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Perfect pitch cannot be acquired ~ either you have it or you don’t. A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of perfect (“absolute”) vs. relative pitch would be pointless, so I’m not going to go there. Instead, this post will help clarify some of the ways in which the two types of pitch are different.
I don’t have perfect pitch, but feel fortunate to have very good relative pitch.
Someone with perfect pitch can:
- instantly sing any pitch name when asked
- always sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the original key, D Major
- hear any music they know in the appropriate key
- “hear” a score by looking at it, in the printed key
- begin singing a song note-for-note with accompaniment without anyone giving the pitch in advance
A story!
In a class coached by Martin Katz, I partnered with a singer who had perfect pitch. We were about to begin “Ach, ich fühl’s” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte when Martin whispered, “Give her the pitch!”
I chose to defy authority and ignore his directions. We began the aria, the singer was right on, and Martin said, “Oh.”
Another story!
An organist I know also has perfect pitch. During a wedding in which I collaborated with a singer, he proved it! The last song before the processional was in the key of A-flat Major, transposed down from the original key.
The organist did not know what our program was, and I was as yet unaware that he had perfect pitch. In addition, even if had known the song cycle we performed selections from, he didn’t know we were using a transposition.
Immediately following the final song’s piano postlude, I heard John playing the organ nearly imperceptibly. He began in “our” key, in “our” dotted rhythm, modulating with a big crescendo to D Major, the key of the processional.
I was not only impressed ~ I knew I’d never be able to do that.
Yet another story!
At the wedding reception, John told me that prior to being hired for his full-time position, he was part-time with an additional job in a synogogue. The Rogers electronic organ had a transposition function. During one service, he decided to check it out!
He programmed the transposition he wanted and started playing. When he heard the sound come out in a different key, his hands moved over!
That may be the flip side. Perfect pitch makes transposing nearly impossible.
Relative pitch allows people to:
- sight-sing easily by using interval relationships
- transpose more easily than someone with perfect pitch
- learn music quickly
- “hear” a score just by looking at it, but the key may be incorrect
- come close to singing A-440 (just now, I sang a “G” instead)
- comfortably listen to music not exactly “at pitch”
When I was in college, a chorus I was singing in lost pitch during a concert. The conductor looked at me to ask for a pitch for the next piece! He must have though I had perfect pitch.
I gave him a pitch and hoped it was close. (Having a discussion with the concert in progress didn’t seem like such a great idea.)
A few years later, everyone in Tanglewood‘s vocal program was required to attend sight-reading classes. All of us were excellent sight-readers, so we loathed going to class. It felt like a waste of good practice time.
So we took turns showing up, a few at a time. After four or five days of this, we began getting notes in our mailboxes from Seiji Ozawa! We had to go to class or be dismissed from the program.
To be fair, this was a class in sight-singing contemporary music. The method used was fixed “do,” with numbers. (“Do” was always “C,” so “C” was 1, “D” was 2, etc.)
Learning relative pitch
A person’s pitch can be improved through the use of solfedge and other methods. (But again, perfect pitch cannot be learned.) I have also found that when someone takes piano lessons, s/he can acquire a visual context that provides a consistent reference point.
Related articles
- Lend Me Your Ears! (Because mine can’t tell a G# from a G) by musician and blogger Elaine Fine
- The Mysteries of Perfect Pitch by William Lee Adams, Psychology Today
What is your story? I’m all out. Do you have perfect pitch?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!
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Perfect pitch: throwing out your viola without hitting the rim. I DON’T have it – wish I did. Boulez was once amazed at a singer w/o perfect pitch singing his music accurately. (I love his Le Marteau Sans Maitre)
Hi Mark,
Relative pitch, if someone is singing by hearing intervals, would allow someone to sing Boulez’s music accurately….
Thanks for your comments!
Gretchen
I’m in some weird in-between zone where I have good relative pitch, and I can’t just sing a pitch out of nowhere, but I can identify pitches played on the piano 85-90% of the time. A professor of mine calls that “piano pitch”, but I don’t think that’s an official term.
Hi Rebecca!
That’s very interesting! Call it what you like, I suppose…. Do you think maybe timbre has something to do with it?
I seem to recall that there is another term for “relative pitch,” but it didn’t surface while writing this post.
Thanks for stopping by!
