# Absolute Pitch



## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

So, I've been very confused about what is considered absolute/perfect pitch.
People including music teachers, told me that I have it. The thing is that I've always heard that it was something very rare and only some great geniuses had it.

What I can do is... if I hear any sound I can identify the note. For example, if someone sings a random note I can tell what it is.
Another thing is that if you tell me to sing a specific note, I can sing it. I thought most musicians could do that, but I found out recently that it's not a common thing. For example in music classes, I'm the only one who can start singing a song with the right notes from the sheets without a reference. When I hear a sound, even if it's not from a music instrument (it could be a car horn or something) I relate it to the name of the musical note.

Does this mean that I have what is called absolute pitch? If not, what is it then? And does anyone here have it?


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## Jean Christophe Paré (Nov 21, 2010)

Most people cannot do that without first hearing a reference pitch. And yes, that is absolute pitch.

It is helpful, especially for learning things like violin at a young age, or in singing.


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## TWhite (Feb 23, 2010)

Jan:

It's not 'common', but at the same time, it isn't exactly 'rare', either. Some musicians have it, other's dont. What a great many musicians develop over time is a good sense of 'relative' pitch--in other words, once a 'home' tonality is established, they can accurately either read or sight-sing the other tones 'relative' to it in a melodic line. 

Myself, I seem to have 'hit-and-miss' Perfect Pitch (for instance, I know that the class bell at the high school at which I teach is tuned to the second higher F# above Middle C--whoopee!) but there are other times when someone plays a note on the piano and I have to stop and think about it. However, my 'relative' pitch is just spot-on. Even though I'm not necessarily a strong vocalist, I can sight-read vocal music with no problem. It's a practiced thing, I don't remember being born with it. 

But if you have Absolute pitch, it should suit you well, especially if you sing or play a string, woodwind or brass instrument. And it should--with practice--make you an extremely good sight-reader. 
Tom


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

Hmm they were right then. It's weird because I honestly thought it was a common thing, that's why I never even imagined that I had absolute pitch until someone mentioned it a few weeks ago.

Interesting that you mention the violin, I started it a year ago and my teacher says I always keep the right tune. I guess it does help.

Edit: This was a reply to Jean Christophe Paré


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Absolute pitch isn't really as great as it seems. I don't have it, but I've heard about people who do, and there are horror stories about people with perfect pitch not being able to listen to some recordings because of different tunings or transpositions or some such thing (William Primrose, the famous violist, had perfect pitch; as such he never transposed Bach's 6th cello suite for viola because the only way to do it well was to go down a fifth, which he couldn't stand to do).

Also, it isn't geniuses who have it. True, geniuses _can_ have it, but there's no correlation. It's just a misconception. It's actually rather common among Chinese people or other nations whose language utilizes pitch.

What's rather fun for me is that I have very good relative pitch and a great pitch memory and so can usually hear a pitch without any reference and tell what pitch it is. It's not absolute pitch; it's just picking a note out of my head to use as a reference, so I can fake absolute pitch. A lot of people think I have it and won't believe me when I say I don't.


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

TWhite said:


> Jan:
> 
> It's not 'common', but at the same time, it isn't exactly 'rare', either. Some musicians have it, other's dont. What a great many musicians develop over time is a good sense of 'relative' pitch--in other words, once a 'home' tonality is established, they can accurately either read or sight-sing the other tones 'relative' to it in a melodic line.
> 
> ...


I see. I can't remember ever practising this, but I don't know if I was born with it either. It's something I just thought about lately.

Well I play piano, I don't know how it could be useful, except playing pieces by ear maybe? :lol:


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

World Violist said:


> Absolute pitch isn't really as great as it seems. I don't have it, but I've heard about people who do, and there are horror stories about people with perfect pitch not being able to listen to some recordings because of different tunings or transpositions or some such thing (William Primrose, the famous violist, had perfect pitch; as such he never transposed Bach's 6th cello suite for viola because the only way to do it well was to go down a fifth, which he couldn't stand to do).
> 
> Also, it isn't geniuses who have it. True, geniuses _can_ have it, but there's no correlation. It's just a misconception. It's actually rather common among Chinese people or other nations whose language utilizes pitch.
> 
> What's rather fun for me is that I have very good relative pitch and a great pitch memory and so can usually hear a pitch without any reference and tell what pitch it is. It's not absolute pitch; it's just picking a note out of my head to use as a reference, so I can fake absolute pitch. A lot of people think I have it and won't believe me when I say I don't.


