Can Perfect Pitch Really Be Learned by Adults?

[@glennwayland-r2s]

I totally agree with you. After 30 years having this course on my shelf, I'm finally going to go and finish the course. As a professional musician for 40 years. You can still improve on your music. Thanks for your post!!

[@BAndrewBurns]

Still working on improving my ear myself. Thanks!

[@tomclaeren169]

Please can I get the course of the idea on what to practice to get absolute pitch please

[@gerardyun]

I took the Burgess course decades ago when I was first thinking about being an actual musician. I was more curious than anything else since I've kind of always been able to play what I heard even without early lessons, etc. I think he started on F# and Bb and something happened about week 3 and then it has been pretty strong ever since. I love hearing this way, hearing into the note, into the sound. Yes, I went on in music even without much of a background as a kid, and have a doctorate in conducting. I am now teaching at university level in Community Music in Canada and much of my research is in the larger area of Listening, which is great. I think people have all kinds of weird superpowers and being able to learn exceptional listening opens us to the most amazing world. There really are no limits. This is an awesome video and I love your narration. OMG I see C as white too! F as brown. G as green. But that is another story. Thanks for this.

[@horriefic]

When your sister played the notes C, D and E for you, how long between each note ie. roughly what tempo? Was it like a note every second, or longer like a note every 2-3 seconds? I have been playing these 3 notes on my piano for about 5 mine, and recording it on my phone! Then listening to it over and over again. Am playing it at about 1 note per second, which is kinda fast as the next note starts before I can really ‘feel’ the note. So wondering what you did exactly with regard to the time between each note. But then you said it’s important to correct yourself when you make a mistake. So what actually happened was your sister would play a note and you would say out what note (C,D,E) it was and if correct your sister would play the next note, and if wrong you would do the correction by playing the note you said and then the actual correct note. Is this how you did it? Thanks in advance!

[@wyattstevens8574]

My questions exactly!

[@rinnikfox]

This topic has interested me a lot lately from a cognitive science perspective I think you hit a lot of the same thoughts I had about how other people approach the subject. I've always thought that given the correct incentives, your body and brain are really good at adapting and learning new things, it's just figuring out how to train correctly is the hard part because your first instinct is to always fall back to the skills you already have.

[@hefewiseman]

this is good ,pretty generous and honest offering ,and I agree with your assessments ,there are so many misconceptions about this skill.,good insights

[@PlusMusicOfficial]

I can easily hear the Major and minor 3rd difference and I somehow can always tell if an A is playing or a C and I can reproduce them out of no where, but not any other notes. One night I did just feel like I understood it and I could tell every single note apart easily, but after that, I only have A and C in my head.

[@thedolphin5428]

To my mind, congenital perfect pitch is merely an accident of birth -- that is, nature patterning neurones in certain ways to and from your ear ... possibly layed down in-utero. So because we now know the brain has neuroplasticity and can re-route interconnections where they once weren't, it makes perfect sense that one can MAKE THOSE links happen. I believe, the best situation to help this is through autogenic relaxation, when the brain is subconsciously and unconsciously more open to reprogramming.

[@eagleeggs3862]

How are you going back and forth between perfect pitch and relative pitch? Are they functioning simultaneously, or do you jump back and forth in your perception? From horizontal to vertical

[@PlusMusicOfficial]

You have both at the same time. For example, you see a white paper. You know it’s white. And than you have a red paper. You can tell that it’s red and that it is darker. Not one or the other but both at the same time.

[@vojtechmalina5698]

People forget how difficult it is to prove that something is impossible and how pointless it is share such formation, the effect is mostly demotivation, people then have no motivation to continue the research. Often there is a room for research somewhere, or a way that one didn't consider.

[@Tolstoy111]

There are no recorded cases of it.

[@maztx420]

I started developing perfect pitch when I was 12 and the hardest note to recognize for me was Ab for some reason and my favorite note it Eb

[@eduardoandreasguitar]

It's really hard for me to learn anything by ear... I'm taking the course thanks to this video and I don't care if in the end I actually get PP or not. The concept of pitch colors is incredible to me and I'm sure no matter what it's going to make playing and listening to music even more enjoyable.

