This is really fascinating, I'd love to see this on a larger scale. I was exposed to music very early but I never began to learn an instrument until I was 12.

This is really fascinating, I'd love to see this on a larger scale. I was exposed to music very early but I never began to learn an instrument until I was 12. It was, however, the bassoon, which being rather unstable in intonation leads a malleable young ear to have a bit more pitch sensitivity than one raised on more settled instruments. In high school years I'd practice "absolute pitch" in a darkened practice room with a piano. I'm not sure which battery of tests the researchers are talking about but I'd be interested in taking them. The 1 in 10000 figure is especially striking to me - having grown up around musicians I never thought about how rare it would be amongst the general population, but considering how few musicians I knew would claim to possess it I suppose that does make sense. I don't know if I really possess "Absolute Pitch" - I may just have really excellent relative pitch and know one or two reference notes for certain. When I had people test me in high school I usually just listened to the tone versus the "C" in my head and guessed relative to that interval. Playing music with some musicians drives me crazy because they transpose anything and everything. What key is that song in? Who cares, it's I-IV-V . . . that hurts me. A friend played me a rough demo of a song in person in E, emailed me a recording she made in F, and played it in rehearsal the next day in F#. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl. I can transpose songs and sing and play in different keys than the first time I heard it, IT JUST HURTS MY BRAIN. I also hear songs everywhere. That trumpet note held on the jazz recording you are listening to? That's the same guitar note that starts this other song, and now I'm stuck hearing it in my head. What, that doorbell doesn't remind you of the beginning of a Haydn symphony? Well now I know what's playing in my head for the next hour. The most interesting thing about my pitch sense is that I always find myself riding a motorcycle on the highway at 6600 RPM regardless of what speed I actually want to go. I just gravitate there without thinking about it. Even though my bike is much smoother and stronger at 7000+, I always find myself back at 6600. The unconscious reason? 6600 RPM * 2 cylinders = 220 Hz, or exactly an octave below the concert "A" that orchestras tune to. I've never ridden a triple but if I did I'm pretty sure I'd get stuck at 4400 or 8800 RPM for exactly the same reason. I hate being off-key when I'm riding.