Perfect Pitch

[leucippus]

Well this whole thread has deteriorated far from the original question.

The question was simply, "ls it possible to learn to recognize and produce absolute pitches"

The answer to that question is obviously yes. 

Musicians do this all the time.   How many violinists need to get a pitch-pipe out of their pocket before starting every piece?  Probably not too many.  Most violinists can play whatever note you call out without using a pitch pipe.  And if they are any good they'll get it right every time.  By the dictionary definition of "perfect pitch" that's all that's required.

I'm not musically inclined at all yet I have actually tuned my violin entirely by ear just based on a few tones that I knew from piece that I've learned.  I obviosly did it correctly because when I got back home I checked it against my piano and it was right on the money.

What everyone else seems to be arguing in this thread is that you can't learn to have "perfect pitch" because they are using the term to mean; "Someone who has naturally occurring extraordinary musical abilities that go far beyond just naming pitches"

Well, if that's how they are using the term then of course it can't be learned!  By simple definition of how they have defined the term it would be impossible to learn "Perfect Pitch", because by their usage of the term it IMPLIES extraorginary natural abilities.

This whole thread is just an argument of semantics as far as I'm concerned. 

The original question has been answered.

[nortti]

Musicians do this all the time.   How many violinists need to get a pitch-pipe out of their pocket before starting every piece?  Probably not too many.  Most violinists can play whatever note you call out without using a pitch pipe.  And if they are any good they'll get it right every time.  By the dictionary definition of "perfect pitch" that's all that's required.

You forget they have four references there already, namely the open strings. Most violinists begin their practice/playing session by tuning the instrument. And then they have already gotten their reference pitches.

The original question has been answered.

The only answer we've got is that assigning names to pitches is a learned skill. And that's obvious. However, would anyone be able to remember those pitches is a different thing. And it is a part of the original question because without that ability, you won't be able to learn the names of the pitches either. I've heard of many people who have "learned" AP but almost every time it's eventually turned out that they had always had a good pitch memory (eg. they've always sung songs in the correct key and such things).