I had NEVER felt the need to develop perfect pitch, until this guy said it was impossible... weird.

I don't know why everyone's worried about perfect pitch. It doesn't inherently make you a better musician, composer, songwriter or person. If your songs aren't good, and you develop perfect pitch, your songs still aren't good. Now you know what key it's in though.

As a musician, I have played enough music to develop tinnitus with a constant pitch that I can use as a reference to find other notes. Tbh its a pro strat

But should I tune my baby to 440 Hz or 432 Hz?

What about adults that act like babies? Can they develop 'perfect pitch'?

While it's too late for me. I'm definitely writing this down on my "Things to do as a parent" list.

I think people need to understand that many trained musicians can imitate perfect pitch without actually having absolute pitch. Having notes fixed in your mind means you’re still relying on relative pitch. Absolute pitch means that you don’t have to think about it.

6:06 as a linguist, I've got to say: this is actually a pretty good explanation of how babies learn language. Your definition of a phoneme is a bit erroneous, but I am so impressed with the rest that it doesn't even bother me. Well done, Rick! Educating people on all fronts!

I have perfect pitch. I can usually guess the right one in 12 tries.

I developed perfect pitch at 85 years old after a near death experience and I am also a rocket scientist and a professional luthier, so you're obviously wrong Mr. Beato.

Im an adult and I developed perfect pitch, bud. I can always name the note within 12 tries almost instantaneously. You will probably dismiss that as guessing, but I know what Im talking about. Sincerely, Easily offended, highly skilled, internet keyboard warrior.

A minute of silence for all the babies whose parents listen to reggaeton.

just told my wife "we gotta have another kid"

You sir, just saved yourself $20 on a guitar tuner.. well played..

Rick needs to make a 'perfect pitch baby training' Spootify playlist :D

I started taking music lessons at 7 but didn't really start studying music until I was about 20, and then again at about 55. Even though I became movement impaired from a head injury in my late teens that prevents me from handling most instruments well, when I eventually found a instrument I could handle in my 50s, I was able to improv some very cool stuff. This video kind of explains how a movement impaired person could still have better than average improv ability. I love this YT channel!

I started playing bass at 52, now 55. I'm not worried about perfect pitch, I'm just worried about trying to remember what I studied yesterday. learning something new at this age is tough but a passion. as far as hearing, I can still hear my wife yelling at me. all good.

Perfect pitch is when you throw a banjo out the window and you hit an accordion player.

Dylan’s understanding of chords, pitches, tones, etc is truly amazing. Hearing him identify and sing every note in a huge jumble of random notes is just awesome. That must be an incredible skill to possess, assuming the person who has it is actually interested in creating music.

Son of a pitch!

people think if only they had perfect pitch they would be creative musical genius. Really, they should just start practicing their instrument and/or writing songs

The father of a friend had perfect pitch and he hated it. One day when my friend was rehearsing w/ his band in the backyard, his father stormed all the way from the house, and yelled at the guitar player: "can't you just tune that damn B string right!? Jesus it's driving me nuts!" He left and they all looked at each other in disbelief. The guitar player got the tuner w/out a word, and it turns out the B string was a little flat for about 10%. The father coudl tell ALL THE WAY into the freaking house!! In the MIX!!! I'll take my unperfect pitch, thanks.

Hi Rick, Great video! I think my case might be a little interesting to you though. I started piano when I was 8, but my mom played "high information music" from since before I was born, and I think my particular case is a bit weird. After hearing a song, I remember it in its original key, and I can sing it in its original key. In fact, when I was a kid I would get really annoyed when people didn't sing songs in the correct key. I still kind of do, actually. I can name any pitch I hear, in isolation, but I can't do it in context. It's not instantaneous though. Something about multiple notes confuses me. However, if I think about it for a little bit, I'll know the pitch. If you ask me to sing a note, I can. I also have a hard time naming notes. I focused all of my training efforts on relative pitch, and combined with what I could already do does the job, but yeah... So it seems like it's not a binary thing - maybe for some people, some parts of "absolute pitch" are retained into adulthood on various levels? Either way, there's much more important things for a musician to focus on than perfect pitch in my opinion. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Rick I appreciate your insight & videos so much! You got me hooked with "Them Bones" and I've been watching ever since. I'd love to think I could work with you one day even if it was only recording single song. I can only imagine what you'd throw at it besides the kitchen sink. Thanks for all you do!

perfect pitch is when you can instantly recognize notes and chew gum at the same time

Meh, I'm going to develop perfect pitch tomorrow before lunch.

