Learning Perfect Pitch, Fact or Myth?

[Texsunburst59]

This guy wrote an essay where he says you either have it or you don't. He says your wasting time and money trying to learn to have perfect pitch.
Anyone have perfect pitch? If so were you born with it, or did YOU learn perfect pitch? I'm really curious because I don't,but I think my son has it.I do believe so because he can pick out all the chords and noted of some really hard songs. Anyone have any opinions on this. Here's the link to the Essay.

http://www.jackgrassel.com/pages/perfect_pitch.html

 

[Monkey Allen]

Yeah, I think people can have perfect pitch. I don't know if you are born with it though.

 

[travelin travis]

i tried the "learn perfect pitch crap" when i was a kid and i'm convinced it's a bunch of crap. crappity crap, yadda, yadda, relative pitch is a whole different story. every musician should have good relative pitch and we all get around to learning it eventually, i'd hope anyway.

 

[tenkas]

I have perfect pitch and I learned it because I started the piano @ 7 years old.

My brother started @ 5 and does not have it. It is a kinesthetic ability and I believe everyone that has it has developped it.

You must have a certain agility with associations between your different senses.

I do not believe you are born with or without and no one has SCIENTIFICALLY proven that.

Perfect pitch is cool, but it is very distractive and I have a hard time not to concentrate on music (because every note is perceived in my head as a voice that is naming the note).

Relative pitch is what you should go up to and is as effective as perfect pitch (if not more effective).

 

[msly]

you are better off having realitive pitch... in my opinion it is better and less of a distration the perfect pitch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_pitch

 

[gbdweller]

I personally think perfect pitch is a combination of being born with it and being raised with it. I grew up in a musical household and was exposed to music of varying styles and complexity. Watching my parents learn songs, sing, and play with their band rubbed off on me. I now have perfect pitch. I can tune my freshly strung guitar without a tuner or pitch pipe and am always spot on. I also learn most of the songs for my band while driving to band practice. I just 'hear' the chords in my head. I don't think I would have this skill without the exposure to music in my early years but I believe my musical ancestors show a long line of 'musical awareness' as well, which in my opinion is, to a certain degree, inherited.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

it's like anything else in this world...

practice, practice, practice

like gbdweller, i can tune a guitar to standard tuning, or D for that matter, without a tuner and be ALMOST spot-on...after hearing a note god knows how many millions of times, you learn exactly what it sounds like

 

[gbdweller]

it's like anything else in this world...

practice, practice, practice

like gbdweller, i can tune a guitar to standard tuning, or D for that matter, without a tuner and be ALMOST spot-on...after hearing a note god knows how many millions of times, you learn exactly what it sounds like

...And then that note just goes on and on in your head and you think, "Where is my gun, I'm gonna go shoot a piano...."...sorry got a little carried away there...

 

[DavidK]

This guy wrote an essay where he says you either have it or you don't. He says your wasting time and money trying to learn to have perfect pitch.

he is 100% correct. Sincerely, David "Perfect Pitch "K

 

[ez_willis]

I don't need perfect pitch, I play rock.

 

[Dani Pace]

This is pure oppinion but... I think everyone has a natural recognition of at least one note (for me it is D) and can be trained to recognize more. I also think this is clocely related to the sometimes called " natural key" for a singer. I will speculate and say this might have something to the natural resonances of our sinus cavities and inner ear which by design allow us to hear certain notes more precicely than others. Perfect pitch (or at least near perfect pitch, +or-2 cents) can be developed after the natural is found if a person is willing to practice listening. There is probably some complicated neuro/anitomical link that explains how our bodies natural resonances and brian sync up to allow perfect pitch recognition but that kind of scientific stuff is way too deep for an old guitar player like me. Anyway, that's my theory and oppinion on perfect pitch.

 

[HapiCmpur]

The scientific research on perfect pitch is pretty conclusive: Only about 1 in 10,000 people have it, and not all of them are even musicians. Considering that the number of talented musicians in the world at any given time is significantly greater than 1 in 10,000, I'd say that's a pretty good argument for the uselessness of perfect pitch.

Interval training, that's where the real payoff is.

 

[hixmix]

If you have any sense of tonality I believe it's possible improve your sense of relative pitch. If you already have a highly developed sense of relative pitch perhaps it may be possible to attain perfect pitch.

Hearing must be hell for a musician with natural perfect pitch. Imagine listening to a piece of music a quarter or eighth tone off in either direction.

I'd say that sometimes I have an OK sense of relative pitch. Sometimes I can be downright tone deaf.

 

[hixmix]

Nice amp collection, by the way, Texsunburst59.

 

[dementedchord]

$.02

having great relative pitch and knowing someone who has perfect pitch.... I WOULDN'T WANT IT !!! this guy gets headaches if a piano is at 443... in colledge the theory teacher would come in sit at the piano makesomething up modulations the whole nine yards and not resolve it... this guy could get up and play the end.... spooky...

 

[Jouni]

Mine has interesting variety, when I'm hot I can have very decent relative pitch and play along to anything. Some days I can't get a bass in tune with the gits without help.

 

[travelin travis]

Mine has interesting variety, when I'm hot I can have very decent relative pitch and play along to anything. Some days I can't get a bass in tune with the gits without help.

i can agree that anything in your body affects your sense of pitch. for example, weed. i can't tune so well on weed.

 

[Monkey Allen]

Perfect pitch implies that you can name any key when played on a piano, or guitar of whatever, without looking. So someone could pluck a note on a guitar and the blindfolded person with perfect pitch could say...'That's Ab'

Is that right?

 

[travelin travis]

yes that's right.

 

[ez_willis]

Interesting -

Among autists and savants, the incidence of absolute pitch rises to 1 in 20 or higher. Absolute pitch is also common among those with Williams syndrome.[3]