
Are we all born with perfect pitch? - sarahf
https://medium.com/cuepoint/your-baby-knows-music-better-than-most-adults-e34bb619e860
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skippyta
I can't find in any of the linked sources any conclusive proof that all
children are born with perfect pitch. From my own research in 2011, I hadn't
discovered any papers which would make so bold of a conclusion.

This proposal[0] linked by the article mentions a few studies that show some
environmental factors that seem to have a high correlation to absolute pitch,
such as growing up around tonal languages, but nothing conclusive about
absolute pitch just being a thing that we all have but that most of us lose.
There are correlations to age groups, ethnic backgrounds, linguistic
backgrounds, and musical backgrounds, but again most studies have looked at
the environment for clues about how absolute pitch works as opposed to
presenting evidence of something innate.

Musical cognition is an absolutely fascinating field of study, and it
absolutely plays a critical role in the way humans function. However, I think
this article is a little click-bait-y, seemingly drawing an unfounded,
fantastical conclusion about a particularly popular aspect of the field. As
far as I can tell, it's completely unsubstantiated.

[0]
[http://www.auditory.org/mhonarc/2004/save/pdf00001.pdf](http://www.auditory.org/mhonarc/2004/save/pdf00001.pdf)

Edit: words are hard

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Florin_Andrei
Something major changes within our speech and/or auditory systems after early
childhood. We lose the ability to learn fine differences such as the accent.
It's not clear whether this is a difference in the way speech (sound) is
perceived, or our ability to pronounce, or something in between.

Sure, accent is not pitch, it's more like timbre. In any case, both are
related to the ability to do spectral analysis of the sound, and act upon it.

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3111
It has been shown that this changes after childhood, and that certain drugs
(valproate) can reverse this effect.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3848041/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3848041/)

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baddox
The article is written in such a fantastical style that my BS-meter was going
off the entire time, so I wish I had the experience or time to determine how
valid these conclusions are from the studies linked.

The only anecdotal experience I can bring to the discussion is that I have
seemed to acquire a _very_ limited version of absolute ("perfect") pitch,
whereby I occasionally will hear a note or chord and instantly perceive the
unmistakable "C minor-ness." Sadly, while the phenomenon seems to be perfectly
reliable when it occurs, it only occurs rarely. This is probably what
Wikipedia calls "pitch memory" rather than absolute pitch.

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sjtgraham
Absolute pitch doesn't tell you the quality of the chord, it only tells you
its constituent notes. To know that a chord is minor is simply relative pitch
aka ear training.

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baddox
I just meant that I can occasionally recognize both, e.g. I will hear a chord
at the beginning of a song and instantly know "A minor." You're right, only
the "A" part is the absolute pitch. I can always recognize the "minor" part,
which is just easy relative pitch.

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Bud
The biggest howler in the article might be this: "Piano tuners frequently
possess this gift, making their seemingly difficult craft effortless."

In actuality, absolute pitch is of hardly any utility in piano tuning. Even
those who are recognized as having some degree of "perfect" pitch very very
very rarely can tell 440 Hz from 440.1 Hz, which is the sort of thing a piano
tuner deals with. And this task is always done with electronic help anyway,
these days.

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KaiserPro
Its quicker if you don't need a tuner.

The key (forgive the pun,) is to listen for the tell-tale signs of a slight
discord.

Most people can get within 2hz on the same note. With practice you can use one
note to tune another.

For example when I worked in a sound studio, I could tune a guitar using a
single reference note(e, a, d, g or b) (without harmonics or similar) More
skilled people could use other notes.

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Bud
Right. And the point is, none of what you are describing requires perfect
pitch or is even helped by it.

Just another example of a non-musical writer with no understanding of the
difference between absolute pitch, and relative pitch.

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__david__
A music teacher once explained it to us like this: "perfect pitch" is simply
memory. If you recall what something sounds like you can can compare and
figure out what any note is. Some people have an amazing memory, some people
have to work at it. But you can create all kinds of mnemonics to help you
remember things, and pitch is no different.