This man is right. I know, because I have a childhood friend that possessed this phenomenon. We grew up going to the same church and playing/singing music together. It was in my teen years that I remember my friend being able to tell me what note I was playing, humming, whistling...or if I was somewhere between the natural and the semitone. Yes I always checked on the piano. It's truly phenomenal.

Wow i love your channel or rather the way you explain things,i don't know why but it's so clear and stimulate something inside.What i mean is i was dead tired and ready to go to bed and started listening to"what makes this song great" and then "the mixolydian mode" and now this video.Music has been a big part of my life as a listener and practicing singing.A lot of teachers not only in music but in all subjects of life don't know how to capture the interest to open the intellect and then inject the knowledge.thank you for this moment

Same goes for recognizing colors. The ability to see and recognize every color in spectrum won't make you a great painter.

Got 99 problems but a pitch ain't 1

Fascinating talk! And very well presented. Thanks, Rick. Really awesome stuff!!!

Some of the greatest pianists and guitarists in the world never had perfect pitch. For heaven's sake Chuck Berry, or Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton or David Gilmour or Brian May or Slash or Kurt Cobain never had it and yet they had a great ear for music and created some of the most influential pieces of music in history...it's important to note that there's a lot of people out there with perfect pitch with perfect pitch yet it's only the chosen few that constitute the musical greats because they may be really good at naming notes and chords but have no specific flair at using them to make good music...what really matters is how you think about music and what you want your music to sound like, something that gives your music your individuality, and that my friend is what all the above legends have executed successfully and with breathtaking finesse

1) A kid develops perfect pitch 2) Shows off for a while and makes his parents proud as hell. 3) Switches to rap music.

I have perfect pitch. Unfortunately, the world doesn't have perfect catch.

Fascinating! I wish my parents had known this. However there is one complication which you don't mention, which I think can have an effect on this process. If I understand you correctly, the exposure must (mainly) be of music in equal temperament, at a'=440. Thus, microtonal music and music of (say) other cultures not using our traditional western scale could interfere with this learning process. One also has to be careful about early recordings, as the speed was not completely standardized and many old jazz and even classical recordings sound well off-pitch when played at a standard 78 RPM. Also, as a harpsichordist and early music specialist, I hear and play music at different pitch levels. An "a" can be anywhere from 392 hz to 460 hz depending on the instrument, not counting "quint" pitch instruments. This also doesn't take into consideration unequal temperaments frequently used on keyboard instruments other than the modern piano. And a further complication, I probably did my own kids a musical disservice: In our home (both parents musicians), I might play a Glenn Gould or Wanda Landowska recording of the Italian Concerto, both at 440 with equal temperament, then go to my own harpsichord (tuned at 392, a whole step below modern pitch) and play the same work, which my kids now hear in Eb major in modified meantone! That kills the "Star Wars" pitch notion. To make it worse, other recordings I might play using antique instruments might be at 415, 430, other pitch levels. The famous Schnitger organ at Zwolle sounds a minor third above modern pitch! Another factor, although probably not a factor as it happens much later--when kids start to play French horn, trumpet, clarinet, or sax in grade school, the notes no longer match the pitches they produce. This took me a while to overcome when I started playing horn in 4th grade. Sorry this got so long-winded, but I thought this might be some useful food for thought.

A truly wonderful video. Thank you. This alone would have made me a subscriber if I hadn't already subscribed. I'm a language teacher as well as a songwriter-so much of this made so much sense.

