Why perfect pitch sucks

And a hello to everyone who reads my blog! So nobody, basically.

I don't use this thing ever, but I was just writing a song and became pissed. You know why? Because having perfect pitch once again screwed me up.

Now, I bet some of you are like "what's perfect pitch?", and others of you are like "screw you, I'd die to have perfect pitch", and some of you who think that I am bragging/being a conceited douche for "proclaiming my perfect pitch, thus giving me an air of superiority to those without it" (that's a paraphrase of something that was said to me on Formspring. So, to whoever anonymously said that to me, I just made you look like an extreme asshole. Karma sucks, doesn't it?). Anyway, I will address what I just mentioned, and expand on the above comment.

Anyways, what perfect pitch is, is this ability to produce any note at any given time, without a reference point. So, basically, this entails (but is not limited to):

Listening to cover bands do songs and tell friends that they're not doing it in the original key.
Telling the pitch(es) of a car horn or an alarm for the sake of being funny

And then actual musical things that make it useful.


Now, some of you who could potentially see the imaginary advantage of someone with this ability (imaginary, because it can easily be mimicked with ear training practice) may say "why are you complaining about having this?"

I'll tell you.

First off: I pretty much hate singing in groups. Now, that comment may make me seem pretentious, but when we sing a cappella pieces, they go out of tune, and it bothers me. I realize that not everyone is aware of this whole tuning thing, but it doesn't change the fact that I am. So sorry. Also, I know that I am a crappy singer, but I still have to do it, so if I am gonna do it, I might as well do it right.

While we're on the whole ear training/academic thing, it also messed me up in an odd way one time. I was in my music theory class, and we were doing analysis of a score, and the piece that I am reading and the recording were in 2 different keys, and even though we were doing form analysis, it made everything harder. Like, I could read the score and hear the cadences in the different keys and stuff, but in my mind, the two didn't come together like they usually would and it just made it harder to deal with.

Also, like I said earlier, it makes me look like an ass when I say "we didn't start in this key" when we get done singing, so it makes me look like a douchebag who thinks he's better than everyone else. Once again, I am not and don't mean it in that way. It's just the way I'm wired. And I think that people who view me in such a way are either jealous, or should just take the time to learn what it is that I am dealing with.

Third, I am not like, an instrument tuner or anything. The whole name "perfect pitch" just kinda sucks, because it implies something that it shouldn't, which is that people can hear things when they are exactly at A=440-442. Doesn't work that way. Now, I'm sure that such a skill could be developed after a while, but all it is, is the ability to hear pitches without a reference point, which would imply that one's sense of intonation would be pretty good if they had this ability. But, I play a bunch of instruments, and I don't play them perfectly in tune. (*gasp* my air of superiority is not so much now, is it?)

But the main reason for this post is as follows: I am writing this song, and in my mind, I hear a saxophone playing it, so I transpose the part when writing it down, because it saves time, whatever (That's the way I go about transcribing saxophone solos). So I get to this one line and I inadvertently write it in concert pitch, because the whole perfect pitch thing decides to butt in. I was annoyed, because this sort of thing has happened to me before, and it sucks.

Moral of the story - Perfect pitch sucks for a few reasons:

1) Singing in groups sucks
2) It makes the coolest people around come off as assholes
3) The name itself has a false meaning (to a certain extent)
4) It can get in the way

There are many other reasons for its suckiness, but I will spare you from any more of me complaining... for now.

The N-Word stuff

Hey all. It's been forever since I have written anything on here. I have been busy with stuff and life kicked me in the butt and all of this stuff and then school started again. But. I will be posting on here every so often.


