What Is Perfect Pitch? Plus 3 Exercises to Improve Pitch

Perfect pitch, or absolute pitch, is the extremely rare ability to identify or recreate a musical note upon hearing it, and without the benefit of a reference note. People with perfect pitch can even identify notes made by objects that produce musical tones, like door bells or car horns.

An estimated one to five out of every 10,000 people has perfect pitch, while approximately one hundred to 1,100 out of 10,000 musicians possess that ability. Many famous figures from musical history—including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, and Mariah Carey—have purportedly demonstrated perfect pitch.

There are two types of perfect pitch: active perfect pitch and passive perfect pitch. Individuals with active perfect pitch have the innate ability to sing a specific musical note, such as a B-flat, without any reference tone. Those with passive perfect pitch can’t reproduce musical pitches on command, but they can name individual notes upon listening.

Relative pitch is a related and more common musical ability, especially among musicians. It’s similar to passive perfect pitch, but individuals with relative pitch can both identify and sing individual notes by using a reference tone. Solfege—a system that uses syllables like “do,” “re,” and “mi,” to teach pitch recognition and sight-reading in music—helps musicians determine and produce the higher and lower notes around a reference pitch.

Scientists and music theory scholars disagree on whether perfect pitch is teachable. For many, perfect pitch may depend on a number of factors, including:

• Age: Early researchers once thought that perfect pitch only developed through musical training that took place during a critical period in a child’s development. Researchers believed adults could not gain perfect pitch because they had passed this development period, but more recent studies have since challenged this belief.
• Anatomy: The brains of individuals with perfect pitch appear different than those who lack it. The auditory cortex—the area of the brain believed to identify the pitch of a note—is thicker in those with perfect pitch, as is the prefrontal cortex, which aids in processing a piece of music.
• Autism: Research notes that perfect pitch is common among individuals with autism. One study found that children who lived with autism and were between the ages of seven and thirteen could distinguish between music in different keys and remember melodies longer than children from the same age group without autism.
• Language: Perfect pitch is more common in countries with tonal languages, which are languages in which different tones give words different meanings. These include languages like Chinese or Vietnamese. A 2005 study found that sixty percent of music students whose first language was Mandarin Chinese and who studied music from the age of four also had perfect pitch. The same study found that perfect pitch only occurred in fourteen percent of students whose first language was English and who had similar musical experience to the Chinese students.

A 2013 study by researchers at the University of Chicago determined that with ear training, adults could not only learn and remember notes, but also correctly identify them months later. However, they also noted that the development of perfect pitch depended on both musical training and auditory memory, as well as perceptual attention.

There are several exercises for improving your pitch. They include:

1. 1. Sigh during breath exercises. Before singing, take a deep breath and let out a sigh with vocalization. It should sound like a pitch sweep, in which you slide up and down a note by fifths (or three tones and a semitone). Repeat this exercise using different points on your range. Sighing exercises folds in your larynx, or voice box, that help to change pitch.
2. 2. Use reference notes. Find a reference note on a keyboard and use it to determine your pitch ability. Listen to the note, sing it, and then continue to practice singing the note until you are able to sing it without first hearing the note. Add more reference notes to your practice repertoire.
3. 3. Pay attention to scales. Musical scales are not just for beginners. Practicing your scales can help you not only understand the scope of your pitch, but also expand it. There are many different scales to practice beyond solfege, including the pentatonic and blues scales. All of them can help with pitch and range.

Become a better musician with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, St. Vincent, Usher, and more.