Perfect Pitch vs. Relative Pitch

 

Some people may be confused about the meanings of perfect pitch (also called absolute pitch) and relative pitch.

Having perfect pitch means that the person can identify the exact note just by hearing it, without any context. If you play the note we call A, a person with perfect pitch just knows immediately that is in an A. Perfect pitch is something of a mystery; it seems that each tone has a certain characteristic or "personality," different from other tones, which allows it to identified instantly, just as you would recognize someone's face. It is not simply that the tones were somehow memorized at some point. Clearly, perfect pitch is a high degree of sensitivity to tones and tonal quality. Either you have it or you don't; it can't be developed, or at least, no one has yet found a way to do that.

Relative pitch would mean that you would hear the relationship, but not the absolute. So hearing and A and then an E would be identified as the interval of a fifth. A fifth between two other tones would sound essentially the same.

It is estimated that approximately 1 to 5 people in 10,000 in the general population have perfect pitch . The percentage of musicians with perfect pitch, not surprisingly, is much higher, probably around 10%. It's a higher percentage because it's more likely that someone with a high degree of sensitivity to tone would be drawn to music, not because they developed it in the course of their music practice. Some people assume that all musicians must have it, but that is not the case. And you certainly do not need to have perfect pitch to be a good, or even great musician, and play your instrument well.

Relative pitch is an ability that can be strong or weak and anything in between. A musician needs to have strong relative pitch. (Having perfect pitch is a bonus.) It is essential to hear the relationship of tones to each other, since, in the context of actual music, it is the relationship of the tones that is most important. 

I've encountered many people who do not realize or understand that last statement. If I want to sing Happy Birthday, I can start on any tone and sing the song. There is no one tone that you must start on. If there were, no one except those with perfect pitch could sing it (spontaneously, without help) because, of course, they can't identify one tone from another. Yet the song is still the same regardless of where we start, because the relationships stay the same. If this concept is new to you, please read my earlier post titled "It's All Relative."

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I emphasize the importance of ear training. Ear training would mean strenghtening your relative pitch. (It can also mean strengthening your hearing of rhythm, but that is another subject.)  There are many ways to strengthen your relative pitch such as listening to and then identifying intervals, in other words, drills. But two more musical and interesting ways would be to sing at sight, and to transpose.

To sing written music at sight that is new to you (in other words, that your ear doesn't already know) entails seeing and then singing the intervals. If you are in a high-level choir, for instance, you will need to do this. If you are weak at it, listening to the people near you is a way to "cheat," but sight-singing would be part of your audition for the choir, so you have to be pretty good at it. If you play an instrument, you can transpose your music to other keys. If you transpose using your ear as much as possible (as opposed to reading and calculating the notes), your relative pitch will improve.

I happen to have perfect pitch and am glad I have it. It's fun to hear a piece on the radio and instantly know what key it is in, for example. However, having perfect pitch does not mean I'm done with ear training. I do transposing almost daily to strengthen my relative pitch. Having both is a really unbeatable combo.