I am so bored right now, and so I decided I was going to post the one that I have been waiting to post, but have been too scared of backlash and stuff to post. Now, I just don't care what anyone has to say about this, so I am going to say it. EVERYONE STOP SAYING THE N-WORD! I don't care who you are, I don't care if you end it with -er or -a, it's all bad. The connotation of the word is extremely derogatory, and frankly, the fact that people of the African-American race go around saying it all the time on the grounds of "I'm Black, I can say it" just makes you sound extremely stupid. I don't understand why we would go around making such a thing that has such a serious history so acceptable. I also feel like due to this use of the word by our race, people of other races think they can go around saying it, on the grounds that they were "quoting something they heard in a song". I don't say it, so why should you? THERE. I got this off of my chest. I hope people will read this (HA!) and get something good out of it. The fact that the Black culture is making it an acceptable way of greeting or referencing others of the same culture is one of the most disappointing things I have ever heard.

Com-puh-laining Stuff

Hey all,


I have been so busy lately. Along with that comes lots of complaining. Just about everything. Then I was walking with my friend Jason yesterday when he told me about the scene in the Matrix where some dude is talking about how humans never look at the good side of anything and look at all of the negatives or whatever (Haven't seen the movie, so I don't exactly know what he's talking about), but that kinda made me think about how much I need to just think about how good I have it. Usually, I use this blog as a means of getting my complaints out for the world to read (or not read), but today, I just thought about how much I complain and how it's over unnecessary things. I mean, I am pretty much done with my first year of college (which is a great thing to say), I go to a great school (even though sometimes I feel like it could be way better) and I have a great group of friends and a family that supports me. And that just adds to the fact that I was able to wake up again to enjoy another great day. So I just needed to stop and think about all of this stuff before I let it get the best of me.

I'm Back!

Hi all 8 readers of this...

I have been so busy with schoolwork, I barely have time to do anything I want anymore. But I guess that's the price I pay for trying to better myself, so I can't really complain.


So... I was on Facebook a few weeks ago, stalking an ex-Facebook friend of mine (1. Yes, that is possible. 2. That is all you need to know about her), and to my surprise, I find out that she is expecting a child soon. Now, we will just say that this person is younger than me (If that means anything to you). So, she keeps putting these pictures of her growing bump up saying "11 weeks :)" and "15 weeks :D". First off, if this were my child, that Facebook business wouldn't be happening, with my reasoning being "adults with kids don't have time for this, and you took on this responsibility". But here's the thing that really got me - The amount of comments from peers saying "This is so cute!" or "What kind of kid do you want?" and things of that sort. I feel like this isn't something that should be glamorized like this is and that commenting on these pictures is making it seem like she has a badge of honor. I feel like it's stuff like that and shows like "Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant" that put an almost positive light on teen pregnancy, portraying the image of "Oh, she's on TV and doing it and it doesn't look too bad" that kinda make me upset. It doesn't help that sex is now overglamorized, with our women in these music videos with nothing on and all of these reality shows where all they do is talk about how they want to get with Celebrity X. Also, this is in my opinion, one of the biggest responsibilities that one can have, and to take it on at such a young age not only stresses one out, but it also eliminates or makes the opportunities that they are able to have harder, such as go to college or even hang out with friends.


Now, some of you may be like "Wes, just because you're still a virgin, doesn't mean you have to say all of this. You don't understand". Hopefully, nobody says that, but if they do, I just want to let them know that there's nothing wrong with that, despite today's society and messages that seem to belittle those who haven't had sex. More realistically, some of you may be like "This is the time in which she needs the most support, so exiling her would be wrong". First off, I never said to exile her. I just said that those who comment on her pictures are contributing to the glamorization of teenage pregnancy. Think about it, if this were your kid and you were about to become a grandparent before the age of 40, how would you feel?

I feel like a lot of you are gonna take this the wrong way, either because you know who I am talking about or because you feel differently about it. If it is any of those things, or a combination of the two, then too bad. I am entitled to an opinion about this and if you don't like it, don't read my blog anymore. I want nobody to take what I have to say personally.

Basic moral(s) of the story: 1. Wait. 2. If you don't wait, wrap it before you tap it.

