That's a cool ability to have.
Now, the perfect pitch guys here should do something about it.
Be a world class musician or something, if not, what a waste...

Ryuuga...ya...my ears do have this perfect pitch thingy...but
it's not a big deal. Why? Cos SO MANY people have it! I personally know so many people with perfect pitch ability that it's nothing special anymore to me. Really, it's NO BIG DEAL.

There are a few levels of perfect pitch, IMO. Among all the perfect pitch frens I know...many can't tell if a piano's tuned in 440, 442 or 444. There really are different degrees of perfect pitch ability.

I know 1 'mad' fella who can instantly tell you if the piano's in 440 or not within 2 secs after he plays a note! My niece can name the pitch perfectly by ear if it it is played on a piano or string instruments. BUT She cant tell the pitch on brass, woodwind and other instruments! That's really crazy!

1 fella can even tell the pitch the neighbour's dog barks! If you dont believe, I will bring him to you and you test him when your dog barks and have a piano ready to check if he's right or wrong. really funny but he's always spot on with his pitching!!

Another fren can easily tell if the guitarist tuned the guitar down a tone or up a semitone just be looking at the guitarist's fretting hand and hearing him play.

2 of my frens sometimes can tell the pitch correctly...but sometimes they TOTALLY dont have perfect pitch! Thats' also crazy. I mean....how can they have perfect pitch on monday and on thursday they TOTALLY dont have it?? Then come Friday they'll have the perfect pitch ability again..only to losei t again the next day. Really crazy!

lol i totally don't have perfect pitch, but i always got that imperfect pitch going on, phew.

from my observation.

Those who studied yamaha begining the age of 4 usually have perfect pitch.

CAuse from young we are trained to sing solfege, and by the time we grow up, we already have all the pitches in our head.

If u check the survey, majority of perfect pitches started learning music at young ages.

i studied yamaha JMC at the age of 4.

but i still don't have perfect pitch...maybe i sux...

maybe u shy shy to sing solfege when your teacher ask cause u shy shy got lenglui same class with u

i sing very loud leh. there's no lenglui in the class somemore.

but i found that i really borned to be no perfect pitch at all. everytime i do the listening exam, i can identify each and every of the notes, just in wrong key. everytime i have to "test" before I start to play.

Perfect pitch is whether you have it or you don't. No 2 ways about it. You can even start music course at 1 year old...but if you don't have perfect pitch...you don't! As simple as that.

To get perfect pitch, you just have to train yourself in sight singing...

em, no such thing. like empire said, you either have, or don't.

lol your two last friends really cracked me up. Thats totally crazy man!
I know about the dog barks and they can even tell the pitch of car tyre screeches or alarm/honks.

But i've done some research on this subject before(because i was overly amazed by it and wanted to acquire this ability no matter what)
My findings state that everyone was born with perfect pitch. But as we grow up, we lose that ability because no training was done to 'enhance' the ability, thus we develop what is more commonly known as [relative pitch]
It is not much of an "inborn talent" as it is a highly trained skill. See, it is only about how the brain perceives it for what we hear is the same as what perfect pitches hear. But they way we CATEGORIZE the pitches in our brains is different from the way THEY categorize it.
A good example is when we hear a melodic phrase, we instantly register the ENTIRE phrase whereas Perfect Pitches(PP) recognizes it NOTE FOR NOTE.
This is the reason why we are all addicted to a catchy phrase of a chorus or a cool riff. Because we remember it as a "CATCHY PHRASE" or a COOL RIFF"
Its like if we were reading a book, we remember the whole sentence. Whereas PP would remember it word for word. Justs like that. The power of the brain. If somehow we were able to train the brain to perceive things differently, we will and can acquire the ability as well.

The ideal age to train this ability and to "burn" it into your brain is between the ages 3 and 4. Any later than that, 5 years old perhaps, will have difficulty enhancing the ability. I say difficulty enhancing because it is still not impossible to acquire. i've known people who are 30 over years old but could still acquire this ability due to vigorous training and hardwork. Most took about 2 years of continuos training everyday to acquire it.

Most of the so-called "natural" perfect pitches have early music training at the age of 3 to 4. Either they were sent to yamaha JMC or their parents are music scholars themselves.
Either way, i feel it was unfortunate that i was sent to yamaha JMC a bit later than others. I only started there during my later stages of 4 years old.

I feel the biggest setback of not having perfect pitch is that i am unable to play instantly what i create in my mind. If i would compare, having perfect pitch for a musician is like having photographic memory for an artist.

I'll say, its an amazing ability to have, and i want to understand it more clearly, so could the perfect pitches of this forum describe how do you perceive the tones when you hear them?
Also, would you be as amazed or addicted to a catchy phrase of a chorus or a cool riff as much as non PP people?

