I've always thought that true perfect pitch (i.e., an ability to identify the exact note on any instrument) is vanishingly rare. In nearly forty years of playing music I've met one person with that particular gift. I've met a handful who can reliably identify exact notes on their own instrument. In such cases, my feeling has been that what these people are identifying is subtle pitch-related variations in timbre, not pitch as such.

that's a myth

People mix up perfect or absolute pitch where, with no reference you can tell what note the vacuum cleaner is making and relative pitch where you can compare an unnamed note to a named one and say what it is. The latter is common and a product of training. THe former is rare, can be assisted by training but not necessarily.

in a music-oriented setting you're far more likely to run into other people with perfect pitch. In my high school I wasn't aware of anyone else who had it, but in college (music conservatory), i know a handful of kids who do, and so far i've had two ear training professors and a theory professor with perfect pitch.

Some say 1:10,000, but we thought there might be more hope here in a recent thread...

Here is a test...

yes, it's a myth that you either have it or not.
consider this:




you just have to rediscover child like listening to music.

What is the point of this post???

I think what he meant is that you can re-learn everything. If now you are a baby, and are taught the word red means blue, you will be able to do it.

Some say 1:10,000, but we thought there might be more hope here in a recent thread...

Here is a test...

in a music-oriented setting you're far more likely to run into other people with perfect pitch.

I think what he meant is that you can re-learn everything. If now you are a baby, and are taught the word red means blue, you will be able to do it.


I used to teach many kids when I just got off of the boat. I noticed some kids could become perfect pitch within 2 months of learning to play piano, some would take several years, and some just were never able. To be honest, I think one must have the gene first. I think it is the same like color blind people. If you are color blind, no matter how much you practice, you won't be able to see the color.

I just don't get what that has anything to do with perfect pitch.

that's why you won't get it...

I agree, not all people will be able to re-learn but if you tone dead you shouldn't be seeking carrier in music anyway

A non literate, untrained 3 year old novice who has innate absolute pitch can't possibly know what "Ab" means. Identifying note names has to be trained. Is absolute pitch then the ability to remember specific frequencies? Does being around badly tuned instruments affect the development of absolute pitch?

I also wonder if absolute pitch is an advantage or disadvantage. I definitely do not have absolute pitch but I have very good relative pitch. When I hear an instrument that is out of tune, I crawl the walls, even if it is just one instrument and one note in an orchestra. I would imagine having absolute pitch would make this even more torturous.

Any site selling AP courses no doubt sell ashtrays for your motorbike, DVD rewinders and all other pointless products. One site gives 60% commission for people to link to their site. $53.23 a sale. You could earn $1,916,280.00 a year. Not available in the shops. When you get it you’ll know why.


1 in 10,000?
"However, this is an unreliable estimate without any empirical evidence and is likely to be cited to overstate the rarity of AP"
Ken’ichi Miyazaki - How well do we understand Absolute Pitch (2004)

The figure 1 in 10,000 is a general population guesstimate (from Ward, W.D. (1999) Absolute pitch.) This figure would derive from a guess of what percentage of children play an instrument starting within the critical period. When you look at direct figures in the relevant subset (young musicians) it’s about 1,000 times less rare.



Yes. If you look in the appropriate place you’ll not only find them but statistically they’re not rare. There are conditions that influence the likelihood of retaining AP.


Professor Oliver Sacks posted the whole chapter from his book “Musicophilia”. Feel free to look up the authors mentioned within the article.

"For students who had begun musical training between ages four and five," they wrote, "approximately 60 percent of the Chinese students met the criterion for absolute pitch, while only about 14 percent of the U.S. nontone language speakers met the criterion.” For those who had begun musical training at age six or seven, the numbers in both groups were correspondingly lower, about 55 percent and 6 percent. And for students who had begun musical training later still, at age eight or nine, roughly 42 percent of the Chinese students met the criterion while none of the U.S. nontone language speakers did so. There were no differences between genders in either group.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Fall2007/PitchPerfectMatch.html

So at best (age 4 or 5) given the prerequisite conditions, 14% for non-tonal speakers and 60% for tonal-language speakers. After that, the figures drop. The non-tonal speakers plummet.


Documented number of Adults learning AP? Zero

"In every scientifically documented case, the adult had slower responses, suggesting that (s)he had learned only a few "landmark" tones, and was using relative pitch to calculate the remaining pitches from there. This is what Bachem (1954), Ward (1982) and others have called pseudo-absolute pitch. I am emphatically NOT saying that Stephen is mistaken, and I am NOT saying that adults cannot learn AP; rather, I am saying that there are no scientifically documented cases of adults learning AP."
Daniel Levitin
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Absolute_pitch&oldid=302937570


At least get that zero figure a little higher before you spend your time and money on a pointless endeavour.

Huh? You're saying people who don't have absolute pitch are "tone dead"? (or "tone deaf", if that's what you meant) Sounds like you don't know much about relative pitch.

In such cases, my feeling has been that what these people are identifying is subtle pitch-related variations in timbre, not pitch as such.