From this day forth I'm starting all my comments with "I'm a neurosurgeon and..."

Dear sir. Only twice in my 66 year long life have I been fortunate enough to hear as thorough and reasoned an explanation as the one that you have presented here, and that was by a nephew of a Nobel price winning physicist, who explained quarks, which, like your presentation, left no questions unanswered. Your brilliant presentation is absolutely worthy of a TED talk. My hats off to you, Sir. BTW, I'm a composer, and I do not have PP.

I have been blessed with perfect pitch. I'm 70 with tinnitus and can still pull it off. What's cool is I have an 18-year-old grandson who has it and is also so blessed. I got him into guitar, so now we have fun jamming together. I've played guitar and piano since I was 11 years old and added blues harmonica about 20 years ago. Music is a blast

This is the most fascinating video - because you are absolutely right :-) This plasticity of the mind regarding sounds, language and music happens when we are very young. I grew up in a musical family surrounded by all styles of music played by my father - which I deeply loved. I didn't develop any kind of perfect pitch as such, but it seems that I developed a perfect perception of 'sounds' in general - of which music was naturally a part, and most probably was the cause. So although I do play music and it has been my life, I do not remember or recall music as notes at all - instead I recall it as 'sounds' with amazing accuracy. From this I can infer tone and harmony and can play it - but that's a secondary function of logic and effort. Anyway when I was 7 years old I was sent for music lessons. After a year I was claimed to be some kind of model student because my ability to learn so fast? But I NEVER actually learned the music itself from reading it. Instead I would bring the works I was supposed to learn home and question my Dad about some part of it, to which he would simply play the whole piece anyway. So having heard it just once I could just play the whole thing based on nothing more than a sonic memory of it! This was a natural thing I found easy. After a year, they gave me a piece of music I'd never heard before or learnt - as a test - but of course I couldn't play a single note of what was written in the music - not one :-( I was stuttering through it note by note, desperately referring to the most basic bass and treble clefs like a total beginner! My Dad was utterly furious and I got a clip around the ear for being a 'blasted fraud' - the music teacher was fired and I was never sent for lessons ever again. But having realised I could do this I just started to play music by ear, eventually played in bands - and in fact had a whole career in the design of recording equipment - i.e. all things sound related. One colleague presented me to some visitors once as 'the nearest thing to a human signal analyser you'll ever meet'! LOL

i developed perfect pitch by practicing my right arm throw

I used to harmonize with the vacuum cleaner when I was 3 years old.

Hi Rick. Love these little clips with your son nailing those tones and pitches (awesome). btw, this topic is so interesting, and the things about how a baby learn complex stuff, is just mind-blowing. Cheers from Denmark

What if I listened to every Pink Floyd album as a baby, do I have psychedelic pitch?

I never get how people can hear every single note when playing a huge chord, especially a disonant one... Crazy and respectable

I grew up learning piano, starting around age of 5, then played in school band, keyboard and percussion (mainly timpani). I dont know if that was a coincidence or not, but most pieces we practiced had the note E flat in the Timpani section. Over the 3-4 years of participating in band and tuning and playing on timpani the note E flat just stick to my head. At first i still need to tune timpani with keyboard, after about 2 years I find it much easier to just first find E flat and work my way to every notes. My band teacher once was mad at me because i wasnt tuning the Timpani with my keyboard. He was very passionate about music and everything being perfect. So i understood why he would be upset because he didnt want to hear the out of tune timpani section ruining the whole piece. He asked a trumpet player to play a A flat note and asked me what that was. Surprisingly i got it right. He thought i had perfect pitch and said "good for you". But deep down i know i didnt have it, because I sang E flat in my mind and found A flat. Nevertheless it was great hearing "good for you" from my band teacher in front of the whole band. Especially from him because i respected him a lot, not because he was being nice when we make mistakes. On the contrary he was very strict, short tempered and the facial expression he makes when one or two player is out of tune and i could almost hear him screaming inside. Anyways, just sharing personal stories. I immediately thought about my old band teacher when i was watching the video, even though i graduated almost a decade ago.

