How are some people born with perfect pitch while most of us are not?

Question

I like to understand how somepeople have the abillity to either sing or hear perfect pitch.

Answer 1

Some experimental research suggests that we are all born with absolute pitch, but it becomes supplanted very early in life when it becomes advantageous for most of us to learn relative pitch. This theory thus views AP as a kind of arrested musical development, since it is an essential musical skill to be able to recognize a melody when it is played in different keys. Can you imagine what it's like for AP people when they hear people singing tunes in the *wrong key* all the time?

It is a much more valuable skill to be able to reproduce any music by writing it down or singing it in *any* key, rather than just the key in which it was heard. For people with many years of serious relative-pitch ear training, this is a ridiculously easy task. For someone with AP, it is only ridiculously easy to reproduce a melody at the original pitch level. For everything else they must manually or mentally transpose the music note by note to the new pitch level before writing each note down or singing it out loud.

My musical training has given me the ideal situation: I have developed my ear training to the point where I can sight-sing nearly anything at any pitch level, using my relative pitch. I can also, given a moment of silence, correctly sing a given absolute pitch. That is, however, the extent of my AP ability. Thus, when I'm singing in a different key from the music that I'm reading, I'm not plagued by the intrusion of the feeling that I'm singing the wrong pitches.

In conclusion, absolute pitch is of relative importance, but relative pitch is of absolute importance.

Answer 2

For the voice part, it's because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Your body doesn't decide to be born one way or the other, it's just born.

But as a society, we have come up with the 'perfect' face to have, the 'perfect' voice and the 'perfect' everything.

And so only a small part of the people who are born, are actually born into the 'perfect' category.

I think the answer I'm fighting not to admit is... it's all evolution.





And as for the hearing part (and certain aspects of the voice), you're wrong about that. Actually a very low percentage of all humans are born with something other than a 'perfect' hearing. The problem is we are exposed to noisy enviroments that damage our hearing very much. And so when we try music our ears are not 'virgin'
Gee, I should've said that first, cuz it's less deep and has less of a punchline to it. Oh well.

Bye, I hope I was amusing...

Answer 3

Either sing or have perfect pitch? No- in most instances you will have both. I was always lead to believe I was just born with this ability, as was my brother until recently when I read about a study that suggested that absolute pitch (aka perfect pitch) was a result of being sung to and exposed to music from a very young age. For whatever reason, all I know is that I can sing a perfect A on command. It's that note that is somehow internally part of me- For my brother, it's a G.

Answer 4

Same idea is applied with vision how come some of us are born with 20/20 and others like myself are (and this is if I'm not wearing my glasses/contacts) are legally blind. Thats just how they were born. It's luck, a roll of the dice really.

All has to do with your hearing for one thing really then your vocal chords. Some people are just able to hear a note and then able to duplicate it...they are just that darn good. There are I'm sure, many factors to take into consideration like I said hearing is probably the main part of having perfect pitch. How well you hear that note then how your brain translates it to you then it sends the signals to your vocal chords.

Think of the depth in which those people hear the note...heck they can probably feel it, also thats one of the 5 senses so that one is just heightened more so than the rest. Anything is possible, some people can identify smells no matter what you put infront of them...that also has to do with the foods they have been around all their lives...as I'm sure it would with perfect pitch.
Let's just put it this way nothing is impossible...someone can be taught to have perfect pitch. Instead of it coming naturally, they may just have to work a little harder to get where they want to be is all.

Answer 5

"Many people have believed that musical ability itself is an inborn talent. Some scientists currently believe absolute pitch may have an underlying genetic basis and are trying to locate genetic correlates; most believe that the acquisition of absolute pitch requires early training during a critical period of development, regardless of whether or not a genetic predisposition toward development exists or not. The "unlearning theory," first proposed by Abraham[11] has recently been revived by developmental psychologists who argue that every person possesses absolute pitch (as a mode of perceptual processing) when they are infants, but that a shift in cognitive processing styles (from local, absolute processing to global, relational processing) causes most people to unlearn it; or, at least, causes children with musical training to discard absolute pitch as they learn to identify musical intervals [12]. Additionally, any nascent absolute pitch may be lost simply by the lack of reinforcement or lack of clear advantages in most activities the developing child is involved with. A final resolution to the ongoing debate would require controlled experiments, which are both impractical and unethical.

"Many musicians, and most jazz musicians, have quite good relative pitch, a skill which can certainly be learned. With practice, it is possible to listen to a single known pitch once (from a pitch pipe or a tuning fork) and then have stable, reliable pitch identification by comparing the notes heard to the stored memory of the tonic pitch. Unlike absolute pitch, this skill is dependent on a recently-perceived tonal center.

"Some prominent musicians have stated that absolute pitch can and should be acquired. Composer and theorist Paul Hindemith wrote that his experience “time and again has proved that ‘absolute pitch’ can be acquired and developed,” adding that "if not, the question may be raised whether there is any musical gift at all in a mind that cannot learn to remember and compare pitches."[21] Zoltán Kodály said that "Developing the ear is the most important thing of all. The myth of ‘perfect pitch’; it is not innate but a question of practice, just like measuring by eye." [22]

"Other prominent musicians have stated that absolute pitch cannot and should not be acquired. For example, composer and musical educator Ron Gorow[23] has said that "If you have perfect pitch, God bless you. If not, don't worry about it. Get a $4 tuning fork and get on with your work! Don't waste your money on methods that promise you can identify a pitch. There is no pay-off unless you want to show off at parties."

Answer 6

Some people are musical prodigys, some people aren't. Go figure. But if you want perfect pitch, you can practice. One site I like is www.good-ear.com. This helped me to be able to recognize intervals... and I'm working on perfect pitch!

Answer 7

The concept of "perfect pitch" is a myth. Similarly, "tone deaf" is also a myth.

Being able to sing on pitch has two steps. You have to first be able to hear the pitch in your head and then be able to reproduce it. The ability to do this is a skill just like anything else. While some of us are certainly born with a natural aptitude, anyone is capable of learning it. I have noticed, however, that the later in life you begin training the harder it seems to be to improve.

Answer 8

The same reason some people are better at sports or anything else. Born inclinations that give you clues into how you can contribute to the world.

Answer 9

Lucky B*&^$#%$& is all,,,oh yeah, practice makes perfect,,

Answer 10

God gives us all certain talents and I guess that just happens to be the talents that God gave them.