Perfect Pitch Training Analogies

The subject of how perfect pitch is developed is a controversial one. There is still the question of whether the ability develops at a very early age or whether one is actually born with perfect pitch. Most agree, it is learned at a very young age. Many people believe it is a skill, which can be acquired while others disagree, even when presented with evidence to the contrary.

There are a few analogies to describe the experience and mechanism of perfect pitch, which are often offered in an attempt to understand how one might learn the skill. The color analogy is the most prevalent. The analogy of colors is one of the most popular. For a person with perfect pitch, the experience of listening to the twelve different notes differs from most people. Each note has a quality of its own, separate from its pitch, which gives it its own character. The character of the note is what allows it to be recognized and remembered. The analogy of colors describes the qualities of the notes as “pitch colors”, which are like the colors we see. The range of sound that we hear may be split just as the spectrum of light that we perceive. To describe the experience of perfect pitch, this works quite well. However, to take this analogy any further and try to use it to understand the biology or the psychology of perfect pitch is somewhat flawed. The retina of the eye features three types of cone, which are used to see color. One cone type sees the red light, one sees green, and the third measures overall intensity. The brain receives the three signals and calculates blue from the total minus green and red. The biology of the eye clearly has color built into it and we can all see color to some extent. The cones in some retinas are not as good as the majority of people and so they are considered to be color blind. We have receptors for frequency in the ear, however, there are not twelve of them for the different notes. The analogy falls down because there is no similar biological apparatus in the ear.

Some people compare learning perfect pitch to the learning of the phonemes of language. These are the short sounds in language. For example, the sound of one letter in a word. If a sentence is a melody then these could be said to be the notes. However, phonemes can only exist within a time-frame. The character of any phoneme is determined by the variance of the sound over the time it takes to pronounce. Perfect pitch does not rely on time. It does not matter how long the note is played for, it will be recognized the same.

The recognition of notes is more related to the recognition of the harmonic spectrum of a sound. The time dimension does not come into play as the frequency dimension does. The recognition of a certain instrument is an example. The harmonic spectrum of each instrument differs. Also, we are all able to recognize a person by hearing their voice alone. No matter what somebody is saying or what mood they are in, their voice is still recognizable. There is something very specific about the timbre of her voice, which is instantly identified without even thinking. It is an amazing ability when you think about it. The one flaw with this analogy is the extra characteristics of the sounds. The non-tonal noises or other cues in a person's style of speaking. These may also help the recognition in some cases. However, it is the most apt analogy.