I really appreciate this video, a very dear friend of mine and lead guitar player in my band actually has perfect pitch. He has never really known why or how he acquired it. He always thought it was just something genetic. When watching this video he began having memories of his deceased father playing bach and bethoven in the house and his constant access to a piano.

As a music teacher I get a lot of adults asking me about perfect pitch. Often many people confuse it with relative pitch. When I explain that, with practice, they can achieve a good enough ear to transcribe music and play what they hear they are usually satisfied. Perfect pitch is, as they say, overrated, at least for what most people want.

I think some people _realize_ they have perfect pitch as an adult and confuse it with having _learned_ it as an adult.

I loved it! The fact that most of the greatest instrumentists do NOT get absolute pitch is killing. Great demonstration, thanks !

How did you become this guy? I never cease to be amazed at what you understand about music. I am going to stop now because I don't want to sound like a mooning teenager. Thank you for putting yourself on display for us. It really has enriched my life (as well as humbled me as the musical idiot that I currently am). You make me want to work harder and dig deeper ... or sell all my guitars and become a truck driver ... oh, wait, that won't work, trucks are going to drive themselves soon. OK, I'll be a grave digger ... no, AI robots will be doing that ... flip burgers ... nope, already have AI robots doing that, #$%^&*! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to work harder and dig deeper. Thanks.

having perfect pitch myself, i think what could be stressed more is the encouragement (and spreading of the information) that its actually not that hard to develop a relative pitch that with enough training becomes almost indistinguishable from perfect pitch in a musicians daily life. yes, you need ONE reference note at the beginning of the session, but thats it. you basically say this in your video too, but i think it could have been placed more prominently. ah well, monday quarterback brabbling on my part, pardon :) one more thing though: a phenomenon that is not talked about as often is the rather sad process of slowly losing perfect pitch with age. i initially thought of this as an urban myth (or a bedtime spook story of sorts ;), but this has now happened to 100% (!) of the people i know that have perfect pitch and are in their mid 40s or higher. the science behind it seems to suggest that this is because of the ever changing shape of our ears and the varying angles in which the soundwaves hit them as a result. im starting to experience it myself too, im now a fraction of a tone off. my "insticts" that used to be infallable have become a bit insecure, and at least for the first note that i hear, i need a moment to remind myself that my hearing is slightly detuned and i need to imagine the tone a bit deeper to be correct. it confuses the s**t out of me, sadly. i grew up with 440hz tuning, and it feels wrong now. i have an old piano in the studio that "hangs at 434", and when i sit there, hooray, im back to having infallable perfect pitch. now, for colleagues of mine, it has become a lot more extreme. and this is where *relative* pitch becomes a new meaning and importance. when youve been a pro musician your entire life, you usually have a very developed relative pitch, and that is what you then need to rely on in support of your used-to-be-perfect pitch. my father (also used to have PP) at age 80 is now a full halftone off. so the process in his brain is "i hear a tone, i transpose it in my mind one halfstep up, thats the note". which ironically makes it easier for him that it is for me with my micro detuning ;) anyway, you need the security that comes with trained relative pitch (especially maximum confidence with intervals, which can be learned as adult) because if you *used* to have perfect pitch, unlike somebody who just always worked with relative pitch, you have this internal conflict for every new note that you hear where your ex-PP says "that of course is a G" while your RP will say "this is a fifth over the B that you just heard, so its of course an f sharp". bottom line: relative pitch is super important even for people with perfect pitch. the good news is that, if you have perfect pitch, during the many many many years where your perfect pitch is fully intact, if you do play music, you unconsciously train relative pitch all the time as well, because of your constant awareness of all the notes you hear - awareness of their interval relationship to each other is then just a mere statistical process that your brain does. and its, thankfully, something you dont lose. like, my perfect pitch is now slightly f***ed because my "calibration is off" - but since intervals are independant of whether you hear 440 or 434 or whatever, you could still play me the weirdest intervals for a dozen years nonstop and i would still be able to identify all of them without ever making a mistake. so, that part of the "color palette feel" of hearing thankfully doesnt go away. rant over. sorry :)

I dont understand why people get stuck on having perfect pitch... music is fun, expressing your emotions... just compose and play your favorite music... and dont worry about having perfect pitch.

