In Music, What Is "Absolute Pitch"?

[John Broecker]

https://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_abspitch.php

This very informative, FREE website offers clear, simple audio
exercises and tests, to determine your audio perception.

These are tests that aren't done at your audiologist or hearing
specialists, or, if they are done, the specialists won't tell you
the results. The tests are focused on musicians, and music.

While most of us gradually lose our hearing accuracy as we age,
this site is very useful to me, a hearing-impaired musician.

I'm not an agent or employee of the website. They might try to
sell headphones to you, or ask for donations.

Best Regards, Stay Healthy

JB

[Grizzly]

Absolute pitch is another name for perfect pitch. It's the ability to identify pitches by name (letter name, A, B, C etc.) just by hearing them, without reference to a relative (heard) pitch. (Someone hears a note, and immediately says, "That's an A," or "B," or "F#".)

Relative pitch is the ability to identify a pitch by comparing it to a reference note. (I hear an A, name it, and can figure out and sing any other note relative to that A without having to hear the "target" note.) 

What does the note A sound like? Is it 440 Hertz, or something else? How does that figure into absolute pitch? Mozart had absolute pitch, but in his time, A = 415 Hz. "A" has been 415, 430, 435, all the way up to 451; even lower, in the 390s. Where does that internal sense of absolute pitch figure in? Enquiring minds want to know.

Tom

[SaxonyFan]

Absolute pitch does not necessarily imply that you can name the pitch. The ability to automatically reproduce that pitch on an instrument is considered to be absolute pitch. So, with respect to our voices most of us have absolute pitch.

[michael s]

perfect pitch sharpens as one ages......annoying as can be out by a semitone (sharp) too often nowadays. pp also confines one to C chromatics.

Regards,

Michael S.

[Grizzly]

Absolute pitch does not necessarily imply that you can name the pitch. The ability to automatically reproduce that pitch on an instrument is considered to be absolute pitch. So, with respect to our voices most of us have absolute pitch.

I can match—reproduce—any note that I can hear, without knowing its letter name. It only takes one try at most on an instrument: play a note and compare it to the first note. Play or sing me a note and I can match vocally the note or its octave almost instantaneously. I can do that because I have a good sense of relative pitch. That's not absolute pitch.

Absolute pitch isn't matching pitch. It requires the note to be identified by name. Hear a note and be able to say, "That's a(n)___." Or, "Sing me a(n)___," without a reference pitch.

"Play me a(n)___" only requires knowledge of where a note is on an instrument. You could say the instrument has absolute pitch. It doesn't even require a good ear.

I invite you to give concrete examples of your premises.

Tom

[Grizzly]

I just took the test that John linked. It said I had a good sense of absolute (perfect) pitch.

Wrong. It did show that I could figure out what the next note was by comparing it to the previous note. Once I caught on, my score improved to 21/26 correct answers. All it indicated was that I have an excellent sense of relative pitch.

Your Mileage May Vary.

Their (accurate) definition of absolute pitch:

"Absolute pitch, or perfect pitch, is the ability to name the pitch of a note without reference to another note." (my emphasis)

Which makes my previous Reply redundant.

Tom

[John Broecker]

When I was in college, one of the other
percussionists had perfect (absolute) pitch.

He was primarily a keyboard percussionist
(vibes, xylophone, marimba, etc.).  One of
his music theory instructors said that the
student would make an excellent violinist.

The student could pick up almost any available
musical instrument, and play it well, after
exploring the instrument for about a minute.

I'd play a harmonica, and he would tell me the
notes I was playing, the key or keys used,
and even the chords played with their spellings.
in the correct inversions.

I'd pick up a different harmonica of the same
model and type, in a different manufacturer's
key, and he could name the notes, keys and
chords, with correct inversions, on that 2nd
harp. He was amazing.

In contrast, I played a concert in the Kettle
Moraine (Wisconsin) Symphony on 1-24-14.
The featured artist was Corky Siegel on piano
and diabolic harp, and I was playing percussion.

During a rehearsal break, I was improvising
on a Richter blues harp, and he asked me,
"Was that a 9th chord?"

I told him, "I don't know".