[@solideomusical]

When I was in college I used to try and attain perfect pitch. Without any reference notes (on piano) I was either able to 'nail it' or narrow it down to 'within a half step' but never 'perfect.' My professor, who had perfect pitch, found this notable. Since then I have not really applied myself to it but I tend to agree with you and not the naysayers. There are also more recent studies on this that align with your take. There is a young lady on YT (I think her name is 'Cindy Zou') who says that all of the pianists in her country had it and when she came to America she was surprised to learn that some people didn't. She tries to diminish the role of it in a successful musical career and even says she failed some transcription test because of her perfect pitch. Are you recommending Burge's course?

[@BAndrewBurns]

Hi, Yes. I was mostly referencing Burge's course, but you could certainly develop it on your own. And your other point is interesting. I think Western science says 1 in 10,000 people have absolute pitch, but I'm willing to bet that the real number is much higher, especially in Asian countries.

[@BAndrewBurns]

One other point I will add is that, you don't always have to be correct to have some level of absolute pitch. I'm going to address this in more detail in a follow-up video soon.

[@solideomusical]

@@BAndrewBurns Great- Thank you- I like the idea! One more point is that if you are told 'forget it- only a select few with innate ability can achieve such and such goal' it has a dampening effect when taken to heart. In other words, people resign before they start. That is what I like about your anecdotal story- that it seems to shatter the myth. You would have never known your potential had you not questioned and challenged it (conventional wisdom) I believe Michael Jordan is credited with saying "I make shots other people won't even take."

[@charlesgould8436]

I now notice sounds and voices that are unique, and I mimic by voice... some people don't like all the sounds I make. I enjoy the sound. Relative and absolute are separate.

[@PlusMusicOfficial]

I hear those 2 songs(well one song in different keys) and I wouldn’t ever say that they are the same song.

[@tonepot2339]

What goes through your head when you hear a pitch that's around halfway between two pitches?

[@wyattstevens8574]

Perfect example: (thanks to David Bennett) "Strawberry Fields Forever" (based on tape speed, he says, and the tempos/keys of takes 7 & 26 [spliced together at 1:00] it's almost exactly halfway between A and Bb)

[@Ribiveer]

the song at 12:31 sounds to me like it's in C minor, not F minor. I guess this is a section of the song where it has modulated? The second version sounds like B minor.

[@maztx420]

yeah same it sound like c minor

[@thepianoplayer416]

Once learned a piano version of "What a Wonderful World" in F. Played the piece on an out-of-tune piano in a store so sounded like the song is in E. People who has perfect pitch claim they are used to listening to a song in 1 key they can't play it in any other key except that specific key.

[@llnxvio]

I learned i had perfect pitch at 14. Its something ur born with, but it remains dormant if you aren't taught how to use it. Thats why not every kid who played piano when they were like 5 has it. Its a rare ability, and it's also a skill. People have different levels of pitch recognition, and some people have higher skill ceilings that others.

[@ThingsAboutMusic]

Did you not pay attention to what he said???? Sorry bud, you aren't as special as you think......

[@tfrgaming2978]

True Pitch is the learnable version of Perfect Pitch.​@@ThingsAboutMusic

[@Davidfooterman]

This fellow doesn’t have absolute pitch as he claims. I can tell by the way he describes it. You do NOT develop it, but you DO develop the awareness of it. I was discovered to have it when I was three, but I have found it less ‘certain’ the more I listen to recordings of music rather than live playing. The orchestra is tuned from the A above middle C played on the oboe. If you tune the orchestra from the A played on a clarinet, you will get different orchestral sound. I don’t know why that is, and only a person with both perfect pitch and very sensitive relative pitch will know what I’m talking about. People who think they can develop absolute (perfect) pitch are in a world of ‘make believe’. The test is to take them out into a field and tell them to sing, say, the oboe’s middle A, and read their sound on an oscilloscope. They can’t do it! When I was a young chorister, I had very effortless absolute pitch. The church pipe organ is precisely calibrated to the correct pitch, and an electronic organ even more so. I grew up learning the piano first, and I could sing any note in the middle register of the piano dead accurately. When I played the violin in the orchestra, I used the oboe in my mind to hear the A because that’s how the orchestra tunes up. The more I listen to my stereo system, the less accurate my pp becomes over time. This guy thinks he has developed absolute pitch; he’s in a wishful world of make believe, but I don’t want to be cruel and torment him over it! But he’s right about one thing; everything is relative and you can lose the effortlessness in singing that perfectly pitched note. If you have absolute pitch you automatically have good relative pitch. This guy thinks that people with absolute pitch are not bothered by certain inaccuracies. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about because he wasn’t born with it. He thinks he managed to acquire it. No, he can get close …. but no cigar. The way to discover real absolute pitch is to test it on an un-musically trained child. Mine was discovered when I was three: I got angry when someone played the British National Anthem in the wrong key because I believed it was supposed to start on G natural. I’m not sure about the history of the tune. I’m going to look it up. Mr Burns, I don’t want to deflate your ego; you seem like a nice guy. But if I wanted to, I would take you onto a remote, uninhabited Pacific island, keep you there with no musical instruments or electronics for a day or two, and then have you sing middle C and then a few hours later we’ll do ‘oboe’ A, and then a few hours after that we’ll do, say, the E flat from Chopin’s Ocean study …. And then we’ll do some questions: what is the first note of the Mozart Requiem, for example ; sing that. Then I’ll tell you to sing the first note of the Precipitato movement from Prokoviev’s seventh sonata. Then I’ll have you sing the first note of Bach’s Minuet in G. Then I’ll have you do the A flat that starts the beautiful melody from Rach’s Paganini Rhapsody …. Then we’ll do the opening of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. By now, my good friend, your absolute pitch will be a pipe dream, not a horn pipe or a bagpipe, but down a drain pipe!