By the end of his class I had a firm grasp on all the intervals and was
getting _really_ good at getting absolute notes. Had I continued training
myself I have no doubt I could be considered to have "perfect pitch" (as could
most of the class). It really demystified the whole thing to me.

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tmuir
Mnemonics is totally how it works for me. I can hear songs in my head in tune.
Through learning to play guitar, I've memorized songs for each note, by the
first chord of each song.

A: Jessica, Allman Brothers

A#: In Bloom, Nirvana

B: Out on the Weekend, Neil Young

C: Like a Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan

C#: Say it Aint So, Weezer

D: Moonage Daydream, David Bowie

D#: Woman, John Lennon

E: Melissa, Allman Brothers

F: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana

F#: Foxy Lady, Jimi Hendrix

G: Santa Monica, Everclear

G#: Brain Stew, Greenday

The only part I'm not completely convinced is a learned skill is being able to
internalize the song in the first place.

Intervals are the same.

Minor 2nd: The Jaws theme

Major 2nd: Mary had a Little Lamb

Minor 3rd: What Child is This

Major 3rd: Kumbayah

Perfect 4th: Here Comes the Bride

Tritone: The Simpsons

Perfect 5th: The Star Wars Theme

Minor 6th: Close Every Door to Me

Major 6th: The NBC Theme

Minor 7th: Somewhere(Theres a place for us)

Major 7th: Take on Me

Octave: Somewhere over the Rainbow

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b6
This is amazing. Thanks so much for posting this. I "listen" to music all day
in my head but never thought about using it to be able to sing the specific
notes. I'm looking forward to trying this later with my guitar.

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tjradcliffe
No. The inference from "every baby in this study has perfect pitch" to "every
baby has perfect pitch" is as unwarranted as "every person I have ever met is
handed so ambidextrous people don't exist."

Most babies may well have better pitch than the vast majority of adults. To
claim therefore that every baby has perfect pitch is sensationalist,
unwarranted, and almost certainly wrong. Very poor science-reporting.

The interesting question, as always, is what the distribution is, not sweeping
and almost certainly false categorical claims ("All members of category X have
property Y!")

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mrob
From one of the studies cited: (
[http://www.auditory.org/mhonarc/2004/save/pdf00001.pdf](http://www.auditory.org/mhonarc/2004/save/pdf00001.pdf)
) "We conclude that the potential to acquire absolute pitch is universally
present at birth, and that it can be realized by enabling the infant to
associate pitches with verbal labels during the critical period for speech
acquisition."

The article claims "each and every one of us is born with perfect pitch", but
this is not cited, and being born with absolute (aka. perfect) pitch is not
the same as being born with the potential to learn absolute pitch.

EDIT: Possibly evidence for babies being born with absolute pitch was hidden
behind a misleading link (the "synesthesia" link). But full text is paywalled
so I can't be sure:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11206435](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11206435)

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derefr
I think it's just the common mistake of misunderstanding how to invert a
logical implication.

Which is to say, what the journalist _meant_ was "no one is born tone-deaf."

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vixen99
And to write 'of those babies we have examined...'.

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rrss1122
Just to add another anecdote, I feel like the people I know who are able to
whistle generally recall pitches very accurately, they just can't name the
pitches without further training.

Whistling isn't hard to learn, and it is easier to control pitch through
whistling than it is through singing (in my experience). I feel like whistling
can be very helpful in revealing "perfect" (or very accurate) pitch recall in
people.

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dfan
I don't know that putting labels on pitches at a young age was a sufficient
condition for my perfect pitch, but I feel like it was necessary.

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sukilot
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis for music.

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est
Mandarin is linked with perfect pitch

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041114235846.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041114235846.htm)

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zgniatacz
radiolab episode that deals with this

[http://www.radiolab.org/story/91512-musical-
language/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/91512-musical-language/)