This has been one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a long time. Thank you!

Just hit up my epileptic homie for the sweet Valproate hook up - I’m boutta be a musical genius. Catch me by the freeway diagnosing the pitch of car horns.

Sup, pitches?

When I was back in uni studying music, I knew a few fellas having perfect pitch. They hated it. Claiming that most music sounded out of tune to them. Im quite happy with my average relative pitch :-)

I’ve been mimicking the sounds of things all my life and people have been weirded out by how accurate I get them. I do not have perfect pitch, but I do have a pretty nice relative pitch. I don’t know the names of any notes, but I can tell you how far they are apart by just hearing two. If I hear a note I can accurately find it on a piano on either the first or second try, but I still don’t know the names. I think that’s how far my relative pitch goes, and I think tons of people have it the way I do, I just wanted to share.

Maybe we just need to learn a new way to teach perfect pitch

I think people are mistaking perfect pitch with a great ear. They are two different things!!!!

This guy has a son and he has perfect pitch....so someday he will become a guitar tuner.....

Rick, I'm writing this, because I want to encourage everybody that perfect pitch is not unachievable. But, saying that, because I belive - and I'm saying believing , not knowing, that perfect pitch, well, is a gift that anyone has. But .... [break] I was playing on keyboards since very early age. Since that time, it was natural to me, in the same way that we can name colors, to name a 'C' or an 'F#', whatever. Fast forward. At some point, I was teaching music theory at a college, and, to my surprise, I noticed that a lot of people were capable of singing (not playing) "Jump" in C, or whatever song, in the proper key. Without knowning, just unconsciosly. I believe, that this ability is given to anyone, but, very few peoply learn to name the pitches like we name the colors. When I watch you and your son, it's really impressive to see the easiness of naming the keys you hit. And, even more, to name the various parts of a complex chord, or a cluster. And I learned, that more people were able to do "perfect pitch" skills that actually performed on instruments that had an well defined association between instrument and pitch. Like, you're playing a piano, or a violin. I mean, not like playing a sax, with a couple of different tunings. Long story short, I believe, this is a perception we all have, but only few had the chance to keep it, keeping the association between sound and naming. While I was teaching music theory, I was deeply impressed by the ability of performing jazz players to be able to tell a e.g. Blab9b13 Chord in a millisecond. They also learned to associate a sound impression with an abstract word. As a musician with perfect pitch, it took me ages to tell the single notes, and to deduce the chord. But, this was like them understanding the picture while I was still struggling to tell the colors. For me, I learned, we all have that gift, it's just that it probably isn't supported that well, or it might not be required that much. So, to anybody desiring to have perfect pitch, I argue that you do have it. It's about listening to it. Which might be a fascinating journey. But you can do it.

I got it since I was a kid but I spent many years without knowing the names of the notes. I just knew how they sounded. I started to study again and I was set. It's really handy to tune instruments and use alternate tunings. I noticed my daughter recognizes pitch changes and I will start to try to train if she recognizes notes. It should be fun.

Given that I’m a 53 year old kid that never grew up, there’s still hope for me 😁

Now I know why my 10-year old son only knows 4 notes in perfect pitch after I put him to sleep with Justin Bieber's and Taylor Swift's songs when he was a baby..

Great Video and subject Matter! BTW your son is Amazing and lucky that you are his dad! Sometime could you do a bit documenting his development and interactions playing and or singing with you and or others! Facinating!

I thank you for the concise presentation! The necessity of ear training before it’s too late can not be overstated!

Hey i developed perfect pitch. I'm completely tone deaf so every note sounds the same to me. I just gave that note a name and now i can accurately name every note based off my own perception of it. Check and mate.

Actual Title of this Video: Why my son is better than you.