[@tfrgaming2978]

@@Davidfooterman Bro wrote an essay 💀

[@donttalktomeplzimsad]

​@@Davidfooterman dude I'm 19 and just started trying to develop a perfect pitch and now I can identify notes with a 90 percent accuracy. it's definitely a skill you can learn

[@wyattstevens8574]

How would you do this with no "passive partner?" I'm trying to learn it starting yesterday!

[@PlusMusicOfficial]

I’d use a site. Or if you want to, you can turn around and just play any note. It will be harder but it works. I can now always reproduce C, E, G, A but not any other notes. I used this because I also have no partner. Good luck, mate!

[@ozge8080]

​@@PlusMusicOfficialHey may I ask you how long did that take? and how certain is it, can you really name the notes correctly all the time? and do you think you would be able to listen a song and play it by ear when you learned all notes?

[@PlusMusicOfficial]

@@ozge8080 Just now I did a test and I have 86% accuracy.

[@maximuswilliam318]

Can your absolute pitch abilities ables you to recognize each note of a melody when it played very fast?

[@theuniversalconnection3510]

You are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this video. Keep up the great work. Blessings to you.

[@wenhaozheng3465]

Thank you sir，this video helped me a lot on understanding what sound is

[@michaelharvey702]

Great video! Several of my students find that Db takes more time to hear absolutely.

[@jackcummins2275]

Wow as soon as you said f# is nasally sounding and c is clean sounding I think I’m starting to get it, even just after playing them a few times I understand what you mean wthhhhhh

[@marcofsw]

I just goofed around on the keyboard, noticed that I can hear the note C without looking, but only C! Strange. I’m 52…

[@BAndrewBurns]

Sometimes, it starts that way. Keep going.

[@BrendaBoykin-qz5dj]

Thank you,Britt. Interesting discussion.⭐🌹🔥🌹⭐ Very balanced.

[@Oi-mj6dv]

Its a bit complicated because its been proven that even fully "perfect pitch posessors" have pitch perception fatigue and even start failing with sufficient trials in a sequence. So obviously its not a fully entirely qualitative difference between a strong ear and perfect pitch. Just speed and endurance At this point in time tho science does not know if adults can actually develop perfect pitch, or just improve pitch recognition significantly. It say the diffference is pretty pointless and minor tho. It can be trained but id much MUCH rather focus on chord inversions and chord quality recognition, transcription of lines in different instruments etc etc etc. One of the major hurdles in development of this "aural skill" is that genuine childhood perfect pitch could very well be generalizable to more timbres and this skill developed later in life could be restricted to fewer timbres thar the musician is more comfortable witj

[@BAndrewBurns]

Science has shown people can develop it, and I'm living proof that it does happen.

[@Oi-mj6dv]

​@@BAndrewBurns i didnt deny this. The approach is just different what im questioning tho is the utility of it. Chord qualities are not that hard to get down and as long as you get good at transcribing i really really find the benefit to be minimal, if any. But yes it can be. I do not know if without drugs tho but fun fact valproate DOES allow this developmental window to reope

[@kornelijekovac9793]

There is no perfect pitch. There is only ability to remember tones more precisely or not. If you change the tuning for 1-2 Hertz, no so called "perfect pitch-er" would notice it.