Ryuuga, i'd say perfect pitch people remember the whole phrase like relative pitch, but they can also recall or picture the exact pitch too. though i'm no perfect pitch so what do i know anyway.

as you said, it's some kind of photo memory for artist. but i don't see why such artist can guarantee to draw a good sketch. same goes to perfect pitch musician, not all of them play good music.

that's why i mentioned in the other thread - perfect pitch is just like an advantage, but have nothing to do with the profession in music at all. i have a long finger, doesn't mean i play good piano.

HUH??...Everyone's born with perfect pitch and you have to nurture it at ages 3 and 4?? I disagree totally. I have so many frens who started Yamaha JMC course at those ages...and today they are advanced Pianists and violinists YET they STILL don't have perfect pitch.

Really...no such thing. It's either you have it or you don't. Don't believe all the silly stories about identifying pitches as 'colours'. Perfect pitch people DONT hear a 'C' as green...'D' as blue and so on. We hear pitches as they are! A 440 'C' will sound like a 440 'C' to my ears. ..but a 442 'C' will NOT sound like a 440 "c' to my ears. No 'colour' involved....but pitch.

I have NEVER met anyone without perfect pitch ability for many years only to discover he had acquire it suddenly one day cos he 'worked' for it and took perfect pitch courses.

when we hear a catchy phrase, we hear it all.
but we dont hear it at humming pitches(donno how to say)
we hear the whole phrase as notes,(eg. Do mi so so do so mi do)

So the next time i sit down on the piano, i can play it out.
(eg. i nv played christmas song before, but my dad ask me play, so i sit on the piano, hum out the melody, and i remember how the whole song goes in the exact note( SO LA SO MI, SO LA SO MI), and i just play it out)

This discussion is interesting. All of you from Yamaha?

I studied some piano and we had this "aural test". The
examiner plays a note on the piano and you have to
sing it.

Until now, all I can do is to hear a few notes and then
duplicate it on the piano. Often it takes a few tries.

-yap

nonono, its not that they remember the whole phrase or not, but they way the PERCEIVE it is different. Like i said, if we were reading a book, they would be reading EVERY SINGLE WORD whereas RP people would "speed" read it through.

1) i don't know about your friends who started JMC at an early age but didnt develop perfect pitch, if i knew them i would most definitely ask them more about it, but then again, i didnt say everyone WILL get perfect pitch when they train musical skills at that age. It also boils down to how much they pay attention in the class, or how active are their participation. If they didn't do much during those classes then its the same as not having trained in music at an early stage at all!!
See, everyone goes to school, but not everyone becomes a professor or doctor right?

2)Identifying pitches as colours is an elaborated story. What they REALLY mean was the way PP hear pitches is the same as the way we see colours. When we see something, we can immediately identify the colour of it right? "this is red" "this is blue"
The same thing applies to PP, when they hear something, they immediately recognizes the pitch without second thought.

3)Again, i wouldn't know who you have or have not met, but research have proven that there are people who had acquire this ability GRADUALLY (not suddenly) through vigorous training. They do certain exercises everyday to slowly improve their way of hearing things and the end result they have tuned their brain so much so that they can perceive things differently.

Exactly my point, of course you would hear the whole phrase, but the way you understand it is note by note, whereas they way RP people understand it is the whole phrase.
So if i were to compare it with data, When an 8-note phrase is played, PP would probably register it as 8 separate datas whereas RP people would register it as 1 singular data. And if there was a label function, it would probably be "a catchy phrase of such and such song" whereas for PP, it would be "C C D E F# G A B"
So HOW does this way of perceiving pitches lead to "remembering" all the pitches?
Actually they dont. None of us can "remember" a pitch. But because of constant repetition of a particular pitch, it has become natural to PP that this is a middle 'C' etc.
Let me explain, When you first pick up a book to read, you would probably have difficulty reading every word right?
But after reading many books, and you see the same few words appearing again and again, the word would become natural to you and you can read it without a hesitation.
So same goes to PP.
The reason why RP people cannot "remember" pitches is the same. Because we speed through the whole sentence, we never really "Read" each word. Thus we never can "remember" the pitch ^^

You probably wouldn't realise it since all this happens within a fractions of a second, but this is roughly what is actually happening in your brain ^^
Again, the way we all hear it is the same, but how the brain processes the information is totally different.

ya, i nv notice that.
Just like a moment ago, i was watching full metal alchemist anime, so the background theme was playing.

I remembered it as RE FA MI FA SO, LA FA~ MI RE, RE etc etc
And i grab my harmonica and play it.

i just notice when i think of it, its not la la laal a, la la la, is notes by notes

ryugga...I admire your enthusiasm. If indeed one day you DO acquire perfect pitch on your own... I wanna meet you....cos you'll the be very 1st person I'll know who can acquire that on your own. Who knows...maybe you can then teach others how you acquire it.