Gretchen
I do think it has something to do with timbre – I can identify pitches most easily on piano (my most familiar instrument) and more easily on strings (which I don’t play, but accompany quite a bit).
I’ve noticed a huge change in sound between a piano reduction and an orchestra. Not pitch, but somehow it’s very different when listening for choral entrances, say.
When you get your doctorate, there’s your dissertation topic…
I expect that my pitch is all relative.
Thanks for the clarification, Gretchen! Have a wonderful weekend.
Hi Nancy!
Relative to what?
I’m planning of having a wonderful weekend! Hope you are, too.
Thanks for stopping by.
Gretchen
Relative to the discernment of my listeners’ ears.
HA HA HA! I get it…
I’m fascinated to hear about the way different people experience pitch. My pitch is definitely not perfect, but certainly good enough (I tried to hum A just now and ended up with A-flat). Nevertheless, when I auditioned for the chorale my freshman year of college and the director hit a high B-flat and asked me what it was, I got it right because I knew what a high B-flat *felt* like in my voice. At that time, I wasn’t very comfortable as a soprano and B-flat was my last reliable high note, so I knew it well. I only had to *imagine* singing the note that had been played on the piano, and I could feel that it was a B-flat. I wonder if I could still pull the same trick today, or if I’ve sabotaged myself by extending my range?!
HA! I hope you didn’t tell the director.
A singer who was a grad student my freshman yr. had been in an auto accident. He heard everything a 4th off! So he would look at the ceiling and think for a second, change the pitch in his head, and be right on.
My grandmother had perfect pitch. When she became elderly, it went “off” by 1/2 step, which drove her nuts when she’d try to sing a hymn at church.
Jane
It would drive you nuts if you could tell!
I identify with Rebecca and Libby in their comments. I thought I had relative pitch before going to college, and then during college, unquestionably developed perfect pitch. Now, it’s true that all my growing up years, my family’s piano was tuned either a half- or whole-step flat, because the tuner was afraid the ancient frame would break if he brought it up to pitch. Maybe that was continually throwing me off, and I really did have perfect pitch.
But then fast forward several years, and I joined the Orthodox Church, which has an a cappella singing tradition–and one that requires that music be transposed on the fly to fit whatever key the priest sings in. (It’s only fair, he has to sing more than anyone else, and we don’t want to strain his voice.)
The result is that my pitch is very relative when it comes to singing, and I can transpose fairly easily. But I can still “feel” what a vocal note feels like and know generally where I am, just like Libby. It is mentally painful when I am trying to transpose, and doing alright, when suddenly I hit a certain characteristic note–because then my throat muscles are telling me what pitch I really am on, belying what I am trying to pretend I see on the page. (“Nyah, nyah,” my throat says, “that’s not really a C, that’s an A!” And I get dizzy and feel vertigo.)
What’s more, if we are only a 1/4-tone off of what my mind thinks is the real note, I can’t sing at all. Nothing comes out of my mouth. It’s embarrassing. We have to be at least a half-step away from the written note, or I just can’t produce any sound. The vertigo then is really bad, and I feel sick in my stomach.
And nowadays, after twenty years of this transposition training, when I listen to other singers singing on pitch in concerts of any genre, it seems I am wrong about the pitch more often than I am right. That is disturbing to me, after having such good accuracy with voice pitches during my college years. I do think it is due to the intentional, continual transposition I must do now. (On the flip side, I am thrilled to finally be able to transpose more than just melodies.)
My pitch-confusion these days is mostly with voice. With piano I am almost 100% accurate , but I think it is because of the timbre, as you discussed with Rebecca. And all I have to do is imagine I am hearing an orchestra tuning up before a concert, and I hit an A-440 with my voice every time.
Interestingly, one time during an a cappella workshop for choir directors, I asked the maestro (an old Russian master) what to do when the priest is a very, very low singer. He asked me what my priest’s range was, and I honestly could not tell him when he asked me to identify it on the piano. I finally had to tell him that the priest’s voice didn’t sound at all like a piano to me, and I just couldn’t place it. He looked startled, and then smiled. “Ah, he said, in the old days, they always used a violin to give pitches, because it sounds more like the human voice.”
All this to say, I think timbre is very important in identifying pitches. I am much less adept at pitching brass instruments, for instance, though I am getting better at hearing trumpet now that my son is learning it. Woodwinds are reedier, and easier for me. Piano–I can touch the key in my mind. Familiarity with the timbre seems vital.
