Wikipedia states that Absolute pitch, or perfect pitch, is “the ability to identify the frequency or musical name of a specific tone, or, conversely, the ability to produce some designated frequency, frequency level, or musical pitch without comparing the tone with any objective reference tone, i.e., without using relative pitch.” Here we see that absolute pitch and perfect pitch are one in the

same.

Wikipedias definition of relative pitch is as follows:

• the distance of a musical note from a set point of reference, e.g. “three octaves above middle C”
• a musician’s ability to identify the intervals between given tones, regardless of their relation to concert pitch (A = 440 Hz)
• the skill used by singers to correctly sing a melody, following musical notation, by pitching each note in the melody according to its distance from the previous note. Alternatively, the same skill which allows someone to hear a melody for the first time and name the notes relative to some known starting pitch.

Why do I bring this up do you ask? Well, I was recently reading an issue of Scientific American Mind and there was an interesting article about perfect pitch.

According to Scientific American Mind

there is a group that is doing ongoing research and “trying to isolate a gene that governs absolute pitch, with the goal of then probing its molecular machinery.” They are doing this research so they can have a “better understanding of how the brain changes as a result of experience.”

So, can pitch skills be learned? I think they can but as with anything…it takes time.

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