@davidjosepha
The main argument behind perfect pitch not being a born skill is that defined pitch, as in that A is 440hz is a human invention. It's absolutely not something that a baby can know at birth and is only the product of experience. Humans defining it as such after birth.
Secondly, excusing the completely tone-deaf (and there are not very many of them) – I don’t believe that anyone is born without the ability to discern between pitches. This is evident largely because of the fact that the Chinese as an entire populace would not be able to speak their language without the ability to discern pitch.
Which is also essentially what inflection is in any spoken language even if it is far less important than it is in languages like mandarin.
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I won’t argue that it’s easier to learn as a child than as an adult. But I also find the idea that I can’t learn something that a 3 yr old can a little bit offensive

since on the whole, I can handle much more complex and difficult concepts than the average child… Maybe that’s a result of having handled concepts at all as as a child, but the fact remains – I’m still capable of learning, but I do it in a less intuitive way, and rather it has to be more thought out, and progress has to be consciously evaluated, methods adjusted etc.
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I'm not an expert on teaching/learning perfect pitch (far from it, and mines certainly not there in full – but then I don’t actively work on it and never really have consistently).. however.. The basic principle as far as I am aware, and have worked on it at various times is that there is an underlying quality to each tone. Which is why when we really listen they evoke different colours or feelings.
The underlying quality is sometimes referred to as "chroma" –
To illustrate, say you had 10 boxes, all the same shape, but all different sizes. Each of these boxes represents a different “C” whether played by piano, a guitar, sung, or anything else. This is about the pitch, not the timbre. Someone without perfect pitch will just see different boxes of the same shape, noting that they are similar but different. Someone with perfect pitch on the other hand will observe that on the underside of each box there is a small red dot that is exactly the same on every single box – drawing a very well defined, “these are all the same” parallel between the boxes.
The red dot is the pitch’s chroma.
So, apparently, the secret to learning perfect pitch is to successfully identify and remember the chroma’s that relate to each tone. Which is HARD. Because you don't know what you're looking for, and its not easily explained by someone else either.. ear's aren't our dominant sense. We like eyes.
But there’s supposedly 2 major things that you can initially do to help – and for me both of them work pretty well.
1. Have a reference song/piece(or small section of piece). That is, - a piece where that tone is the tonic. Listen to the piece many times, so that you know it back to front. Learn to play it.. and most importantly.. NEVER PLAY IT TRANSPOSED.
This tool helps you remember the tone when you get stuck, its kind of like you’re bridge between the chroma and the note name that you have to associate with it.
2. Practice identitfying a single tone within a number of tones.. that is, close your eyes, play a whole series of keys at the piano then answer the question, “does this chord contain target note X”..
then as you get better, do it with more notes at a time, so does it contain C or G, or both. Etc. etc.
…work at it everyday, just like you would any other aspect of piano/music.
You stick with a particular pitch until you know it, then move on.. You have this weird experience where one day you'll be having a shower or something - and you'll go "!!! WAIT. the water hitting the floor.. Its a freaking Bb.

"
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Finally, just that much is a really long road I think.. and you havent really got to musically relevant yet. Listening to a musical progression, identifying all the tones and memorising the sequence ...

..totally different ball game.
That part is something I find really difficult to pursue because I have working relative pitch skills, and they do the job fine. Its challenging to try and fix something when its not broken - as in.. its really hard to identify a subsequent tone using perfect pitch if your relative pitch has already told you what it is ..
