Can perfect pitch be taught or is it an innate talent? 18 Articles

by Ian Loft

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...read more

by Patrick Sills

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...read more

by Heidi Labron

Having perfect pitch is not a talent, it is something you are born with, without a doubt. Many people confuse "relative" pitch with "perfect" pitch, but we can look at the differences here to determine whether perfect pit...read more

by The Dormouse

As a professional classical musician, I come across people with "perfect" pitch all the time. I'm supposed to have it myself, but 20 years of professional playing, performing, rehearsing and general banter with colleagues...read more

by Carolina Dream Coy

Some people are born with natural music abilities. I've known people who could listen to music, pick up an instrument and play exactly what they hear. Other people are born with a natural talent to sing with perfection. ...read more

by Talon Patience

Controversially, it seems, I do not think that one can be gifted at birth with any degree of pitch recognition, let alone 'perfect pitch'. 'Perfect' or 'absolute' pitch is a term with a somewhat subjective definition. Stri...read more

by Joseph Liau

Perfect pitch can no more be taught than can perfect vision. Pitch is a perception, and it can change over time. How do we even know what perfect pitch is? We don't really know if we hear the exact same sounds that ...read more

by Rich Pulin

Perfect pitch is God-given...PERIOD! This said, there are many of us, this writer included, that have relative pitch of varying degrees. An 'almost' perfect degree of relative pitch can be aquired. A simple exercise fo...read more

by Bob Schmidt

Perfect pitch is a phenomena unlike most, it is the ability to identity any musical note correctly with no point of reference. In forty years of tuning pianos to A-440, standard pitch, on a daily basis, I have only me...read more

by Andrew Spriggs

Perfect pitch, quite simply, is an enigma. If it is teachable, then no one yet can be sure how to teach it with a significant success rate. However, if it is innate, one must also look in awe at why or how some people are ...read more

by Chris Con

Perfect pitch is one of the most misunderstood terms in the world of music. The term should be changed to "pretty close pitch" or "really good pitch". Perfect pitch just doesn't exist in the voice-box of human man. You ...read more

by A. Major

Those born with perfect pitch consider it both a blessing and a curse. Those of us who have acquired the ability of relative pitch consider it a gift. After teaching instrumental music for 25 years, I have developed rela...read more

by Roger Pattison

The mechanics of hearing I find a fascinating subject, and one which should, surely, have a considerable bearing on the subject of pitch and its memorization. Accurate memorization of a pitch, one would imagine to be a sig...read more

by Fred Earls

Perfect Pitch is not something that can be taught, and it isn't a talent. I'd put it in the classification of a gift, almost unexplainable. Read on. Perfect Pitch is the ability to sing, or hum, a specific sound that ...read more

by Alycia Keavy

After playing the flute for five continuous years (and still going) I have come to recognize good and bad pitch. I myself do not have perfect pitch, but it is pretty good. My friend, on the other hand, seems to always hav...read more

by Richard Serra

All one has to do is to watch the beginning auditions for American Idol, and if anyone thinks that some who have absolutely no clue as how they sound can be taught perfect pitch, they are sadly mistaken. In order to hav...read more

by Amanda Billings

I believe that 'perfect pitch' really cannot be taught. I think that natural musical ability is a talent that you either have or you don't. There is a term in the music world where one is said to 'have an ear' for music....read more

by Idyllwilde

Ooooh, you picked a sore spot with me. I am a violinist and singer. I have sung since I was two or three - a Capella three part harmony. Pitch was never a question with me. You were either perfectly on, or you weren't. Thi...read more