As a former musician, I believe perfect relative pitch can be taught, but absolute perfect pitch; the ability to determine a particular note with no point of reference, is an innate talent that few possess. In fact, I only knew of two such individuals. One was a fellow student in my Music Theory class and the other was my instructor for Conducting, a required course.

My musical discipline was rock, and as such, I was a rare bird; for formally trained rockers are not common. In fact, while studying music in college, I was rather frowned upon by those with classical and jazz backgrounds, especially when one considers that my major instrument was the bass guitar. When I attempted to play "legitimate" or string bass, more often than not the sounds resembled those of a sick moose. Let's just say that my bowing technique needed work.

Nevertheless, if you gave me a note, I could easily determine the interval relationship of the second note and tell you what pitch it was. We once had an aural test where the instructor played 100 different intervals on the piano, and I was the only person within the class who got every one of them correct. This is relative pitch, and quite an important skill for any musician to learn. Rock musicians especially need to rely on this because they learn material almost exclusively "by ear."

In the present day; however, I don't know if I'd still be able to accomplish that task, for my hearing has gone south and is not what it used to be. You see, that's the bad thing about having a rock background: You tend to listen to and play music so loud that it adversely affects your hearing over time. At 48, my hearing is now approximately that of a 70-year-old.

While those who have perfect pitch are apparently gifted by being born with this trait, they obviously still need to have knowledge of musical notes. This sadly suggests that there are individuals out there who have no talent whatsoever playing instruments who could have this inborn skill. I don't need to discuss the irony of such a predicament, but try to imagine somebody who could perfectly duplicate the pitch of something such as a school bell two hours after he or she heard it, yet have no dexterity to master a musical instrument.

Skilled musicians who have perfect pitch must go nuts when listening to instruments that are not based on a "Concert" C note. Some written woodwind and brass parts must be transposed down a major 2nd to B Flat while others must be kicked up a minor 3rd to E Flat. This never made sense to me when I was an avid pupil and still doesn't thirty years later. Those with the gift of perfect pitch could be playing one written note in the sheet music while hearing another. This would also occur if a rock guitarist decided for whatever reason not to adopt standard A= 440 tuning as found on a pitch pipe or tuning fork. As you can see, this would put the person with perfect pitch at a disadvantage.

Nevertheless, to answer the question: Can perfect pitch be taught or is it an innate talent? It is most assuredly the latter.

Learn more about this author, Patrick Sills.
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