Can Perfect Pitch be Developed?

Maybe someday I'll be humming a different tune, then (and knowing what key it's in).

I think that perfect pitch can be developed, and I agree with the person that said that there must be at least a capacity for it to develop. I've seen some people who aren't even close when identifying notes and others who come within a half-step. I believe that those who can naturally identify a note within a half-step are probably the ones who have the capacity but never recognized it.

I have perfect pitch. When I was younger, I did not know what it was. Although I learned to play the piano, arrange, compose, and take melodic dictation without a teacher, I did not know what was allowing me to do this. At the age of six, I would hear melodies and know what key it is in by finding the starting note on the piano. It was like something always drew my hands to the correct notes even though I did not know the names of all of the notes at this time. I was able to tell what key a song was in, but not by name. (For instance, a song in G major, in my head, would be "a song in the white key that has one black key at the end of the scale). :D

I was uncomfortable when hearing a piece transposed and in aural skills classes where they transpose the melody to make it easier on others. I never understood why I finished dictation tests before the others or why they did not know the notes. There are many "idiosyncrasies" associated with perfect pitch and things that I did not understand about the way that I heard music until I was told that I had perfect pitch. Since then, I feel better about being a musician because at first, I thought that I was "weird" or that something was wrong with me. :ermm:

During this time, I would sometimes confuse the semitones. However, ever since I've found out what perfect pitch is, I've found out how to use what I have and it has improve dramatically over the last two years and I've done nothing to make it improve except use it - which I wasn't doing much of at first, because I didn't know what it was. Now, I seldom make a mistake. :)

If perfect pitch can improve - maybe it can be learned as well.

Another tidbit: When I was a kid, I went to my friend's aural skills class in college to visit. At that time, the instructor gave a dictation test. After she played the melody once, I knew it already. I did not understand why they needed seven more playings of it in order to figure it out - and some of them still did not! I still did not think that I was any different from them or anyone else. :D

Another tidbit: When I was a kid, I went to my friend's aural skills class in college to visit. At that time, the instructor gave a dictation test. After she played the melody once, I knew it already. I did not understand why they needed seven more playings of it in order to figure it out - and some of them still did not!

Aye, I have to put up with this a lot.

"You mean you need to hear it again?! Were the last eight times not good enough?"

I bought also David Lucas Relative and Perfect, but my stupid ear did not open. I eventually returned it and i am not sorry. i beliave that you need a lot of commitment to the course. Ofcourse in the begining i had it, but he said just to listen without straining and eventually that music and him talking would drive me to sleep.

Stupid ear, and my stupid attention span.

I am getting fairly close to having something like it. Every now and then, when I get a note in my head or hear one, I'll take a stab at what it is and go plink it on the keyboard. I've been having a higher and higher ratio of hits to misses, and my misses are getting less and less off.

I believe I had developed perfect pitch. I used to hear some notes every now and then about a year ago but it was very vague and random and happened really rarely. Now I can identify any note without any reference. So, yes, it can be developed in my opinion.

Some will say that adults will only be able to eighter memorize the tones, which would be different from perfect pitch

and others will say you did not develop perfect pitch but tone recognition.

Then there are others whom will say you have developed a very good sense of relative pitch.

I am not sure whether this conclusion will do me any harm or good.

It is about what you yourself hear and may enjoy.

Whatever it is named should not effect the perception of sound and the mental thought of these tones.

Well, for those who believe they have or want what is mentioned up above I suggest this following "simple" exercise:

You go to a place where there is a properly tuned piano.

Not alone but have someone else who is willing to play some random tones for you...

Tell him/her to play 2 white keys and 1 black key simultaneously.

Before he/she does so you demonstratively turn your back to him/her so you won't be able to see what is being played.

Then, after he/she played you 3 tones simultaneously, you name each of these tones correctly.

Let him/her now play 2 black keys and 1 white key simultaniously and perform another outstanding very good relative pitch trick.

These exercises I highly recommend for anyone wanting to improve their hearing abilities.

As you've noticed, I joked a bit about it, but I truely would like to know if being capable of doing such an exercise is a relative pitch task.

Who thinks so and why?

Take care,

Elcon

About that 3 choices - memorising the tones, developing tone recognition and having a very good relative pitch - I have to say that it's not about relative pitch at all. Actually, a good degree of relative relationships in music obscure the clarity of tones. For example; I cannot hear the tones clearly in heavily chromatic passages because of all the relationships that are on the surface. That's probably because my relative pitch is not that good at all.

The other two options - memorising the tones and developing tone recognition - might be true but I cannot see how they differ from perfect pitch. All I can say is, I'm identifying the tones with their own feeling. I don't know if perfect pitch is something else but that's what I'm able to do. ;)

I always had perfect pitch for the piano.. not sure about "concert pitch, etc." When I hear notes, I picture a piano or a staff and the keys light up. I'm practicing transcribing orchestral works while I hear them, by listening to a short phrase at a time and using this light up technique. It seems to work without any thought, ... I think it's only perfect pitch if you can completely relax your thought process and just listen and picture staves and have them fill in. I can't do this yet, but I'm hoping after this practice I'll be able to. (meaning some talent you are born with and some needs practice) Very good relative pitch is hearing notes and "relating" them very quickly to other notes, but perfect pitch is the natural naming of the notes. If someone says "Hi" to you even in a dream, you'll naturally respond correctly. But if you have very good relative pitch, I don't think you'll be able to respond the same way to sound. Obtaining perfect pitch later in life is just like learning a second language as someone else just said. I don't think if I study Chinese all my life, I'll be able to understand all the intricacies as if it were my native language.. same thing with pitch.

Research concerning perfect pitch

I would suggest reading through this guy's research. It takes a while, but he does a great job of explaining perfect pitch and his software (the demo anyway) really seems to work.

I think yes, but it involves the way you remember music. I have recently discovered that any song that I bring up in my memory- I always remember the exact pitch I heard it at. If I combine that with the fact that I know what notes me compositions start on, I could possibly have a starting point to build pitch memory. Like, right now, I know for sure what C sounds like.

^ Same, and because I have two naturaly musical parents, I find it easy to tell which notes are what.

Personally i think music comes totally naturally. Some people have it, and some people don't.

(If you know what 'C' sounds like, you can work out what any note is, by going up or down the right amount in your head.)

Someone gave me the David Lucas Burge "Perfect Pitch". So I just finished listening to it.

He seems to stress listening calmly for subtle pitch qualities that each pitch alone has. I've never really listening in this way before until this week, and it seems to be working pretty good. Sometimes I can get a bunch in a row that someone hits for me, but sometimes I miss and thats usaully only one pitch off. Perhaps within a few months of listening for the subtle differences I'll teach the ear to hear the differences clearly. I'm not sure if this is authentic perfect pitch, but maybe it is. The matter seems to be under debate.

A friend of mine has perfect pitch and she said she doesnt recall a time that she didnt have it, she also has weak eyes which may have helped her to listen differently than most and by this it gave that extra strength to her ear that must be exercised to gain perfect pitch.

Interestingly, even before I listened to "Perfect Pitch" I would at times just be relaxed and hear a note and know without a doubt what the pitch was. Yet if I tried to name a pitch by mental effort I would miss. Hm... Who knows.

Anyways, I'll just keep listening to those subtle pitch qualities.