Hi Suzanne!
Such variety, depending… no wonder you experience vertigo.
I tried imagining an orchestra tuning just now, and still sang a “G.”
Sometime I’d like to learn more about synesthesia, where people see colors when they hear music. Messiaen had that ability. When he would hear the soundtrack in a movie, he would see a color. And if the movie screen was not in agreement, he would leave the theater! He didn’t understand why other people didn’t “get it.”
Thanks for your comments! So interesting!
Gretchen
I’ve often thought, “I’d give anything to have absolute pitch.” NOW I realize it has its drawbacks.
Hi Mark,
Absolute pitch would be great! If only it were possible to turn it off….”
Gretchen
Interesting post. I have perfect pitch, and I do believe it can be trained. Many of my students have perfect pitch. I teach all young beginners in solfege, with the fixed “Do” method. From my experience, most students can develop perfect pitch if: 1. They start learning music in solfege before the age of 6, no later than 7 (the key is to start young – the sooner the better, even if all they do is sing in solfege without playing). 2. They sing in solfege while they play and practice on the piano (impossible to do with wind instruments, can be done with strings) – if they are very diligent in singing in solfege and playing at the same time, perfect pitch can be developed very quickly. This process eventually happens in the mind automatically. 3. They are constantly exposed to pitch, listening to music.
I also believe that perfect pitch can be trained using letters, if one always refers to each letter name with the actual pitch (doesn’t matter which octave) instead of just speech sound. But solfege is still more superior becuase every note is a vowel, therefore much easier to pronouce than for example letter “F” which takes too long to say or sing.
Having perfect pitch has so many advantages, that having difficulty in transposing is a very small drawback. I do agree that vocally it is difficult to transpose a score if you have perfect pitch. But, a student who has perfect pitch CAN transpose on the piano, or any instrument, much easier than those who do not have perfect pitch, because he or she can always “imagine” the pitch of a note before playing, therefore deciding mentally (almost instantly) if a particular note in a melody or harmony would work in the new key or not.
Having perfect pitch also makes memorizing a score much easier, because you are always singing the name of every note you are playing in your head; imagine saying something over and over – you inevitably learn it.
Lastly, true perfect pitch should work for every instrument. If you can only identify notes on the piano, and not on orchestral instrument, then you do not have perfect pitch.
This is a subject I am very passionate about, as I truly believe if a child is trained in solfege, perfect pitch is simply a natural byproduct. If anyone is interested to find out more, I made a video explaining how to do this:
http://www.facebook.com/Yiyikupiano#!/video/video.php?v=1452240423834
Hi!
Thanks so much for your wonderful comment and video link!
You make many fascinating points. Although I don’t have experience teaching perfect pitch, I have seen children who were thought to be “tone deaf” make it clear that they were not.
It’s great to hear from someone with your experience.
Thanks again,
Gretchen
Ms. Ku ~ I enjoyed your video very much! Just this past year I have been using solfege much more with my students. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us.
Gretchen ~ I have a couple stories. I do not have absolute pitch. My relative pitch is fairly strong. However, there have been certain times when hearing a pitch made me instantly recall a particular piece (for piano usually, not always). In those cases, I would check and discover the pitches match.
For example ~ in the lobby at a music conference, a friend played an ascending A major arpeggio in 8th notes (left hand alone) while I was a few feet from the back end of the piano. I just blurted out “Tempest Sonata!” — okay, so that is the opening chord. She asked if I had perfect pitch, LOL. No. I cannot replicate this . . . it’s very fleeting. Interesting, though. I wonder if it is just a function of memory! Always seems to happen when I am focused on some other task like washing dishes or just enjoying a cup of coffee.
I play the horn, so usually if I try to sing a C out of the blue, it actually comes out as a B-flat — which is F on the horn, the note we learn to tune to as beginners. Go figure!
Also, just played a Middle C and asked my kids what they just heard. They were in the other room coloring. *Simultaneously*, my little 3yo sang “Do” and my 6yo said “It’s a C, Mommy.” :O
They don’t seem to hear the other pitches as clearly, but I have been singing solfege with them since they were each 2 years old.
Anyhow, a few minutes ago I asked my 6yo to sing Do and she matched the pitch exactly (she went over and checked herself LOL).
Fun stuff!
