What Is Relative Pitch And Perfect Pitch?

September 18th, 2009

When learning music, you’ll most likely stumble across some information concerning “relative pitch” and “perfect pitch.” To be quite honest, my piano teacher never really told me exactly what they were, and why they were important for music.

Relative pitch is the ability to identify a certain note, in relation to a give reference. Perfect pitch (also known as absolute pitch) is the ability to identify a note WITHOUT a given reference.

Of course, this is 100% related to ear training. I did ear training for all my conservatory exams, but I had no idea about the concepts of relative and perfect pitch. Most often, my teacher would make me turn around, play some intervals, and I would be pretty good at identifying them just by listening. However, when my teacher would make me turn around, play a short and simple tune (also telling me what scale it was played in), I would turn around, try to play it, and almost always mess up (at least a little bit).

How good are you at relative and perfect pitch? Well, it depends on how accurately you can reproduce a pitch (verbally stating the note or simply playing it), how quickly you can identify it, and the amount of notes you can identify as they are played simultaneously.

An individual with great perfect pitch ability should be able to instantly identify ten notes played simultaneously as a chord. When studying absolute pitch with a teacher, two pianos are always best. (Of course, I never had this. My piano teacher and I had to keep switching spots at the one piano.) The teacher sits at one piano, while the student sits at the other, and the student will try to repeat the note played by the teacher. Sometimes when there is only one piano in presence, the student will turn their back and try to name the note (I used to do this).

If you have already read up on the topic of perfect and relative pitch, you probably came across a lot of information about people who are just “born with it.” A lot of information sources will try to argue this point, stating that people like Mozart and Beethoven were just born with the “perfect pitch gene.”

There is no such thing. Nobody can be born with relative or perfect pitch, because it is a cognitive function and therefore must be learned over time and practice. The chromatic scale is actually a human invention, and it has no physical relationship with nature.

But there must be a relationship! Right? Well, there is one, but it does not argue that perfect pitch is a born skill. The only physical relationship between the chromatic scale and the human ear is that both work on a logarithmic scale for the purpose of accommodating a huge range of frequencies.

So, the human ear actually responds to all frequencies which are within range, and is not measured on an absolute scale at the time of birth. In contrast, the human eye actually does respond to colour on an absolute scale. For example, everyone sees red as red. Why? Colour detection happens through chemical reactions in response to certain wavelengths of light.

How’s THAT for your artistic biology lesson of the day? Anyways, fun fact here: Some people who hace the ability to identify specific pitches with certain colours can actually acquire perfect pitch from the colour that the sound triggers. These individuals are indeed using colour as a measure reference to identify sound with their ear.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

If you’re very interested in perfect pitch and relative pitch, well, let me just say, you should be. It’s a great way to advance your musical abilities. Check out the Pure Pitch Method. This is a great perfect pitch and relative pitch training kit that you can definitely implement into your own practice routine! You’ll be able to play songs by ear (for example, from the radio) and even compose your own pieces. Enjoy!

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What Is Relative Pitch And Perfect Pitch?

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