Rick how do you do this? Every video is better then the last. I am so thankful I found your channel

Great video and I agree. I tried developing perfect pitch in college. The training was helpful in that it taught me how to listen more deeply. Relative pitch is surface listening, perfect pitch is a deeper and more subtle perception. It's a perception that can exercised. But adults who try this should discard all notions of being "perfect". Yes I can name pitches without a reference. Yes I can reproduce a pitch without a reference. And YES... I have good and bad days... in that sense, it's definitely NOT "perfect". However, that doesn't diminish the value to be gained from training for it. It enhances auditory perception and therefore can also deepen ones enjoyment and appreciation of music. At the end of the day, you have nothing to lose by training for it. Just don't expect to be like Dylan or Jacob Collier.

Obsessing over perfect pitch is like obsessing over high IQ. If you have it, cool. If not, cool.

As a follow up to this video, I think it would be useful if you could find people with perfect pitch and people with great relative pitch and give them to aural tests like you did to Dylan.

Imma weigh in on this one from personal experience. You are right in both premises, Rick; perfect pitch happens early. Also, parents who expose their kids to complex, deep music are doing the very best thing possible to nurture their children's innate musical talent. I do not have perfect pitch, but I do have real good relative pitch. My parents played classical music all the time when I was a baby. They also taught me to read before I went to preschool. They did this by reading me a bedtime story every night until I was 2, at which point they began asking me questions about the story; they began showing me words from the story and had me define the words. Then it was handing me the book and letting me read to THEM. It started with just one sentence and went on until age 4 when I could read whole stories to them. Result? I could read on a 6th grade level in preschool. I started piano lessons at age 7 and in 2 years I was doing recitals in which I played Beethoven, Bach, Handel, and other composers. I had a problem though; I could never force myself to stick to the music exactly as written. I had to improvise, and I had no idea that putting two minutes of my own Improvisation in the middle of a classical piece would piss off so many people🤣😹. But my teacher said that I should cultivate that ability no matter what anyone said. When I was 16 I got an electric guitar, a LesPaul gold top!(my mom said I should learn on a good instrument), and my life was set. I became a musician and will die a musician. Because I had the experience you describe (having complex music around me constantly as a child & bring taught to read well at a very young age), I can really feel ya on this subject. And to those who feel like you are being slighted by Rick's statement, it isn't personal. By far the most commonly useful pitch ability for musicians is strong relative pitch. Perfect pitch is rare, a combination of genetics and the environment surrounding a person as a baby. I had everything going for me and did not develop perfect pitch. I had a friend who did have perfect pitch, though, and she had moments in which she hated it. The tiny variations in pitch that makes music played by humans so appealing would sometimes drive her batshit crazy, and my tendency to employ creative dissonance in parts of my music caused her distress! It wasn't just me either; she would literally scream when I put on Hendrix and he'd be making his guitar sound like an air raid in progress,🤣. All of that said, during all my years as a musician, I have yet to run across one person who 'taught themselves perfect pitch.'

Rick, you are completely correct. First off, adults have gone through many stages where ringing in their ears occur. When that ringing occurs, that means the frequency you hear is being lost forever. You can't get it back. That effects your overall auditory pallet. Secondly, perfect pitch is more about sense then it is about learning or memorizing notes. It is, what you said, the same way we learn colors. At an early age we learn what color is red, green, or blue. Now, that said, I did happen to pick up a skill where I GAINED A CONCEPT of 440 pitch in order to tune a guitar. I worked for a guitar company where my job was to string up guitars all day and my 440 pitch was adequate to say the least. I could have tuned my ear better in order to be more precise but here and there I had to use a Snark.