Hi Adrienne,
Thank you! There is so much variation in these comments, I’m amazed!
I’m still wondering what pitch I gave during the chorus concert in college…. ; )
Everyone is unique, brain included.
Take care,
Gretchen
Adrienne,
Thank you for watching my video! I am glad you found it useful. Trust me, keep singing in solfege with your children, and as soon as they are ready for lessons and regular practice, make them sing EVERY note they play on the piano. The key is to SING, not SAY, and use solfege. Sometimes children do not naturally sing in tune at first, you must try to correct it right away. They must make it a habit to always sing whatever they play, and when they listen to music, make them singalong in solfege. Let me know how you get on!
Hello Gretchen, here a reply from The Netherlands. I trained my ear with the perfect pitch training course. I listened to the tapes and read the book in the ’90s and a few years back I did it again, and for me it has worked wonderfully. Looking back I always have had perfect pitch, but not a method to “open it up”. The perfect pitch training course helped me to do so.
I teach children to play piano and I recognize their “musical behaviour” when they have perfect pitch. It lovely to make a start with eartraining and especially young children can learn this easily.
I don’t think there is a down-side to prefect pitch. Relative pitch and perfect pitch for me are two sides of the same coin and I love it! I can write out music with no reference from a piano, it just took me one summer to learn to tune piano’s, it’s a wonderfull gift when listening to music, live or from cd. Etc.
I enjoy reading your posts! Keep up the good work.
Stefan Terpstra
http://www.perfectpitch.com is David L. Burge’s website.
Hello Stefan,
Thanks so much for your wonderful comments! Nice to see you here.
Yes, it is very important to recognize where children are with eartraining, pick up on their gifts and encourage them.
I will visit the link you provided ~ thank you.
And thanks for the compliment!
Take care, and give my best to The Netherlands.
Gretchen
Developing perfect pitch can be a long, tedious process for some people. There is a game called Perfect Pitch Pursuit that helps makes the process fun. I haven’t had much time to play it but my son (age 8)has. He loves to play it and it has helped develop his pitch recognition skills considerably. The game is made by Smartwave Software and can be downloaded directly from their website.
oh.. The Their website is http://www.smartwavesoftware.com and the name of the game is Perfect Pitch Pursuit.
Hi Rich,
Thanks! I’ll check it out!
Gretchen
hi Gretchen,
This is an interesting topic ! My father has been singing in choirs since he was a boy. He does not have absolute pitch, but he found a way by finding his starting note by relating it to the lowest and highest note of his vocal range. He told me that he is not more than a half step away from the right note. I once tested him, and he was right !
I don’t have absolute pitch either. Reading scores while listening to music, and playing piano in different keys has helped me to become aware of the different tonal qualities of each key. So it looks like I have a certain level of relative pitch. But I don’t get it how it actually works for me. Sometimes I can recognize a key, f.i. D and F. But in other cases I have no idea and do I have to find it out on the piano.
I have played in a jazz band with a singer. When we would start with a new piece we had to find the right key for her. I discovered that a small transposition would sometimes sound “bad” in my ears. We once had a ballad in E flat major which had to be lowered. In D major it would sound too “agitated” and spoil the character of the piece. But in D flat major it sounded o.k. again in my ears.
I once read an article about moods related to keys. A scientist stated that different moods could be generated by non equal tempered tunings which were used until the barock age. Like Werckmeister.
But with the equally tempered scales we use nowadays there should be no difference. Could be true from a sound fysical point of view.
I don’t see colors for each key like Messiaen did. But nevertheless, I hear differences which I can’t explain.
So I wonder where these moods come from. And I’m curious to hear what other musicians experience when playing or singing in different keys.
Hi Rick!
Please forgive the late reply. I saw this just now for the first time!
Thanks so much for your descriptive comments!
I think it may be an advantage not to have perfect pitch. But then, since I don’t have it, of course I’d think that way.
Yes! I’ve heard quite a bit about different moods relating to different keys. For instance, in music history class we read about one composer’s perception of a “bright” key, another’s perception of a “dark” one. One great example is Handel’s “Hallelujah,” the chorus from Messiah. It’s in D Major. When it’s transposed to C Major, it sounds dull by comparison.
Your comment about the scientist is very interesting. I’ve never heard that before.
Thanks again. This was a great read!
