How to get a Perfect Pitch

[etudes]

Do you have any advice to get a perfect pitch
am 19 now and playing piano seriously for 2-3 years
and is this https://www.perfectpitch.com work really? if i order it???
thank you in advance !

[Brian Healey]

Try the book. See if it helps. I'm not convinced that having perfect pitch is THAT much of an advantage anyway. I've known 3-4 people with perfect pitch in my lifetime, and none of them seemed to be any better musically than anyone else. If you do get the book, let us know how it works out, because I for one am curious.

Peace,
Bri

[Bob]

I don't think there's anything definite about perfect pitch.  I've only read of one documented case of a person learning perfect pitch, so it seems rare that way.  I've also heard that there is a window of time (I think around age 7) when someone can develop it (or that everyone's born with it, but if you don't start using it by age 7, you lose it).

There is a thead about this topic somewhere on the forum, even that specific product.  I've used it.  No perfect pitch here, but I did hear things a little differently afterward.  You might check your library.  No point buying when you check out.

Anything that helps you hear better (even if you don't get perfect pitch) is good.

[will]

     I've known 3-4 people with perfect pitch in my lifetime, and none of them seemed to be any better musically than anyone else.

The 5 or so people I have known with perfect pitch are all freakishly good performers.
    However, at the same time they all starting playing when they were very young.
   
Etudes: Check out https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3312.msg29251.html#msg29251 especially StoreBrand's lengthy contribution which I think is somewhat similar to the Lucas-Burge method you refer to.

[alvaro_galvez]

I've also heard that there is a window of time (I think around age 7) when someone can develop it (or that everyone's born with it, but if you don't start using it by age 7, you lose it).

Oh, I hope thats not true since I´m 17 and I am trying to get it...
Anyway, back to subject. Something that will help you to get perfect pitch (or very close to it) is definately solfage. Thats what I´ve been doing and so far its going well. It is very boring (at least to me) but it is extremely helpful.

[alvaro_galvez]

1 recorded case of learning perfect pitch?  Thats odd... I really dont think its my teacher and she did learn perfect pitch...

[chopinguy]

I thought that you either were born with or without perfect pitch...

I say that "learning" perfect pitch is just really fine tuning your relative pitch to the point where it's almost perfect pitch.  For instance, I could probably recognize any tone but only because I've memorized what an "A" sounds like from many orchestra rehearsals.  Of course it'll never be true perfect pitch where I could recognize if an A is exactly 440 hertz.

I've also heard that people with perfect pitch are really bothered by sounds that are slightly off pitch, like if an orchestra is slightly flat or sharp.

[alvaro_galvez]

Yes, some people are born with perfect pitch but it doesnt mean that the people that arent cannot aquire it.
My teacher told me of this method developed in France that gets kids to hear in perfect pitch, and not just linear (which is the most common of perfect pitches) but vertical (identify whole chords instead of just melodies).
Too bad neither she nor I can read french cause she happens to have the method´s books...

[SteinwayTony]

My teacher started taking piano lessons when she was 11.  She was considerably past the alleged window of time. 

In her undergrad years, she carried a pitch-pipe around with her at all times and blew a "G" every now and then.  Now she is 75 years old and still has veritably perfect pitch.  (I tested her several times.)

[Motrax]

Don't want to bore anyone with stories, but I promise that perfect pitch is attainable if you think about things from the right angle.  Just perservere, and talk to people who have it, and it'll eventually come.

[lostinidlewonder]

Anyone can learn perfect pitch. I teach students who want to learn this to know middle C and then to be able to hum or sing chromatically up an octave. Once they manage this, then i tell them to add one more attribute, in your minds eye see a piano keyboard and as you sing mentally see the note being depressed. i usually tell students when you are on the white notes think DOWN, when you play black think UP.

If you keep at this you get faster and faster. i further develop the ear by playing more than 1 note at a time, or a series of a few notes. The idea of using perfect pitch is to aid your memory and transposition. But I dont even use it as much as i use other stuff. It is a minor thing to use, i reckon it might be more important for Jazz musos who delve in improvisation.