Fantastic (and true) observations Rick. I am a musician here in the UK who studied and worked at EMI electronics in the 1960's. As a young scientist I worked with the team that made the first brain scanner - I was the young engineer that made many of the components used in 'The EMI scanner' - a simple machine by modern standards. I also started playing guitar at the age of seven and although I have very good relative pitch I couldn't claim to have perfect pitch per se. However, my son William (now 27) does have it and I agree with your observations as to why babies do develop this skill . I started teaching William to sing when he was a baby - he also listened to a lot of jazz, classical and progressive rock from the cradle ( not that he had a choice in that!). He now is a professional musician and plays most instruments (stringed), drums and percussion. He also has a perfect tempo clock in his head - again from learning so early I believe. Between us we run a recording studio, build guitars and train and teach players to build, repair and play... Absolutely love your no BS youtube channel. Regards, Robbie

I am a linguist so I can confidently say, someone did their homework! well done!

Hey I really enjoyed this video. Something tells me that you have given your best efforts to achieving perfect pitch and, instead of self-pitying, you chose this give it to your son so you could watch your dreams manifest through your son. I respect that. And I'm certain that your son will grateful to you for thay gift, regardless of whether he uses it or not. God bless you.

Thanks rick for connecting with people like you do . What a rich life you are sharing Because you care . I know that you don't have to but you choose To. Thanks

Oliver Sacks discusses perfect pitch at length in Musicophila. He mentions a number of cases where a brain injury (the planum temporale is especially related to perfect pitch) affected pp in different ways, in one case shifting the individual's pp by 1 semitone! And although some individuals have gained (or lost) great musical abilities after a brain injury, he never mentions this ever resulting in acquiring perfect pitch. HOWEVER, in a different chapter on Musical Savants he describes someone with autism who became a musical savant at 16 (a late age for this) including the ability to reproduce complex chords, instantly reproduce melodies, AND perfect pitch!

I must’ve developed my AP by luck of the draw. When I was eighteen months old, I developed benign relandic epilepsy, and got the rare form which caused learning delays. I couldn’t understand language, so I developed musical abilities instead. I would sing wordless melodies perfectly, and when I started piano at seven years old, I’d been asking for lessons for two years before that. I finally got caught up in language with everyone else when I was five, but I still don’t understand some subtle language nuances. I physically can’t learn other languages. Lastly, when I was nine, my technique teacher did the note-naming tests and I got it right every time. My epilepsy went after puberty, but I still have perfect pitch. It doesn’t go away even if I don’t use it. I can’t remember not having it. I wasn’t exactly born with it, but my brain went whack so I acquired it.

It’s a wonderful talent you have nurtured in Dylan. I am in awe! Your love of music will stay with him throughout his life. It’s a real gift. I enjoy your videos very much. Keep up the good work. What makes this song great. Anything from Yes, Genesis or CSNY would be awesome.

I love the way you explain and present things. Thank you

Hi I myself have perfect off pitch.

Perfect pitch is when one throws an accordion into a dumpster and it lands on a banjo.

This is the most comprehensive and well articulated dissertation I have ever seen regarding the dynamics and cognition of perfect pitch. I have debated this issue so many times on various forums that I almost have comments and replies memorized in support of this topic. I would like to ask you this: there is a school of thought that people must be born with the rare ability of discerning perfect pitch. With than in mind, allow me to use your extraordinary son for instance. Because your son definitely developed absolute pitch as a young child, could it be argued that he could not have developed this ability had he not been been born with the inherent predisposition for it? Or, is it possible for any child to develop perfect pitch during that critical age span? Again, I absolutely loved your video and I would love to hear your ideology on the predisposition theory with respect to perfect pitch.

This was super informative and enjoyable. Thank you!

When I studied music formally, a really great music theory teacher once told us that perfect pitch was "tonal memory", no more, no less. You either have it or you don't. Interestingly, if you were taught on a piano that was a quarter tone flat, you memorized those tones as you remembered them, whether they were tuned to A 440 or one quarter tone flat or sharp of that. I had a tuning fork given to me that was used in tuning European pianos back in the day, and I always remembered that A as being flat of 440 cps. Having tuned thousands of pianos in my lifetime, I can tell you that having absolute pitch does not automatically make you a great piano tuner. The skill of piano tuning involves a process of learning simultaneous "beat" presences that are caused by various strings' partials, or overtones. You don't have to have perfect pitch in order to be a fine piano tuner. The public just makes ludicrous assumptions without having known the actual truth behind being an excellent piano tuner.