Even with a known key, I couldn't name the
pitches or chords that I played.

Today, we know that there is only one
factory-installed 9th chord on a 10-hole
Richter system blues harp: draw holes
2 through 6.  It's called a dominant 9th
chord.

Best Regards, Stay Healthy

JB

[vid wes]

Researchers have looked into what perfect pitch is.  What they have found is that is a highly refined sense of memory for pitch.  Test yourself, play a note and see how long you can remember it.  Perfect pitch people simply are able to permanently remember it.  That is why many of the people with perfect pitch started music training at an early age or had musician parents.
The good new is that you do need perfect pitch to be a good musician.  Relative pitch is the skill that a musician needs.

[Grizzly]

vid wes: "The good new is that you do need perfect pitch to be a good musician.  Relative pitch is the skill that a musician needs."

Would you like to revisit your statement, wes? There seems to be a contradiction.

People with absolute pitch have told me that it can be an obstacle. They find it more difficult to sing if the choir goes flat (a not-uncommon occurrence), or if the director has the choir sing in a different key than the piece is written in—say, a half step lower to emulate Baroque pitch (A=415 Hz.) while reading from the original score.

Certainly, the lack of absolute pitch is not a detriment as long as the musician has a grasp of relative pitch.

Tom

[vid wes]

Grizzly, thanks for pointing out my typo.  Obviously I was trying to say you do NOT need perfect pitch to play music.  I was going too fast.

[SaxonyFan]

Sorry but an instrumentalist’s ability to immediately play without error a heard pitch with or without naming the pitch is absolute pitch. What else would you call it?

[SaxonyFan]

People with absolute pitch have told me that it can be an obstacle. They find it more difficult to sing if the choir goes flat (a not-uncommon occurrence), or if the director has the choir sing in a different key than the piece is written in—say, a half step lower to emulate Baroque pitch (A=415 Hz.) while reading from the original score.

Maybe that’s what they tell you but it makes zero sense that this would pose a problem for anyone. Sounds like an excuse for some other failing.

Perfect pitch has no correlation with one’s ability to sing notes of arbitrary fundamental frequency.

[Grizzly]

Sorry but an instrumentalist’s ability to immediately play without error a heard pitch with or without naming the pitch is absolute pitch. What else would you call it?

Oh, jeez. What's in a name? S/he has to know the fingering, if nothing else. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Tom

[Grizzly]

People with absolute pitch have told me that it can be an obstacle. They find it more difficult to sing if the choir goes flat (a not-uncommon occurrence), or if the director has the choir sing in a different key than the piece is written in—say, a half step lower to emulate Baroque pitch (A=415 Hz.) while reading from the original score.

Maybe that’s what they tell you but it makes zero sense that this would pose a problem for anyone. Sounds like an excuse for some other failing.

Perfect pitch has no correlation with one’s ability to sing notes of arbitrary fundamental frequency.

I'll give you an example from Real Life.The music is in the key of C. The singer looks at the music, and says to herself, "Okay, I certainly know what the notes in the key of C sound like. I can hear them in my head." Then the director says that the choir is going to sing it in C, but at Baroque pitch. Not a problem. Most singers have relative pitch, and adapt instantly.

Not the person with absolute pitch. She looks at the note C, but what she hears from the others is a B. If she sings the note she hears in her head, she'll be a half step higher than everyone else. She has to instantaneously transpose in her head everything into the key of B, or rewrite it in five sharps.

Lest you think this is hypothetical, I've met her. I've sung with her. She lamented about her inability to transpose at sight. IIRC, the solution was for the director to relent and go back to singing the piece at modern pitch. Problem solved. For then. BTW, this was in one of the best choral groups in the tri-state area. She was no slouch.

Tom

[SaxonyFan]

Sorry but an instrumentalist’s ability to immediately play without error a heard pitch with or without naming the pitch is absolute pitch. What else would you call it?

Oh, jeez. What's in a name? S/he has to know the fingering, if nothing else. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Tom

Title of this thread: “What is absolute pitch?”

[SaxonyFan]

Testing.

[SaxonyFan]

Nonsense, Tom.

