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I think perfect pitch can be acquired as an adult, I just think it becomes exponentially harder. I started to learn guitar around 12 years old, and became inter

I think perfect pitch can be acquired as an adult, I just think it becomes exponentially harder. I started to learn guitar around 12 years old, and became interested in perfect pitch after reading Steve Vai internalised A=440Hz by having a tape start to play the tone as he slept. I definitely don't have full perfect pitch, but after a while I could: - Tune a guitar, no matter how out of tune to concert pitch without a reference pitch. - Recall the pitch of any song I heard once, not by name, but by singing it in the key I heard it in, this includes different versions, e.g. covers, transposed into different keys. I'm not sure how common that is, but a singer I was dating could also do this too. Most excitingly I was recently listening to Spotify while out walking when "Mr. Crowley" began to play. As Ozzy began to sing it instantly came into my head that the root of the song is D. Obviously, I was hugely excited by this!. I checked it against an instrument when I got home and sure enough I was correct. I was delighted!

mbenjaminsmith 13y ago
After studying guitar in high school for several intense years (was a Steve Vai fan as well) I was able to tune a guitar without a reference -- even playing all of the stings simultaneously and tuning each "through the noise". For me it didn't extend beyond that however.
colmmacc 13y ago
It took me about 2 years, starting at age 25, to acquire perfect pitch. I didn't try the Vai trick, instead I ran an exercise at last once every few days that challenged me to name the note associated with a tone (out of all 12 equal-temperament tones). At first I got right about 20% of the time, but I was able to get to 100% over those two years. But long before I could complete the exercise, I was able to tune my guitar perfectly, and I can still tune it fine in a very loud environment, or on stage without the full ability to hear it myself. After playing it for long enough a good guitar made from good tone-woods will resonate like a bell around the "home" frequencies you play a lot. For me, in DADGAD tuning that's a "D" that makes the rosewood echo, but the "A"'s are plenty strong too. If it's out by even a few cents, the guitar just plain doesn't feel right.
rybosome 13y ago
Did you intentionally work on developing this, or did it come naturally? I've had the ability to name the key of a song by ear for a few years...probably since my freshman year of undergrad. At that point I had been playing guitar for about 7 years, and had somehow internalized key signature. For me, it feels very calculated, although I didn't begin doing it intentionally. I essentially compare a new song against an internal database of known songs. For instance, my reference song in B minor is "Comfortably Numb". If I hear a new song that sounds like it's in the same key, it must also be B minor. After I built up an internal collection for each key and practiced enough, it went from being a mechanical process to an intuitive one. It's not perfect, though; most of the "boring" keys sound similar. That is, I have a lot of trouble distinguishing between C, G, and F - fewer accidentals means less "color". In addition, keys within a fifth of each other can sound really similar since they're only one accidental apart. I'll often misidentify something in Bb minor as being in F minor, or something in E as being in B. Surprisingly though, half-step differences end up sounding very different. My wife and I watched Pitch Perfect recently, and during a scene where two women were singing "Titanium", the fact that they were singing it in B minor rather than C minor was extremely apparent.

mbenjaminsmith 13y ago

After studying guitar in high school for several intense years (was a Steve Vai fan as well) I was able to tune a guitar without a reference -- even playing all of the stings simultaneously and tuning each "through the noise". For me it didn't extend beyond that however.

colmmacc 13y ago

It took me about 2 years, starting at age 25, to acquire perfect pitch. I didn't try the Vai trick, instead I ran an exercise at last once every few days that challenged me to name the note associated with a tone (out of all 12 equal-temperament tones). At first I got right about 20% of the time, but I was able to get to 100% over those two years. But long before I could complete the exercise, I was able to tune my guitar perfectly, and I can still tune it fine in a very loud environment, or on stage without the full ability to hear it myself. After playing it for long enough a good guitar made from good tone-woods will resonate like a bell around the "home" frequencies you play a lot. For me, in DADGAD tuning that's a "D" that makes the rosewood echo, but the "A"'s are plenty strong too. If it's out by even a few cents, the guitar just plain doesn't feel right.

rybosome 13y ago

Did you intentionally work on developing this, or did it come naturally? I've had the ability to name the key of a song by ear for a few years...probably since my freshman year of undergrad. At that point I had been playing guitar for about 7 years, and had somehow internalized key signature. For me, it feels very calculated, although I didn't begin doing it intentionally. I essentially compare a new song against an internal database of known songs. For instance, my reference song in B minor is "Comfortably Numb". If I hear a new song that sounds like it's in the same key, it must also be B minor. After I built up an internal collection for each key and practiced enough, it went from being a mechanical process to an intuitive one. It's not perfect, though; most of the "boring" keys sound similar. That is, I have a lot of trouble distinguishing between C, G, and F - fewer accidentals means less "color". In addition, keys within a fifth of each other can sound really similar since they're only one accidental apart. I'll often misidentify something in Bb minor as being in F minor, or something in E as being in B. Surprisingly though, half-step differences end up sounding very different. My wife and I watched Pitch Perfect recently, and during a scene where two women were singing "Titanium", the fact that they were singing it in B minor rather than C minor was extremely apparent.