I’ve decided to update the ol’ blog now that the first full week of summer vacation is approaching completion. It’s only been in grad classes for 5 days, but I’ve already learned a lot about scholarly writing techniques, music indexing and references, and ear training exercises. The ear training has been fantastic and I’m constantly being challenged to improve my perception and expand my talents. It’s a lot lot lot of work – I’m busy from 8:00 AM until 10:00 PM – but it’s work I love. As many of you know I had 5 hours of tests to take on my first day here in Hartford. I’m proud to report that I tested out of all 7 history and theory review classes. Out of 26 first-year students, I am the only one who passed everything, so I’ve been working very hard to stay at the top of the class!

One of my current projects is writing a paper on absolute (or ‘perfect’) pitch. Basically, absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to sing and identify any note independent of a song or melody. For example, can you sing an F# on command? I certainly can’t, and about 9,999 out of 10,000 people are in the same boat. Here is a video of that one in 10,000 person who has this astounding ability

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/kim2ZVa4X3Y&hl=en” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

Cool, huh? She’s only 8 years old and I can’t help but imagine her saying “Owch, Charlie, that really hurt!” in a little pipsqueak British accent. You might think her young age makes her talent more incredible, but AP becomes harder to develop as you get older.

My research paper (as of today) is hopefully going to identify all the genetic, environmental, cultural, physical, and musical elements that combine to help a person develop AP. I already have some promising leads and I’ll keep you updated as I progress. Happy 4th of July!