| Lya12321 16.09.2019 20:09 |
I was wonderding if anyone knows if Freddie had perfect pitch ?? |
| Sebastian 16.09.2019 20:46 |
As far as I know, no. His relative pitch was very good, though, but Frederick didn't have perfect pitch. Neither did Brian, John or Roger. |
| stevelondon20 16.09.2019 21:07 |
Frederick!!! :) |
| The Fairy King 17.09.2019 06:36 |
Sebastian wrote: "..... Frederick ...."Never gets old! xD |
| Makka 17.09.2019 07:39 |
Do you refer to perfect pitch as being able to hit every note spot on whilst singing or the ability to be able to recognise notes being played by ear? 2 different things. Not many singers hit every note every time and Freddie was no different. In regards to note and frequency recognition, I have no idea. |
| Vocal harmony 17.09.2019 12:56 |
Sebastian wrote: As far as I know, no. His relative pitch was very good, though, but Frederick didn't have perfect pitch. Neither did Brian, John or Roger.I remember reading an interview with RTB, BM or David Richards (sorry I don't remember which) Freddies pitch was mentioned as being really good. The interesting thing about it was that it was said while most singers if they go off they tend to sing flat, but Freddie would tend to go sharp which apparently is less obvious to an average listener than a singer going flat. Brian has also said, on film/video that Freddie could sing doubled lines when recording in perfect pitch. But Brian maybe exaggerating Freddie's capabilities. |
| matt z 17.09.2019 13:55 |
^the quote was about Freddie doubling his lines almost exact so that the two would "phase" and it was part of the A night at the Opera classic albums bit. Brianthonious even does his expressive finger thing to indicate two separate lines. Did anybody else catch that the O.P. States PERFECF? |
| cmsdrums 17.09.2019 14:54 |
The Fairy King wrote:Good old Seb / Seba / Sebi / Sebidooda / Sebi McSebface......Sebastian wrote: "..... Frederick ...."Never gets old! xD |
| Sebastian 17.09.2019 22:20 |
Vocal harmony wrote: The interesting thing about it was that it was said while most singers if they go off they tend to sing flat, but Freddie would tend to go sharp which apparently is less obvious to an average listener than a singer going flat.It was Edward Howell who said that. Vocal harmony wrote: Brian has also said, on film/video that Freddie could sing doubled lines when recording in perfect pitch. But Brian maybe exaggerating Freddie's capabilities.Well, he said Frederick could double-track himself so accurately that the tracks would phase with each other, which is true - but that doesn't mean Frederick had perfect pitch. |
| miraclesteinway 18.09.2019 00:36 |
I actually don't believe that anybody has true perfect pitch. Or that, at least, it's exceptionally rare. Let me explain: Many musicians have something like perfect pitch, many can sing a concert A (which used to be 440, now 442 or even 444) without a reference point because they've remembered it from all the orchestral tunings they've had to do, etc. Sit down at a recently tuned piano though, and let us assume that the tuner has done a perfect job on it. How many people can really tell whether that piano is tuned to 440, 442 or 444? Such minute differences as would only cause a slight chorus effect if you played them together. Without a reference point that is actually incredibly difficult if it's possible at all. Even at 435 (a tuning used by Blüthner in the late 19th/early 20th century because at that time they felt it gave the pianos a sweeter tone, yes that's on record somewhere), it's actually difficult to tell that it's not on concert pitch. It's easier to tell if an instrument is tuned to baroque pitch which is almost a semitone (half-step) lower than concert pitch, but that's starting to become quite a big difference. Without being able to ask Freddie if he had perfect pitch, and with even those closest to him probably not knowing, I'd say Freddie had that kind of musician's perfect pitch - he'd almost certainly know where the notes were placed in his voice, and he'd almost certainly be able to identify, give or take a few cents, middle C or whatever. Given that his pitch matching was so good I'd give him that. Did Freddie have absolute perfect pitch? I've no idea. It's basically pitch memory, so it also depends what reference points you've memorised. I know piano tuners with perfect pitch and not one of them would dare tune without a tuning fork. |
| yandere 18.09.2019 03:36 |
Depends on what you call perfect I guess, for most of us it was perfect :) |
| matt z 18.09.2019 04:26 |
I can hear a 440 A in my head and know where it is, but generally it'd take a bit of trying. (*from years of playing JUDAS PRIEST'S ' breaking the law ' to tune up: A,B, C - A B C - A B C etc.) So if my amateurish a $$ could pluck a melody mostly from repetition, I'd be almost certain that Freddie had it; DOUBLY so as he was also the lead singer. Composing songs doubtlessly took up hours and hours of repetition (*in the 70's) Considering Freddie likely didn't tune his own pianos who knows. Without a string and a reference point it's hard to go off by. I'm certain he knew the phrasing of each key and probably dropped em on Mike Moran from time to time, but without asking him (*a reliable source) who knows? The only DIRECTIONAL "directing" I've seen of Freddie was from THE MAGIC YEARS doc. The making of ONE VISION: when instructing Roger to playone that goes "Boom! - - TA DAH!" And same with Brian. ..curiously though no mentions made, Just suggestive emotive work May want to try getting that question to Mr Moran or Phoebe. *errr Peterland. ;) (Btw: strange trivia: "breaking the law might have been inspired by the Donna Summer song "Hostage"...) |
| The Fairy King 18.09.2019 05:59 |