[@twothreeoneoneseventwoonefour5]

"pitch perception fatigue" - this is entirely wrong. That's like saying that we have fatigue listening to English lol. Some people may have, but I personally can listen and recognize notes for a whole day nonstop with 0 problems.

[@kpaceh]

Can you elaborate a bit on listening to music that is a bit flat, do you still recognize the correct note knowing its flat? For example a guitar can be tuned flat to itself, and the music that you play on it will sound OK, because relative to all of the strings they are all off by exact amount of cents. And how does this translate to listening to music that is in say 432hz, does the whole song sound flat?

[@BAndrewBurns]

I'll try to answer this in an updated video soon. Thanks

[@MD-zm6sn]

I've never sat and tried to learn the notes but does it mean I have perfect pitch if like, out of like 10k songs or more, you could tell me to sing any song and I would ALWAYS do it in the right key? Or if I think of learning a song on guitar and I always go to the right notes in the right key without thinking about it? I can hum all the open strings on a guitar precisely too and I can harmonize my singing like instantly. Like on the first beat I can start in harmony, a new one that I've never done, without really thinking about it? I remember utterly EVERY song note, for note, for note. Every beat and all the nuance. I often think of a song I haven't heard in 20 years and maybe I only heard it once and I'll just grab the guitar and start playing it and singing it like I've known how to for years. Is that perfect pitch or is my brain just really musically oriented?

[@BAndrewBurns]

It sounds to me like you have an extremely good ear, and that you likely have some degree of absolute pitch. Maybe find someone to play notes on the piano and test yourself?

[@thedolphin5428]

I can always tell C# because it is the key of Moonlight Sonata.

[@pensive_]

Thanks a lot for this good news. I have good relative pitch but not perfect pitch. After your video, I will give it a try. Was always told you were either born with it or not, from Hschool to university. This is the first time I hear someone with credibility claim the opposite.

[@rickeysmith3666]

did you try

[@pensive_]

@@rickeysmith3666 Not yet as I want to do it right and have enough time available so that it is the dominant activity, but it is going to happen. It is too important. Thanks again for the great video

[@Ssethtzeentach_enjoyer]

Thanks for calling out Adam Neely and Rick Beato on this topic. I hate the misinformation they've spread about this.

[@miritsm]

interesting 😊 so what is the right way to learn perfect pitch? i really feel i can but don't know where to begin, ty🙏

[@BAndrewBurns]

You could try the Burge course like I did, or perhaps have a friend compare the notes very slowly with you. I'm in the process of making a follow up video on this topic, where I will address this.

[@johnb6723]

I have it, but only when humidity is very low.

[@yunusbarna6380]

Prove that you have perfect pitch.

[@sarahaprincesa]

👏🏻

[@daniel_cunha]

Lol, a lot of cuts on the video and full of bullshit, good luck for all of you trying to "learn" perfect pitch 😂😂😂

[@PrototypeZZ]

I don't understand those people who think that this is an innate skill - whether you have it or not. Absolute pitch is completely overrated. It's a skill like reading books or drawing. It just takes practice and some effort. I practiced a little (just a few hours) and can already hear (recognize) the notes. It’s just easier for some and harder for others, just like learning to play the piano or sing.

[@DerpDerp3001]

For me, Ab is the one that is most difficult, and G is my least favorite as is reminds me of country music.

[@BAndrewBurns]

Ha! I always hear G as kind of a "bright" note. I associate it with rock music a lot.

[@JPLodine]

I can generally produce a G by thinking of the opening note of Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1, either on piano (from lessons taken in childhood) or the Variations on a Theme from the Blood Sweat & Tears album. Overall the impression is one of calmness.

[@jz5005]

Valproate

[@charlesgould8436]

It works.

[@guitarislife01]

Yeah right

[@derekedit]

A lot of these videos also point out that you will eventually lose this ability, and that the music you know and love will all sound different, and this process starts when you're in your 40s or 50s. If they're right, I find such a prospect to be absolutely terrifying.

[@yoheff988]

BS LOL, and Stevie Wonder can be trained to see

[@eraithessshirogannie3197]

You don’t have absolute pitch, you have true pitch. Stop preaching false information and learn the difference

[@Nico-xi3mn]

I think you should learn the difference because you clearly don't know

[@Avybavywavy]

There is *functionally* zero fucking difference.