Perfect Pitch - Relative Pitch - Hearing Protection

Q. What is "Perfect Pitch"?
A. The ability to identify and produce any pitch without the aid of a sound source. It is the ability to instantly know the quality and make up of a group of pitches sounded simultaneously.  Most of the people I've tested who've said they had perfect pitch did not have it and did not understand what it was. 

Q. Is it possible to develop "Perfect Pitch" ?
A. Absolutely not!  I nor anyone I know has ever seen evidence of this.  The person with perfect pitch is physically different than one without.  "The neural correlates of absolute pitch have been illuminated by comparing the brains of musicians with and without absolute pitch using a refined form of structural brain imaging (MRI morphometry), and by functional imaging of the brain as subjects identify musical tones and intervals.  A 1995 paper by Gottfried Schlaug showed that in musicians with absolute pitch (but not musicians without), there was an exagerated asymmetry between the volumes of the right and left planum temporale, structures in the brain that are important for the perception of speech and music."

I have not seen one example of perfect pitch development courses for sale in magazines producing perfect pitch.   As an experiment, I taught the principles from a mail order perfect pitch course in an ear training class for one year to talented students.  The results were poor to non-existant.  The students and I both felt that our time could have been better spent improving our musicianship in other areas in addition to practicing standard relative pitch ear training.  As a result of interviews I conducted with people who have perfect pitch,  it seems that the ability to develop perfect pitch awareness disappears after the age of four and a half. 

In his book Perfect Pitch, Nicolas Slonimsky states:

" My contention, based on numerous observations and experiments, is that perfect pitch is an innate capacity, which cannot be cultivated."

Q. How many people have it?
A.  6% of children taking music lessons in elementary schools.  7% of students studying music in U.S. universities.  15% of musicians in major U.S. orchestras.   32.1 - 63% of Asian university students.

It has been observed that PP runs in families about 20% of the time, occurring in either a parent or a sibling. In contrast, for musicians who do not have PP, the likelihood that one of their family members has PP is only about 1-2%.  There is a striking association of absolute pitch with early blindness (some studies estimate that about 50 percent of children born blind or blinded in infancy have absolute pitch). The rate of appearance of perfect pitch in the broad population of children taking lessons in public schools is about 1 in 1500. In some schools, over half the Asian students reported perfect pitch! *    There are so few people that have perfect pitch that it's difficult to accurately study the development  of it.   Marc Damashek states "Older piano tuners tend to tune the highest treble octaves quite sharp...perhaps there is some sort of atrophy of the basilar membrane or a stiffening of the hair cells with causes this."

Q. Are there benefits from having "Perfect Pitch"?
A. Having PP is not a prerequisite for outstanding musicianship, however, in many cases it leads to faster musical learning.  Children with PP display interest in music early, which may result in parents starting musical training at a very young age resulting in a head start over peers. An electronic tuner is not needed to tune instruments since the PP person is a "human tuning fork".

If you have Perfect pitch, protect yourself:
Always have earplugs. Select your apartment or house carefully. Get a quiet car. Associate with those that have "Perfect Pitch" and discuss it when "normal people" are not present.  Refuse to be turned into a "circus act" by performing demonstrations.   Don't tell people you have it unless it's absolutely necessary.

I've consulted with a few married couples where both the partners have it. They say they enjoy the support of someone who understands the advantages and the problems.  If you have perfect pitch and are married to someone without it, make sure your partner knows how you experience the world so that he or she can help you be more comfortable.  Perfect Pitch is in operation every minute of a person's life.

                                  A band with perfect pitch 1999-2001

Q. What are the cons of having "Perfect Pitch"?
A. Unaccompanied choirs tend to "go flat" during a performance. The PP person has difficulty singing out of tune with the rest of the choir, especially while reading the "in-tune" notes on paper.  The musician with it is somewhat of a "sighted person among a sea of blind". Since there are so few people with this gift, the musician can appear "crazy" because he or she is the only one in an ensemble that hears everything that happens. This gift cannot be turned off, so every sound, 24 hours a day, becomes a musical event which may torment the musician his or her entire life. To a person without Perfect Pitch, a car passing by is just that.  A person with Perfect Pitch hears the same car as a cluster of pitches eminating from the tires, car body and wind which triggers memories of songs containing those pitches. However, when performing music he or she may have the ability to create a superior performance. There is also the possibility that the PP person may perform poorly do to sonic distractions in the performance environment. The musician without PP is probably more consistant in performance. The person with "Perfect Pitch" is most effective in an ensemble where every musician has perfect pitch.

Many musicians are driven mad by "Perfect Pitch" because they are too sensitive to live in the present world and may exibit intolerant behavior (Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, etc.) 

According to his autobiography, Miles Davis

was stopped by a police officer for speeding.

