Some people say you are born with musical ability. That, of course, is nonsense. That's like saying you are born knowing how to speak a language. Musical ability, like anything else, is learned and developed. So is "perfect pitch", sometimes called absolute pitch. That's right, you too can have perfect pitch.

What is perfect / absolute pitch?

Perfect pitch is the ability to correctly name a note that you hear. For instance, if someone plays an A (440hz) note on a piano, you will recognize it and say, "yup, that's an A note". Likewise, someone can call out a note and you will be able to sing it.

Musical ability or perfect pitch is not something you are born with. Like I said before, it is learned. Now mind you there are different levels of musical ability, no argument there. But, if you have normal musical ability (you can sing or play a tune on key) you too can learn to have perfect pitch.

The benefits of having perfect pitch ability are numerous. Here are a  few examples.
 
Let's say you are a piano player and hear a new song on the radio that you've never heard before. It's a good song and you really like it. If you've developed your perfect pitch skill then you could hear the song, recognize what the chords and chord changes are and figure out how to play it even before you sat down to a piano!

What if you were a sound man and you heard feedback squeeling over the PA.  Wouldn't it be neat to recognize what note was squeeling and instantly adjust the right EQ band because you had perfect pitch and also learned what frequencies are identified with what notes?

You can also sing any note from memory without using a pitch pipe, hear sheet music mentally as you read it, compose songs and melodies in your head, and much more.

If you've ever jammed with somebody and you are playing a song they have never heard before but they play along and it almost sounds as if they have played the song before, then you have seen an example of perfect pitch in action. That person may not even know they have it.

OK, so how's it learned?

Here's a good start:

Do you recognize the color red when you see it? Unless you are color blind, of course you do.
If you were in a room that was painted red and someone came in and started painting the wall a blue color, would you recognize that the paint didn't match? Of course you would! That's because you recognize the difference between red and blue. So why is it you don't recognize and name an A note or an E note when you hear it ? Simple. You were never taught to know (hear) the difference between an A and an E when you heard those notes by themselves. When you were a kid, you had flash cards that were green and red and orange, etc. You were taught to recognize the colors and their names, over and over again.

Hey! What if we did this with musical notes!?

Step one: You need to have a foundation. You need to start by recognizing one note. If you are a classical musician then I would suggest you start with middle C. If you play jazz, blues rock, pop and the like, you are going to start with an A note. The reason for this is that many many main stream songs are played on guitar and are written in A or E.

You'll need a way to play the correct A reference note. Whether that be a pitch pipe, a tuner or even a favorite song, you need to hear an A note over and over again. I recommend a simple pitch pipe because you can take it with you anywhere. Every day, several times a day, you need to listen to the A note. Try to sing the note before you hear it played. This will be your foundational reference point. Know what an A (440hz) sounds like!

When I first started working with perfect pitch, my reference A note was a favorite song I listened to (I'd swear a thousand times). It was in the key of A.

Hearing an A note over and over is just like shooting free throws. You do it over and over and over from the SAME reference point, the free throw line. Just like you can visualize yourself making a basket from the free throw line, you will be able to hear, in your head, an A note.

Do this day in and day out. Even after you get good at it, keep doing it. Sing that A note out loud then play it to confirm you are dead on.

A friend of mine was over the other day and he started singing a song. He was singing it correctly but in the wrong key. So I told him " you're singing it in the wrong key". He said "No I'm not. How do you know"? I said "I just heard that song last week. You're in the wrong key!" I was right. He was singing it too high. That song that I heard last week was still playing in my head, in the right key. You can do the same thing with the right instructions.

For the entire course in developing perfect pitch CLICK HERE

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Perfect Pitch Can Be Learned !

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