[jlh]

I didn't know I had perfect pitch until I was in my late teens, nevertheless I've had many people test me on different mediums (piano, strings, sine waves, bells, etc.) and come to the conclusion that it was perfect pitch.  I must have been born with it, since I made no real effort to acquire it, so I don't know the answer definitively on whether it can be learned.

I can attest, however, that having perfect pitch can be annoying if you're listening to a poorly tuned performance, or singing in an ensemble or choir that has tuning problems (ACK!).

I also hate even slightly out of tune pianos -- very annoying.  That's one reason I have a digital piano at home... =)

What really bothers me is that if I'm singing a hymn or something in church (I sing bass), and the organist or pianist is playing in a transposed key, it is much more difficult to sing the bass part because I'm looking at certain notes, expecting to be singing certain notes, but have to transpose them in my mind as I'm singing.

In short, there are definitely times when perfect pitch can be less than useful in the real world.  Sometimes it can be very useful, but other times I wish I didn't have it.

[whynot]

I have perfect pitch, and I remember working on it as a kid.  I didn't know it was a "thing" you could have, it was just a game I played to see if I could remember what things sounded like.  For me, it's not just a memory for pitch, although that's part of it, more a memory for a complete sound.  In other words, I've been screwed up many times by a new timbre, like my ear had to learn how to catalogue that color.  I think it's useful (for sightreading, memorization), it's fun to play with, it makes for great party tricks too! but is not at ALL essential for great musicianship.  Having said that, I bet many musicians have a better memory for notes on their own instrument than they think.  They test a few, and if they get them wrong, they conclude, "Well, I don't have perfect pitch."  But if you tried to sing the tonic of whatever piece you're playing the most right now, just hearing the beginning in your mind first, and checked it every time you walked by the piano for two weeks, you would probably get an interesting result.  I was fascinated by the teacher's post above.  Completely inspiring! 

One more note:  I do know people with PP who are disturbed by sounds that are not perfectly tuned.  But the ones I know are people who are disturbed by many other things, too.  I think it's personality-driven.  Me, I like just intonation.  Actually, I love it.  So a piano should drive me crazy, and it could, if I let it.  But a piano sounds like a piano (certainly I prefer well-tuned, but we all do).  A train whistle sounds like a train whistle, and if the telephone ring doesn't coordinate with the dishwasher, so be it.  It's a philosophical thing, letting things be what they are.  It also helps to know about other tunings and the scales of other cultures, because knowing the broader possibilities for sound lets you relax your expectations.  Sorry, this probably wasn't that helpful to the original post.  I just get very excited about this topic, because I think most people have more potential for it than they think.  Cheers. 

[r.schaefer]

yep David Lucas Burges course works! But it takes time (about a year after DLB)
I trained after the method for half a year with a friend of mine.
After this time we were able to sing and hear c, c#, eb, e, f#, g and a.
Two weeks ago i have started practising again.

Try it

[Awakening]

Do you have any advice to get a perfect pitch
am 19 now and playing piano seriously for 2-3 years
and is this https://www.perfectpitch.com work really? if i order it???
thank you in advance !

Simplest way I've heard of is to carry a tuning fork that is turned to "A" around with you all day.  Throughout the day, when you're bored or such, take the tuning fork out, strike it, and then try to become acquainted with how an A sounds.  Every now and then, try to hum or sing an A to yourself before striking the tuning fork, and see if you can get the pitch correctly.  One you know an A, you can figure out all other pitches from that.   

[Tash]

ok advertising the crazed thing we were all doing at the forum chat on friday/saturday, go to https://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/pptest_pre.php and keep doing it until you can actually recognise the notes! hahaha good luck to all, in fact if you would like to join my competition of who can get the lowest score, i am currently winning on (pure pitch) 6.25 and (piano pitch) 7, so if you can get lower than that i'll be highly impressed!

please note, i don't actually know what i'm talking about, but if anyone actually thinks that continually doing this test and working out decent methods to perfect it would actually work then i'd be once again highly impressed

[jlh]

Once concern I would have for using this as a method of learning to recognize notes is the fact that the study uses the same sequence of notes.  After awhile, you'd be memorizing the ORDER of the notes.  Sort of like the eye patient who had already spent 30 minutes memorizing the wall chart before taking the eye test.