He told the officer that he was not speeding even though his speedometer was broken.  He could tell his speed by the pitch eminating from his tires.

The PP person can be "thrown off" by wrong notes or chord changes played by other members of an ensemble.   For their own survival, PP musicians must make sure they play only with the finest musicians.
One person reported having difficulty looking at music in one key and singing in another while transposing.  With training, many of us have overcome such problems, even "turning off" our absolute pitch if necessary.

Q. What can be done to preserve Perfect Pitch?

Otolaryngologist Dr. Albert McLain Jr., treats the ears of famous musicians.  I asked him about the effect of various substances on ear function:  "The ingestion of caffiene, salt and wintergreen temporarily alter the ear's blood vessels causing inaccurate perception of tones."  The person with perfect pitch may then identify tones a half to whole step sharp.  It's suggested staying away from these substances 2-3 days before performances whether you have perfect pitch or not.   In tests conducted on myself with these substances, this has proved to be true for me. 

Marijuana not only alters ear function but the brain's perception of what is heard by the ear. Then ineffective processing by the brain causes the

musician unawaredly to speed up and/or slow down creating a problem with the other musicians in the band.   It may take weeks or even months for these negative effects to wear off. 

A permanent or temporary shift of absolute pitch, may be caused by strokes, head injuries and brain infections.  In Oliver Sacks book Musicophilia, one correspondent told him that his absolute pitch shifted a semitone during an attack of multiple sclerosis and remained slightly off thereafter.  

Folks with perfect pitch which has been altered in these ways are usually able to compensate for their altered perception to increase accuracy.

 If you don't have Perfect Pitch:
Don't waste your time and money trying to develop it. Don't buy a perfect pitch development course. Work on "Relative Pitch" instead. You can leave it on the stage when done working. Relative pitch doesn't require you to be "on call" to music 24 hours a day. There is much more to being a musician than having PP. You can be a great musician without it.

Q. What are some interesting PP "adventures"?    

One time I was hired to accompany Luciano Pavarotti on classical guitar at one of his concerts. I knew that he specified in his contract that the orchestra needed to tune to A 438. Before Luciano appeared at the rehearsal, I heard the oboist produce an A 440 to tune the orchestra. I didn't say anything and kept my guitar tuned to A 438. (The "Perfect Pitch" person usually learns to keep his mouth shut since he's in the minority) Mr. Pavarotti came out and proceeded to start the rehearsal. After a few bars, he stopped the orchestra and reprimanded the oboist for tuning the orchestra to A 440. The oboist played an A 440 and said it was A 438. Then Luciano sang a perfect A 438, and had the orchestra tune to him.

Water running out of a faucet produces different

pitches depending on it's temperature.   The PP person needs only to listen to the pitch of the running water to know when it's safe to enter

the shower.

There is a relationship between the pitches produced by crickets and temperature.

Most crickets "sing" around Eb at 60 degrees and

increase their pitch to nearly G around 100 degrees.

Q. Is there anything that can be done to reduce tonnitus? (Ringing noises in the ears)

A.  First of all, you need to stop exposing your ears to the loud sounds which cause tonnitus. It may or may not go away by itself. This condition will confuse you when hearing pitches whether you have perfect pitch or not and can practically drive you crazy.  In experiments done on myself, I've found that ingesting Ginkgo Biloba can eliminate or reduce tonnitus by increasing blood flow to the cranium.  Ginkgo isn't standardized and varies greatly, even with different bottles of the same brand.  If you take too much, you may get a terrible headache.  If you don't take enough, there will not be the desired effect. You need to experiment slowly with dosages.  I purchased some while in Mexico and it worked best.  In the United States try the various premium brands available in a health food store.

A mixture of Vitamin B12 and Folic acid has been

shown in some cases to reduce age related hearing loss in the upper ranges. 

To find an interactive loudness scale and more    online resources, visit www.parade.com

Thanks to:

 Q. How do you know when to use protection?

A. Whether you have perfect pitch or not, you need to vigilantly protect your hearing: Hearing loss may be caused by a one-time exposure to an extremely loud sound (such as an explosion) or by exposure to loud sounds over months or years. It is irreversable.  If you are uncomfortable with the volume, damage may be happening.

 Loudness, or sound intensity, is measured in decibels (dB). The scale runs from 0 dB (which is the faintest sound a human ear can detect) to more than 180 dB (the noise of a rocket during launch).

Decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, meaning that every time the intensity increases by units of 10, each increase is 10 times the lower figure. So 40 decibels is 1000 times as intense as 10 dB.
Experts believe that prolonged exposure to sounds above 85 dB without any protection can damage your hearing.

There are four levels of protection:

Have ear protection with you at all times. Wipe the plugs daily with alchohol to reduce the risk of ear infection.