Perfect Pitch Question?

Question

I have perfect pitch. I never took formal musical lessons past 3rd grade, I can play the guitar, drums, piano (a little) and sing. My 2nd grade viola teacher told me I have perect pitch, my 3rd grade drum teacher told me I should not play drums because they will not be challenging enough and I should play classical symphony. my 6th grade chorus teacher made me headline the concert with a solo in front of the entire school. I have never persued music beyond goofing around with friends.

My question is this. Is perfect pitch rare and is it in any demand career wise? Can I and should I make money from this talent?

Answer 1

Sure you could and should make money of it, but it requires a lot of work for a start. Because talent is only ten percent of success, the othe ninety percent is work!

Answer 2

I don't have perfect pitch, but I have very good relative pitch. I have had no problems being a professional musician without PP. I play multiple instruments, the main one being a string bass (no frets) and I play in tune. The folks I know with perfect pitch (and are musicians) say it's more of a curse than a blessing. Sure, they can start the song on the right note without help, but there are times they hate having it. For example: playing clarinet - the note you see is not the note you hear (same for all the transposing instruments.) the fluorescent light in the office is humming an out of tune B flat. That guy is singing that song in F, but it should be in G. And so on. Also, I would like to add something about "acquiring" perfect pitch, as told to me by a music professor with it. You can train yourself to find A, then with relative pitch, you can have a kind of perfect pitch. (ask an oboe player . . . ) Get a pitch pipe or tuning fork that is an A. Many times a day, sound the A. Then after a week of that, hum the A first, then check yourself with the tuning fork. You'll get to where you can pluck an A out of thin air. Then when you hear a G or an E, you can figure it out by interval. Make sense? Then his disclaimer was that he did NOT enjoy having perfect pitch.

Answer 3

I've played the piano since I was six; I have known a grand total of three people in my life (I'm 51) with perfect pitch, so I'd say it's fairly rare. However, the innate ability counts for very little if it is not trained, and most exceptional musicians do not necessarily have perfect pitch, and don't particularly need it.

I believe there's only one good reason for pursuing music as a career - and that is because you love it. For most of us, it's unlikely we'll ever get rich (even the great composers of the past had to teach to put food on the table, as do many exceptional performers today). If you love music, performing is just the icing on the cake - it's the understanding of the music, and the need for it somewhere in your soul that makes a music career worthwhile.

Answer 4

I also have perfect pitch. You won't make money in any way that I know of. When I went through school, I was in one of the top piano classes in the world. About 3/4 of the students had perfect pitch too, and it wasn't a big deal. We used to sharpen our listening by having one person play 11 of the 12 pitches in an octave. We had to tell which was the missing pitch....However, some of the best musicians I know don't have it.

Do you love music? Go after it for that. Perfect pitch is just a nice add-on.

Answer 5

It's great to have but nothing that is going to make you money unless you have exceptional, sellable talent in some other way. This only really helps YOU. Anything where pitch is at stake like tuning, pitch must be confirmed by metric means.

Answer 6

To make music from this ability, you could take musical dictation from musicians that want to write down their music but don't know how. If you learn to read and write music, you could listen to what they play, then write it down for them. It would actually be helpful to play the drums, as this would help you understand the rhythms you hear.
In life, it's better to find out what YOU want to do, than to go by what others think you should do.

Answer 7

Perfect Pitch is a quality in 1/2000 people. You could make money from this for sure, but only if you want. It is an excellent skill, and I congratulate you for having it. Good Luck!