The Role of the Brain in Perfect Pitch

The ability of people to instantly identify the pitch of a note without using any guide is referred to as perfect pitch. They are also able to reproduce this notes (via song or instrument) without the use of guides. Some people believe that this ability is very uncommon. They are right.

It is estimated that about one in ten thousand people posses this unique ability. Because of this many people have grown to believe that the ability can only be passed through genes. This is not entirely true. Although there is faint evidence suggesting that a person’s genes do play a part in his ability to hone this unique skill, there is very little evidence to suggest that, given the right methods, perfect pitch cannot be learnt. For more information, see How to Get Perfect Pitch

There is a simple reason behind this. When staring at a picture, most people can easily identify the different colors. People are also able to pick out the different spices in a meal. If these random acts can effective be done with the other senses, then surely perfect pitch training can achieve the same results for the ear.

Self belief is an important emotion to have when learning perfect pitch. People who doubt that they can achieve this ability will very likely end up failing in their bid. Without a strong sense of belief, very little can be gained with perfect pitch training.

An important factor that supports the notion of perfect pitch training is the discovered relation between perfect pitch and the brain. There is much evidence that suggests that the brain plays a vital part in the development of this ability.For example, during a recent research it was discovered that musicians who had the ability of perfect pitch had a much larger area in the left side of their brain than those without. This increase was sometimes found to be almost twice in value. This proves that some mental effort is required for the use of this ability.The brain and not genes are therefore a more active force in the development of this ability.

Another valued point to note is that almost every musician with the ability of perfect pitch receive some form of training or interaction with music during their earlier years. The ability to identify notes might thus have begun while they were still infants . Perfect pitch training is therefore possible and can only get better in the coming years.