I’ve recently came across some research that people with perfect pitch have an added burden. Basically, they hear every sound in musical notes that it becomes difficult to do anything without absolute silence. Sounds distract them too much.
If you have perfect pitch (or know someone who does), will you share your insight to this topic?
Thanks!
Hi Danny and Amy!
I wasn’t born with perfect pitch, but have developed it to an extent through musical studies (if someone plays a G chord I can spot it immediately etc). I can say that noises or music are definitely not overwhelming for me - I have the ability to work well in both absolute silence or with loud music/noises around, it just depends on my mood at the time whether I will prefer noise or silence. 
When I get really engrossed in what I’m working on, it makes no difference to me, I’m just in my own little world. Being able to identify
In my studies and musical gigs I also met a few people who possessed perfect pitch, both in-born and taught later in life, none of whom expressed any inability to concentrate due to noise. If anything, they generally seemed to prefer having some soft music playing in the background or having a TV on with the volume down while they studied, to avoid the awkward absence of any sound.
Personally, I think it boils down to the individual more than anything.
Shuki :laugh:
I don’t think that has anything to do with perfect pitch, probably. People with perfect pitch probably grew up in loud, musical households where noise is a given. Silence would be distracting.
I wrote my entire dissertation with the television on for background noise. Silence really bothers me–I need nosie all the time. I don’t, however, have perfect pitch but my father is a musician and my house was loud growing up.
That’s not an impediment, though–who cares? I do quiet work with noise in the background. :yes:
When I was a music major, a few fellow students had perfect pitch, and they didn’t really have that much of an advantage, except for in aural skills. What you need to develop to be a good musician is RELATIVE pitch, meaning, if you start singing in one key, you end in the same key, you can stay in tune, and if you have practiced a song extensively, it feels awkward to hear it in another key. Perfect pitch means you hear a F#, and you can identify it, or someone says “Ab” and you can sing it. After four semesters in aural skills I sort-of developed perfect pitch, and if I wanted to I could get it back, but I don’t see the point. Perfect pitch is not an impediment, but a skill like being able to whistle loud, helpful in some situations, but not necessary for good musical development.
I took 6 semesters of chorus in college and we never worked on perfect pitch, but instead used relative pitch and intervals and scales. We used vocal warm up exercises every day that used the same scale sang while changing keys. My understanding ( I have no formal training in music education) is that relative pitch is more important than perfect pitch because you can change keys on the fly. There may be other reasons I’m not aware of. I remember seeing an American Idol episode where Clay Aiken used a pitch pipe to find the note then sang a capella from there. I’m assuming that means he was working with relative pitch training rather than perfect pitch training.
Anyway, I tried a quick google search on perfect vs absolute pitch training to find advantages to each. Most of the hits were advertisements rather than educational. Hmm, maybe I will try again later when I have more time.