I think it's a good test, but I don't know how good it actually is as a learning tool.

[e60m5]

ok advertising the crazed thing we were all doing at the forum chat on friday/saturday, go to https://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/pptest_pre.php and keep doing it until you can actually recognise the notes! hahaha good luck to all, in fact if you would like to join my competition of who can get the lowest score, i am currently winning on (pure pitch) 6.25 and (piano pitch) 7, so if you can get lower than that i'll be highly impressed!

please note, i don't actually know what i'm talking about, but if anyone actually thinks that continually doing this test and working out decent methods to perfect it would actually work then i'd be once again highly impressed

36 on both... 'fraid you have me beat, dear... 

[Tash]

oh you freak! hmmm i think i should attempt working on my pitch, cos i really do suck...

[jlh]

36 on both... 'fraid you have me beat, dear... 

Are you serious?  That's awesome!

I took the test... I didn't get 36 on both, but I'm afraid Tash has me beat as well. 

pure tone: 14.25
piano: 29

[quasimodo]

Sorry, I don't feel like being serious at all right now, but...

The title of this thread is one of those which require to be careful in typing, lol.

[bernhard]

Sorry, I don't feel like being serious at all right now, but...

The title of this thread is one of those which require to be careful in typing, lol.

Any tips for that alternative (and more interesting) typing?

[noelle]

ok advertising the crazed thing we were all doing at the forum chat on friday/saturday, go to https://perfectpitch.ucsf.edu/pptest_pre.php and keep doing it until you can actually recognise the notes! hahaha good luck to all, in fact if you would like to join my competition of who can get the lowest score, i am currently winning on (pure pitch) 6.25 and (piano pitch) 7, so if you can get lower than that i'll be highly impressed!

please note, i don't actually know what i'm talking about, but if anyone actually thinks that continually doing this test and working out decent methods to perfect it would actually work then i'd be once again highly impressed

Beat you!!

Pure tone score: 1.50

Piano tone score: 6.25


That's because it took me a long time to figure out how it worked (ehh); I thought it played the note back to you that you picked, when it was really just the next note?  And it kept going, and I got really confused, so ... yeah.
My real pitch is a little better than either of those ^

[quasimodo]

Any tips for that alternative (and more interesting) typing?

Hey Bernhard  do you want me to be banned  ??

Anyway, have you ever heard about "pitches brew" (or something like that, this Miles Davis recording) ?

[chopinisque]

Pure tone score: 4.75

Piano tone score: 6

Hopefully, this means something good, because I'm even more sure now that I'm tone deaf.  Most of them were intuitive gueses.  Is it just me, or is the only black key in that test D#?

BTW, what is the AP rank supposed to be?

 

[m1469]

Here's a cool website for those of you who would like to do a little ear training and perhaps develop PP.

https://www.good-ear.com/

Happy practicing  !

[DarkWind]

I thought that you either were born with or without perfect pitch...

I say that "learning" perfect pitch is just really fine tuning your relative pitch to the point where it's almost perfect pitch.  For instance, I could probably recognize any tone but only because I've memorized what an "A" sounds like from many orchestra rehearsals.  Of course it'll never be true perfect pitch where I could recognize if an A is exactly 440 hertz.

I've also heard that people with perfect pitch are really bothered by sounds that are slightly off pitch, like if an orchestra is slightly flat or sharp.

Relative Pitch is different from Perfect Pitch. Perfect Pitch is the ability to identify one single note. Relative Pitch is to tell the relation between two or more notes. This helps for identifying chords and such.

[Hamfast]

Very funny!

[clair_de_lune]

I've never thought I had perfect pitch nor have I been interested in developing it.

However, recently I have been listening to a lot of recordings as well as playing a digital piano at night (always in tune).  I have an MP3 of Mozart's K545 and the piano (or recording) is tuned slightly lower than 440. When I first acquired the recording, I didn't notice - but now I can't listen to that recording without feeling it's off-key throughout the entire piece!