Does anyone else remember the advertisement for perfect pitch in all the guitar magazines of the 80s & early 90s? It was the goofiest looking thing. Rick your son is amazing, you taught him well, I love your videos.

I have been watching your youtube channel for a while and wanted to thank you for all the amazing information you have given me. I do hope you don't mind me sharing some of your videos with my LinkedIn network. I always mention full credit to Rick Beato and his team.

Thank you for this. Apparently many bruised egos have reacted, rather than respond. I have known what you are saying for over 35 years. Masestro David Kyle who studied under Arthur Fiedler, and taught me for 15 years, spoke of this adult vs child perfect in the same fashoin you are. Myself, I was raised by a mother who was partially deaf, and did not like music in the house. The bass bothered her. In addition, their church service did not allow music to accompany singing in church services. Imagine how that was? So I had to learn to sing. I could hear different notes. I was not tone deaf, and am not. However, I had no voice placement. I had to study and still do, study, voice daily. Having to learn the name of a note when I hear it, a chord when I hear it, the notes in a chord or sequence when I hear them is my challenge as a person studying to conduct a symphony. Thank you for mentioning modulation as a way enhancing note identification. Simply put, my friend who both she and her husband had music teachers etc for parents, both can hear notes and name them, and try to not skowl as I sing and catch up. But they can hit the note with ease, singing. Which perfect pitch, does not mean being able to sing it perfect. That too takes study, unless one has it from babies. It is that way. I am improving on realtive pitch.

I wish I had a son I could teach music. I don't even have a wife yet though. You're very blessed, and your son is very blessed to have you as a father.

Relative Pitch + Tinnitus = Perfect Pitch ;)

It's funny how Perfect Pitch is very rare, yet about 50% of the commenters here claim to have it. :)

Wow, Never heard anyone lay it down as concisely as you just did. Thanks!

These vids relating to PP and showing your son's ability are pretty fascinating! And your kids are awesome! Question - is he able to avoid/filter 'distracting' sounds? For example, if you played some weird chord (sorry I need the Beato Book to get my music theory up to speed!), is he able to sing over that another dischordant note that's not in the chord or key at all? Or if you were playing a chord sequence in, say, C major, could he sing over that a melody in a completely different key without being distracted by the chords, without having 'memorised' the melody ahead of time?

Great Video Rick! I believe you are right. I have wondered about this for many years. i had a friend when I was younger named Larry. He had absolute pitch. It always fascinated me. We were in high school together. He could literally play just about any instrument you could hand him. I was a beginner on guitar when he and I hung out back then. We started a band together. For some reason, he wanted to play drums. He was an incredible drummer, but I couldn't wrap my head around why he would want to play drums, when he had perfect pitch. Unfortunately he passed away several years ago, and I have tried for at least 20 years to teach myself perfect pitch with no success at all. However, trying to acquire perfect pitch DID help me to obtain a very good relative pitch. I can name most notes pretty quick, but I do need a middle C for reference...I felt like a failure for several years, but this video made me feel a lot better about myself...lol Thank you sir!

Here's the biggest takeaway from this video: Dylan is a dope kid.

Amen! That's why I'm playing all sorts of complex music to my little one. Thanks for confirming what I've always said: there's no "kids music", only good and bad music, and kids shouldn't be limited to simplified songs. I'll never forget my son's face when I played the Aristocrats for him for the first time. By the way, your son is impressive, really impressive.

Rick, I love your channel. Could your answer a few questions I have please? First let me say that I am 57 years old and have no knowledge of anything music. I have always had a love for guitars and the sound of them. For me to be successful in my learning, what do I need to do to "really" master the skills to become good at playing the guitar? Do you recommend learning the electric or acoustic guitar first, I prefer the electric guitar. One final question, because I am left handed, are any special learning challenges? Thank you for your time!