That happens to me! I was in a choir lesson and we had the sheets, so the teacher decided to transpose it because it was supposedly easier to sing in that register. I was in horror because I just couldn't follow it, I identified a specific note on the paper and we were singing a different one and it was so confusing. There was also a time I had to sing a canon in group and I had to explain them that I could only sing on the original key, because the other one just didn't sound right. I can't listen to pieces in other keys, it's just annoying.

I suppose it is a misconception then and being more common on chinese people does make sense.

Picking a note is a good trick :lol:


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## TWhite (Feb 23, 2010)

Jan said:


> That happens to me! I was in a choir lesson and we had the sheets, so the teacher decided to transpose it because it was supposedly easier to sing in that register. I was in horror because I just couldn't follow it, I identified a specific note on the paper and we were singing a different one and it was so confusing. There was also a time I had to sing a canon in group and I had to explain them that I could only sing on the original key, because the other one just didn't sound right. I can't listen to pieces in other keys, it's just annoying.
> 
> I suppose it is a misconception then and being more common on chinese people does make sense.
> 
> Picking a note is a good trick :lol:


Jan:

You absolutely have it, then! Transposing at sight is generally a nightmare for people with absolute pitch, because it's right THERE in your head. And it only sounds RIGHT in that particular pitch.

I accompanied a violinist that had absolute pitch in college, and if the piano had not been tuned in a while, it drove the poor girl nuts. She was a terrific musician and a really sweet person, but workiing in a practice room with her on one of the pianos could be an absolute nightmare for her. So you figure that: 1: Piano's are tuned to relative pitch to begin with, and 2: the piano hadn't been tuned in months--well, you can imagine what it must have been like for her.

And yes, having absolute pitch really DOES help if you want to play 'by ear', as they call it. It's the transposing that might possibly catch you up short.

Tom


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

In my music theory class, we have to transpose some things (mostly because the prof. just does so on a whim). It's the only hint that I might actually have absolute pitch, because it does really annoy me. I mean, sure, I can think intervallically, but it still doesn't click in my mind.

I still doubt I have perfect pitch, and I honestly hope I don't. Out of tune pianos also annoy me to no end, but that's just because they're out of tune by default, being well-tempered or whatever, and I play a string instrument, which isn't.


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## JSK (Dec 31, 2008)

Out of tune pianos, and even in tune pianos, bother many experienced string players without perfect pitch.

I don't have perfect pitch, but for some weird reason I can pretty reliably tell whether a note played on the piano is a black key or not.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

World Violist has put the subject into an excellent context. All 'absolute pitch' is is a very finely-tuned pitch memory. No-one is born known what the note 'A' is (the pitch of this note has varied over the centuries and STILL varies a little around the world); they LEARN it. Some people have type of aural 'photographic' memory and can learn (and reproduce at will) any given pitch once they have learnt (memorised) it.

I have very good RELATIVE pitch (although I can usually hum an 'A' on demand owing to the number of years I have heard musicians tuning to it!), but not 'absolute' or 'perfect' pitch.

As World Violist has already pointed out, 'absolute' pitch can be very imperfect indeed if any flexibility of tuning or temperament is required. A learned 'absolute' pitch will most commonly have been memorised from the notes of the piano, which is also inherently 'imperfect' in its 'equal temperament' - a compromise tuning which, although not strictly in tune, allows for music to be played equally well in any key.


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

Thank you all for clearing that out then 
I was really confused about this but now I'm finaly sure that I have perfect pitch... and yes tanspositions drive me nuts :lol:


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## Jean Christophe Paré (Nov 21, 2010)

Jan said:


> [...] being more common on chinese people does make sense.


I have doubts on that. It wouldn't be the case if it is genetic like I might believe it to be.


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

Jean Christophe Paré said:


> I have doubts on that. It wouldn't be the case if it is genetic like I might believe it to be.


No, I think it's because they might have more practise on distinguish certain sounds/pitches because of their language. I could be wrong tho.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Jan said:


> No, I think it's because they might have more practise on distinguish certain sounds/pitches because of their language. I could be wrong tho.


