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>Perfect pitch can most definitely be learned.

Rick says no...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=816VLQNdPMM

⬐ vjulian

Rick is making that claim in a similar manner to how adult language learners may never develop a perfect local accent. There is truth to that, but it is not an absolute.

I emphasise that the common belief echoed here in this discussion perpetuates to children who can learn perfect pitch but often do not for lack of encouragement.

It is similar to illiteracy that is often perpetuated by parents to their offspring, which incidentally is often the case with music notation. There are different languages of music notation but most children never learn to read or write.

Rick Beato disagrees, although he puts the limit at 6 yo, not 3... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816VLQNdPMM

Rick Beato explains on his YouTube that a child can learn pitch perfection but it must be trained before 10 years of age

https://youtu.be/816VLQNdPMM

Rick Beato's take on adults not being able to develop perfect pitch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816VLQNdPMM

I must say though, watching videos of his kid demonstrate perfect pitch is quite astounding!

⬐ sergeykish

He has some loose comparisons. Adults acquire foreign languages including foreign sounds. English is a separate entity in my mind, neutral position of the jaw, tongue system is entirely different from my native language.

Different cultures has different color naming schemes. I have hardware problems on color perception (protanomaly) yet I can learn new color names. Looking at children it takes years to learn color names.

His example of learning — pressing keys on the piano and saying name — is incorrect. It should be game, music is game. We live in the age of unprecedented gamification. Maybe it is possible to make baby steps. Some people claim they've internalized F#, ok internalize every note.

He is right that recognition should be instantaneous. His real argument — teaching has not been achieved as course, probably it is impossible, I'll try.

Somewhat related. Maybe you can use these videos to teach your new baby prefect pitch. Check out Rick Beato's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816VLQNdPMM

(Disclosure/Disclaimer: I don't have perfect pitch nor do I aspire to acquire it. I am, however, fascinated that some people do have perfect pitch.)

Rick Beato provides a lot of (too much) context before explaining "Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch". [0] (Timecode link to Beato's point.)

Beato's video was featured on MetaFilter a couple of months ago. [1]

[0] https://youtu.be/816VLQNdPMM?t=364

[1] https://www.metafilter.com/175853/Why-Adults-Cant-Develop-Pe...

⬐ SwellJoe

Not sure why this was downvoted. It's an interesting video from a smart musician with a ton of training and experience. He might be wrong, but he's not wildly wrong. Despite this and the one study of valproate that indicated adults could start to learn perfect pitch while using the drug, the preponderance of evidence is still that learning perfect pitch as an adult doesn't really happen all that often (if ever).

Think of all of the musicians who do ear training for years and never develop perfect pitch (but develop very good relative pitch). That's a tremendous amount of evidence that developing perfect pitch as an adult is vanishingly rare. I'm not sure why a couple of tiny studies with somewhat inconclusive results would be considered enough to ignore thousands of musician's experience.

I'd love it if perfect pitch could be acquired as an adult, but I've mostly accepted that pretty good relative pitch is the best I'll ever have, and a couple of small studies don't really convince me otherwise. It's interesting how "amazing new cancer cure" studies are brutally beaten down with "this is a small study, don't get your hopes up too high yet" here, but this tiny study has everybody convinced perfect pitch is totally do-able for everyone.

Perfect Pitch is 30% more likely in societies with tonal language. Kids who are exposed to complicated music at an early age also have a higher chance of having perfect pitch.

Here's the best video[0] on Perfect Pitch I've seen. It starts at 4:25 because he spends the first four minutes responding to indignant youtube commenters. Then he digs into the science.

[0]: https://youtu.be/816VLQNdPMM?t=267

⬐ EGreg

I am surprised about the 1 in 10,000 number, but I can attest to what he is saying. I grew up hearing music even while in the womb. My mom was a musician. And I wound up having perfect pitch.

I can describe what it's like, but I honestly feel anyone can learn it with enough practice. (Never put it to the test though.) It's simply like reinforcement learning of being able to hit a note in a certain position. When you hit it too high or too low, you correct yourself, until you have a memory of where you are supposed to hit it properly. With children I am sure a lot of the "tuning" happens over multiple repetitions due to being exposed to the combination of "fa", "sol" or "the start of star wars" always referring to the same thing.

I think you could teach your kids the perfect pitch by having them sing songs with "do re mi" terminology (or possibly ABC-G but that's a bit worse because it's not a natural major scale) and having them do it over time adjusts their brain's "predictions" of where they should hit the note. If they deal with music all the time they'll be able to do it. It's similar to picking the right vocal tone for a situation or a basketball player knowing how to shoot a ball after many tries. A tennis player hitting a ball is a bit harder because the action must be a function of the input.

Now, as I got older, switched careers and have been away from singing / playing music for a few years, I can report that my perfect pitch is still there but "modulated down" almost a half-step. So when I want to sing "do re mi" or a theme that I know is with D minor, I sometimes do it a half step lower. When I listen to that piece, it sounds a half step higher. (I am 34.) However, a few seconds of reinforcement learning that "no, this is D minor" and suddenly everything snaps back and I have perfect pitch again.

I believe that reinforcement learning across perfectly tuned instruments and songs all around is is what causes perfect pitch. So I always thought that, with enough exposure to music and having to sing the songs using do re mi instead of the words etc. anyone can form those associations and "tune them". Well, anyone who isn't lacking the brain capacity for tuning their pitch or actions or whatever. I would say that's more than 1 in 10,000 people. It just needs similar skills to motor coordination.