People with absolute pitch don’t lack relative pitch. They are perfectly capable of adjusting to the key pitch in the same manner a person with relative pitch adjusts.

If that particular singer learned to sight sing using her absolute pitch rather than her relative pitch then there is the musical failing I spoke of. She had to have known that would cause her problems.

BTW, I wish I could sight sing ... kind of.

[vid wes]

People with absolute pitch have told me that it can be an obstacle.
Tom

I agree.  The school I attended to become a piano technician would not accept anyone into the program who had perfect pitch. 

[vid wes]

Sorry but an instrumentalist’s ability to immediately play without error a heard pitch with or without naming the pitch is absolute pitch. What else would you call it?

I would call that knowledge of their instrument and a good memory for musical phrases.

[Grizzly]

Nonsense, Tom.

People with absolute pitch don’t lack relative pitch. They are perfectly capable of adjusting to the key pitch in the same manner a person with relative pitch adjusts.

If that particular singer learned to sight sing using her absolute pitch rather than her relative pitch then there is the musical failing I spoke of. She had to have known that would cause her problems.

BTW, I wish I could sight sing ... kind of.

I never said that. I suspect every good musician with a good sense of absolute pitch also has a good sense of relative pitch. Not everyone with a good sense of relative pitch has absolute pitch. Just because both exist doesn't necessarily mean that they're related.

Perhaps some people can adapt. I've not met one. Not everyone is "perfectly capable" of adjusting. Denigrating my fine colleague serves no useful purpose. I gave you a concrete example of one person's experience. Let's hear your example from among your acquaintances.

Tom

PS: BTW, reread vid wes's reply #17.

[SaxonyFan]

People with absolute pitch have told me that it can be an obstacle.
Tom

I agree.  The school I attended to become a piano technician would not accept anyone into the program who had perfect pitch.

Because absolute pitch isn’t precise pitch. People!

[SaxonyFan]

Nonsense, Tom.

People with absolute pitch don’t lack relative pitch. They are perfectly capable of adjusting to the key pitch in the same manner a person with relative pitch adjusts.

If that particular singer learned to sight sing using her absolute pitch rather than her relative pitch then there is the musical failing I spoke of. She had to have known that would cause her problems.

BTW, I wish I could sight sing ... kind of.

I never said that. I suspect every good musician with a good sense of absolute pitch also has a good sense of relative pitch. Not everyone with a good sense of relative pitch has absolute pitch. Just because both exist doesn't necessarily mean that they're related.

Perhaps some people can adapt. I've not met one. Not everyone is "perfectly capable" of adjusting. Denigrating my fine colleague serves no useful purpose. I gave you a concrete example of one person's experience. Let's hear your example from among your acquaintances.

Tom

PS: BTW, reread vid wes's reply #17.

Like I already said. She had a musical failing. Shouldn’t have done that.

[Grizzly]

You're swimming upstream. Where are your real-life examples? What is your formal training in music?

I've been at this for 66 years, when I started flute lessons and sang in a select choir. What I'm remembering from my music education are borne out by current and earlier writings. Relying on suppositions and intuition don't hold up very well. Check this out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch

Especially this exerpt:

Possible problems

Musicians with absolute perception may experience difficulties which do not exist for other musicians. Because absolute listeners are capable of recognizing that a musical composition has been transposed from its original key, or that a pitch is being produced at a nonstandard frequency (either sharp or flat), a musician with absolute pitch may become distressed upon perceiving tones believed to be "wrong" or hearing a piece of music "in the wrong key". This can especially apply to Baroque music that is recorded in Baroque tuning (usually A = 415 Hz as opposed to 440 Hz, i.e., roughly a half step or semitone lower than standard concert pitch).[59]— Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-1-4000-4081-0.

Read the whole article. you may find it educational.

Tom

[SaxonyFan]

Tom

At this point you have no idea what point you are arguing with me.

[Grizzly]

Tom

At this point you have no idea what point you are arguing with me.

Argument? So, what is the point? Have you read the article in Wikipedia yet?

Tom

[brorat]

Play nice, boys😱😱

[SlideMeister]

Yep, Take it out side kids! I think we're through with it here.