work quite as hard to translate those ideas onto your instrument (it’s still work though).

I’ve studied Pat’s playing a lot and transcribed several of his solos. The “muscle memory” seems to be a huge part of his playing as he has so much great dorian material under his fingers and he knows how to connect all those ideas really well, and how to repurpose them over various other chord types. WRT perfect pitch I think that must have helped him to build all that vocabulary in the first place. I’m just wondering whether he retained the ability after the op and how he related to it in his playing.

Coda - “absolute pitch” is a biological phenomenon. People recognise a C as easily as we recognise the colour red. “True pitch” is a variation where people play an instrument for so long that they can remember the sound of a pitch on that instrument. It’s a slower, less reliable process. Many people get the two confused

[yesenadam]

Yeah, I'm surprised people without it manage so well! not having it really seems to me like seeing a colour and having no idea what colour it is, very strange.

> Having absolute pitch means you don’t have work quite as hard to translate those ideas onto your instrument (it’s still work though).

I'm puzzled by this though. I play piano (mainly). I don't have 'ideas' then 'translate' them onto my instrument. I hear something (in my head) and play it, as one. It's like breathing. Nothing like 'work', let alone hard work. Also, for me, to hear music, notes and chords, I just know what the notes and chords are as I hear them (most of the time, unless they're super-super-weird chords, or it's very fast or something), like I dont hear a chord and work out that its say C7#11, I just hear a C7#11 chord. And see it being played on a keyboard in my mind's eye.