Random, nonsensical stuff

This one is not so much random. Today, my friend Robert and I were walking from the Union when we saw the one thing that is extra annoying to me: I saw a girl who was only wearing leggings. Not pants. Leggings. And the worst part was that I could see through them. We will just say that I expressed my unhappiness to my friend Robert, using a few color words. He felt the same way I did, which made me feel better. But it's bad enough she wasn't wearing pants. I discussed this with another friend and she said that "as long as the shirt or dress you're wearing covers your ass, it's good". I somewhat agree with that. I feel like it should cover a little more. But who am I? I'm just some guy who goes to OSU, enjoys staring at women every so often and stuff like that. But there's a part of me who says that it's terrible that women don't cover themselves enough. But I'm done ranting about this, because I wrote about this in an earlier blog post.


Here's a funny one. To the people at Chex Mix: Chex Mix would be 5375138490384139048130 better if you: 1. Added a touch more seasoning to it. 2. If you didn't have those damn squiggly-shaped things in there! It takes away from my Chex Mix experience. I mean, you could put more of the good pieces that make Chex Mix Chex Mix in there instead of those stupid squiggly things.

Life stuff and an addition to Only in America stuff

Hey all 8 Readers (Thanks to the birthday girl, Stephanie Fink for bookmarking my blog! :D)

Anyway, I have been thinking lately about life in general and how it is such a fragile thing and how I never really sit down and think about how I had the ability to wake up this morning and be able to develop my skills in something I truly love. I have also been thinking about the death of Paul. Like I said before, I didn't really know him too well, but for some reason, his death has really had an effect on me. A bigger one than I thought it would. I think it was because he was in my grade and so close to my age and I haven't really dealt with that before. It just really made me think about how fragile life is, and how easily it can be cut short. I thought about that today and realized that one must be doing something right if they were able to wake up this morning.



On a totally different subject, I am adding to my blog post from last time. I do not in any way, shape or form condone underage drinking. I think that it is stupid. Especially these stupid high school girls talking about how they got drunk over the weekend. Nobody cares how much you threw up. You're 15. My blog post was only saying that America should consider lowering the drinking age to avoid stuff like that. I feel that if it got lower, people wouldn't ask "what's it like to be drunk?" and do it. I feel that it would be done in moderation. I mean, people would slip up a couple of times, but they will eventually learn their lesson. So now that I am done defending my last post, who wants to pound a Bud Light with me? (That was a joke. Just making sure you know)

Only in America stuff

Hey all 7 readers of my blog,

I was thinking about some things tonight. I was on Facebook, where I got an invitation to an event. This event happens to be at a bar. One thing I've noticed lately is that bars like to charge extra for those under 21, since they won't make as much off of them because they can't purchase alcohol. At first I thought "Well, this is stupid. Is this their way of trying to get those under 21 to not come to their bar and pushing away money?" I only thought that because as a person under the age of 21, I feel that if I have to pay extra just to listen to a band, and the fact that I came to their place of establishment isn't enough for them, then I just won't go there. Then I thought about when I visited Peru over the summer and how their drinking age is significantly lower than America's when I realized that America is the only country that gives a flying (expletive) about the drinking age. I feel that they are trying to hide something or it benefits someone with power in the end. I mean, it is flawed in so many ways. 1. How does it make sense that I can take a 5 hour drive (Need that 5 hour energy to avoid that 2:30 feeling... Anyways) to Canada and drink there, but I can't down here? 2. This one is so played out, but holds so much truth: How is it that an 18 year old can go to war, and come back with a leg and a few fingers missing, but can't have a beer? 3. It is pointless to make the drinking age 21, because access to alcoholic beverages becomes exponentially easier to access when one goes to college. I mean, think about all of the kids that party. There is no way that all of them are 21. There is also no way that the ones who are under 21 are just there without having a beer. (Not saying there aren't, but that's usually not the case). But since I am just a lowly college student and I am not in any way above the law, there's nothing I can do except whine about this like a little (expletive).


Also, America is ungrateful and is the only country in the world that doesn't appreciate Jazz music (Ironic, since it came together in America), but that's another story)