It is correct that in people whose mother tongue is a tonal language (such as Chinese, Vietnamese) occurances of 'absolute pitch' seem to be more prevalent. This is, no doubt, due to the necessity of learning pitches as well as vocabulary and grammar.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

From what I'm able to figure out, one isn't "born" with perfect pitch anyway. It would be impossible, as anyone with perfect pitch 400 years ago would be able to tell you today while wincing at all the wrong notes. If A=415 during the Baroque era (roughly speaking), then wouldn't you figure it would have to be a universal truth that A is 415 in order for perfect pitch to be "built in?" No, I think having perfect pitch is due to being susceptible to it in the first place; the brain is wired slightly differently to allow people to make that connection and memorize the pitches. That's what Wikipedia has said for the last few years as well, and if it were wrong someone would have edited it. And it just makes sense.


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## Yoshi (Jul 15, 2009)

I guess when people say that someone is born with perfect pitch, it means that someone was born with the ability to memorize pitches/sound frequences. But they'll only be able to relate them to musical notes if they have some musical knowledge...


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Jan said:


> I guess when people say that someone is born with perfect pitch, it means that someone was born with the ability to memorize pitches/sound frequences. But they'll only be able to relate them to musical notes if they have some musical knowledge...


When you think about it, to be 'born with perfect pitch' would be like being born knowing how to read and write, or to drive a car - it's simply a nonsense. Sadly, there are some with absolute pitch who think they're something a bit special and like to try to 'big themselves up' a bit.


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## Jean Christophe Paré (Nov 21, 2010)

Delicious Manager said:


> It is correct that in people whose mother tongue is a tonal language (such as Chinese, Vietnamese) occurances of 'absolute pitch' seem to be more prevalent. This is, no doubt, due to the necessity of learning pitches as well as vocabulary and grammar.


Though it could simply be that they tend to realise their "abolute pitch" potential; though you might recognise the notes, if you never use them you will never put a name on it.

To World Violist: But that doesn't necessarily mean you aren't born with the innate ability to remember notes. It could just means that you were taught to associate names based on today's usual frequencies.

Surely a person isn't born knowing the name of the notes, but I believe they are born with the "photographic memory" of sound, much like some are born with other kinds of photographic memories. You have to train it, sure, but someone who just doesn't have it simply doesn't nonetheless.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Jean Christophe Paré said:


> To World Violist: But that doesn't necessarily mean you aren't born with the innate ability to remember notes. It could just means that you were taught to associate names based on today's usual frequencies.
> 
> Surely a person isn't born knowing the name of the notes, but I believe they are born with the "photographic memory" of sound, much like some are born with other kinds of photographic memories. You have to train it, sure, but someone who just doesn't have it simply doesn't nonetheless.


Thanks! I think that was what I was trying to say this, but I definitely didn't say it well. So from now on I'll just say "Read Mr Paré's post, he knows what I'm talking about.":tiphat:


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## Jean Christophe Paré (Nov 21, 2010)

I am happy to have wholly understood you.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*mmm....*

Does this mean that I have what is called absolute pitch? If not, what is it then? And does anyone here have it? 

I think you just have it!!!! A nice gift! Keep it!

Best of lucks.

Martin


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## Mausi24 (May 6, 2011)

*Success using training software*

has anyone some experience with perfect pitch training software? I have found the program Pitch Ear trainer on http://www.musilearner.com but I don't know how it works. It's free to download. Has anyone some experience?


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

For those interested, a Who's Who List. They did forget Don Larsen.

http://www.perfectpitchpeople.com/


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I read a whole article about what's the difference between relative and absolute pitch. The researcher put it this way: relative pitch allows you to recognize intervals between notes, and perfect pitch allows you to recognize actual notes based on color.

Apparently, it is possible to have perfect pitch _without_ relative pitch, and vice versa. A person with _only_ perfect pitch will hear a C#, E and G#, and nothing more, and a person with _only_ relative pitch would hear a minor chord, and nothing more. If one can have both relative _and_ perfect pitch, you would hear the 3 notes as C# minor chord. Also, although one could have the predilection for musical intelligence, perfect and relative pitch are trained, not exactly natural abilities. Do you think a person could possibly have perfect pitch if they never knew the names of notes? Exactly, they learn the tone at the same time they learn the letter name. Thus, it's possible for one to be trained at birth with a sharper or flatter pitch than normally, if they heard a piano tuned that way in their childhood. Unfortunate for them.

I hope this was informative and not more confusing.

As for myself, I definitely have "relative pitch" because I can easily recognize all intervals (major and minor 6ths confusing me once in a while though). But I think I also have a little bit of perfect pitch, because some notes/keys are so firmly fixed in my head that I can hear a song off the radio and detect what key it's in sometimes. Especially when it's D flat major, it definitely has a distinct color to me.


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