Perfect pitch is both an innate talent as well as an acquired skill taught using the appropriate methods and resources. Few people in the world are truly tone-deaf, many that believe they are lack the training, experience and perhaps the interest in developing this skill. Another reason that may be the cause of tone-deafness is hearing or intellectual impairment otherwise it can be said that anybody that can identify changes in pitch have potential to learn perfect pitch.

Perfect pitch is the ability to identify pitch accurately and with no other reference source. Illustrating this concept You wake up from a sleep and hear a note from a piano key in the adjacent room and correctly identify the note by pitch. You hear a series of notes or music in a given key then, without any reference to guide, you correctly identify the pitch of one single note in a completely unrelated key. A third illustration is somebody asking you to sing at the pitch of A5 and you can do this precisely without a reference source such as an instrument your pitch is subsequently verified using an instrument correctly tuned. All three of these examples relate to the skill of perfect pitch. For the gifted few instruction is not necessary.

In order to develop perfect pitch, it is important to begin using structured and accurate reference sources, usually a well-tuned piano. A stringed instrument is workable provided you remember that strings are susceptible to detuning far more easily than a piano. Modern 21st century electronic keyboards in good working order will not go out of tune. Start with middle-C and learn to recognise semi-tone pitches over a one-octave range ascending and descending from middle-C.

Test yourself by singing or humming what you think the correct pitch of a note within the range is and then sound the key to confirm your accuracy. This takes time and practice but it is not impossible for most people to learn. Perfect pitch is only a keen memory of pitch and ability to identify it. We learn this skill in the same way we learned to read books and recognise the meaning of words. The only difference is that reading words put meaning by images or concepts while pitch gives meaning to sound as our point of reference.

Unfortunately, for the truly tone-deaf or hearing impaired, perfect pitch may not be possible to achieve. As stated above, most people who claim or believe they are tone-deaf are not. This belief is usually the result of no training or practice yet if people claiming this can identify changes in pitch they are able to learn perfect pitch within the range of their hearing. A truly tone-deaf person lacks any ability to discern pitch variation and you will sometimes identify them by their monotone or very limited tone variation in general speaking.

Perfect pitch is both an innate talent as well as an acquired or learned skill. It is possible to learn using the right methods of training and with dedicated practice. People with hearing impairment or that are truly tone-deaf will not develop the skill. It is reasonable to argue that true tone-deafness is a hearing impairment yet the human ear is capable of discernment over quite a large range. It is a range of discernment that gives most an ability to appreciate music.

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