Hi,
I’m only really getting into my singing training now, I’m only fifteen. I can always sing a C in tune, but no other note, however I can work it out with intervals. Is that perfect pitch? Is it common?
Hi Hannah!
That’s great that you’re taking lessons! Sounds like you’re on the right track.
Perfect pitch would mean being able to pick a pitch out of the air and sing it without help from the piano, pitch pipe, or anything. So if someone asked you to sing an F, you could just do it.
What you have is probably relative pitch, and that’s just fine. That’s what I have, and it has worked out for quite a while now.
All the best, and thanks so much for your comments!
Regarding hearing different “moods” with different keys, this website might be interesting: http://larips.com/. It is about Bach’s tunings for the Well-Tempered Clavier, which were *not* equal temperings. Remember the weird, off-center spirally drawing that Bach did on his otherwise symmetrical coverpage? Somebody got the idea to try setting the tunings based on the number of wire wraps indicated by that drawing, with amazing and beautiful results. It does seem that this mysterious drawing really was Bach’s in-a-nutshell diagram of how he wanted his instruments tuned in order to play each piece with the proper “mood.”
Hi Suzanne,
Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting! Thank you!
Interesting topic Gretchen. As with most anything, so much depends on what you do with what you have. From an early age I was able to name any note on the piano…I used to have my mom test me all the time so I could show off. But I can’t sing on pitch at all. In fact, I’m even embarrassed to sing Happy Birthday at parties. In college, I used to love melodic dictation, but had trouble with harmonic dictation because I’d always be trying to pick out the individual notes, rather than hearing the harmonies as a whole.
Hi Cathy!
Thanks for your comments!
The variety of people’s experience with pitch is far greater than I would have imagined. (Synesthesia? Same way. I don’t know much about it, but everyone who commented said something unique.)
Have you studied voice? That might make a difference.
In harmonic dictation, I could get everything but the tenor part. So I started going to church, singing tenor in all the hymns. It worked!
Hi Cathy,
I was going to ask the same question Gretchen did: Did you study voice? True tone deafness is very rare, and you obviously don’t have it. You probably just never learned how to pitch your voice. If you were a perfectionist as a child, or lived in a “be quiet” household, then you probably did not do enough experimentation as a toddler to learn this naturally.
Knowing you and your beautiful musicality, my guess is you just need to find a voice teacher who specializes in teaching students who need to learn how to produce the tones. Not all teachers have the patience to do this, so make sure you interview teachers first about whether they have successfully taught students who were convinced they couldn’t sing.
Nudge, nudge: Chopin said, “If you want to learn to play the piano, take singing lessons.”
Suzanne
Suzanne and Gretchen… actually I did take voice lessons very briefly as a child.
But it is a great idea. I’d love to be able to play and sing without cringing! (I feel bad for my students because I’m always trying to sing along with them at their lessons!)
I love that Chopin quote!
Cathy
Go for it!
There were 3 or 4 percussionists in my college ear training class. They were used to tuning timpani, but not singing. So they would start at least an octave low with their voices, and after a while, figured it out. But every time the professor threw an intricate rhythm our way, the percussionists in the back row ripped it off immediately.
p.s. Cathy, your childhood voice teacher, or a school music teacher, may have told you that you “couldn’t sing.” “Just stand in the back and mouth the words.”
That’s what harried teachers say when they don’t have time to find out what’s really going on.
Thanks for your comments, Suzanne. Right on!
[...] Source: GretchensPianos [...]
Thanks very much for the pingback!
How does relative pitch help somebody come close to singing a 440-Hz A?
Hi!
Good question!
I’m not sure that having relative pitch does help someone in singing an “A.” My experience includes collaborating with string players, though, so hearing them tune is likely a help.
Also, if someone hears an “A” as being the 5th of D Major, there is a reference point. D Major sounds very different from C Major, for example.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
You say, if someone hears an “A” as being the 5th of D Major, there is a reference point -
yes, there is the reference point – the scale itself. It is the perfect pitch – it is very simple. It is very hard to understand for people that don’t have the PP.
They still say it is the rel pitch – have a look at Yiyi Ku’s post.
Hi Jarek,
Thanks so much for your comments!
I’m one of the people who thinks that what you describe is relative pitch.
People with perfect pitch can sing any note when asked with no reference point. I can’t do that.
Another difference is that I can hear a score in a key, but not necessarily the key I’m looking at. People with perfect pitch hear in the key on the page.