cmsdrums wrote:Seberick!The Fairy King wrote:Good old Seb / Seba / Sebi / Sebidooda / Sebi McSebface......Sebastian wrote: "..... Frederick ...."Never gets old! xD |
| stevelondon20 18.09.2019 07:08 |
Sebastian wrote:EDWARD HOWELL! That's even funnier than Frederick!Vocal harmony wrote: The interesting thing about it was that it was said while most singers if they go off they tend to sing flat, but Freddie would tend to go sharp which apparently is less obvious to an average listener than a singer going flat.It was Edward Howell who said that.Vocal harmony wrote: Brian has also said, on film/video that Freddie could sing doubled lines when recording in perfect pitch. But Brian maybe exaggerating Freddie's capabilities.Well, he said Frederick could double-track himself so accurately that the tracks would phase with each other, which is true - but that doesn't mean Frederick had perfect pitch. |
| Sebastian 18.09.2019 13:09 |
There's also James Page, Stephen Howe, Richard Wakeman, Roderick Stewart, Michael Jagger, Edward Sheeran, William Joel, Philip Collins, Francis Sinatra, Katheryn Perry, Christopher Brown, Christopher Squire... the list goes on. |
| Vocal harmony 18.09.2019 13:23 |
Sebastian wrote:Hi Sebastian thanks for the reminder. I guess if there was a corroborated story of Freddie recording those parts in one take each with no rehearsal or dry runs it would indicate a by good understanding and ability to find the root of what he was singing. . .Vocal harmony wrote: The interesting thing about it was that it was said while most singers if they go off they tend to sing flat, but Freddie would tend to go sharp which apparently is less obvious to an average listener than a singer going flat.It was Edward Howell who said that.Vocal harmony wrote: Brian has also said, on film/video that Freddie could sing doubled lines when recording in perfect pitch. But Brian maybe exaggerating Freddie's capabilities.Well, he said Frederick could double-track himself so accurately that the tracks would phase with each other, which is true - but that doesn't mean Frederick had perfect pitch. I remember Steve Vai a few years back used to do a thing called Build Me A Song (documented on DVD and YouTube. It involved inviting audience members on stage to sing or hum parts they had invented which he and his band would construct into a new piece of music. I saw several shows on that tour and he always seemed to nail the guitar part after one listen, often c playing along as it was being sung in pitch with the audience member, without having to play around on the neck to find where he had to be. I think he is one of the few people I've seen with that degree of musical awareness. |
| Holly2003 18.09.2019 13:43 |
Vocal harmony wrote: . I remember Steve Vai a few years back used to do a thing called Build Me A Song (documented on DVD and YouTube. It involved inviting audience members on stage to sing or hum parts they had invented which he and his band would construct into a new piece of music. I saw several shows on that tour and he always seemed to nail the guitar part after one listen, often c playing along as it was being sung in pitch with the audience member, without having to play around on the neck to find where he had to be. I think he is one of the few people I've seen with that degree of musical awareness.When I saw Vai live a few years back he invited two audience members onto the stage and asked them to make noises. He would then recreate those noises on his guitar. I've never seen anything quite like it. Of course, Vai is known for making his guitar talk e.g. his playing on Dave Lee Roth's song Yankee Rose. Still a hell of a thing to hear it live though. |
| matt z 18.09.2019 13:47 |
^yeah, he's keen on that. Also keen on eat training and charting, so that the two become interdependent (i.e. one can write down a C# descent in Dmaj/Bm and hear it by reading the staff. His constant training and transcribing would make it as fluid as sentence building :....IDEALLY. (*as not everything he's done is great, although phenomenal) It would also illustrate a keen sense of melody and modalities that would be evident on that "write a song on the spot" bit. Recognizing intervals from even 3-5 notes would give him a sense of the songs direction by recognizing it's likely root, and key On paper it should be easy, after all in western music there are 12 tones. They repeat, might be likened to a decimal system with correlating relationships (intervals) Prob the earlier your training is; the easier |
| Sebastian 18.09.2019 14:04 |
I was actually in the audience once when Steven did that (I suppose he did that many, many times so there's nothing special about me having been there once anyway). I think he did say something about his bassist having perfect pitch or something... but in any case it's not that difficult to train your relative pitch to the point of being able to duplicate a (usually simple) melody hummed or sung by an audience member. Not to take away from his (or his band's) musicianship - on the contrary: training your ear until you can do that takes time and a lot of discipline. Both Steven and Joseph are certainly great musicians, they're way more than merely shredding (though they're also really good at that, of course). |
| cmsdrums 18.09.2019 18:19 |
Whilst talking of other guitarists with great pitch, here’s a clip I took of Brion James (Dan Reed Network) where he duplicates his solo with scatting, and is note perfect...this isn’t a set solo either and changes every night. Whilst it doesn’t show ‘perfect pitch’ it does show an understanding of his instrument and what he’s playing to know that what comes out of his mouth is going to be the same as he hits on the fretboard!! link |
| matt z 18.09.2019 18:22 |
Wait.....who's Steven? Steve Stevens? |