• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:09
CEST 14:09
KST 21:09
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence10Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
BSL 2025 Warsaw LAN + Legends Showmatch0Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups4WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia8Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29
StarCraft 2
General
#1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
ASL20 General Discussion ASL TICKET LIVE help! :D Soulkey on ASL S20 BW General Discussion NaDa's Body
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group D [ASL20] Ro16 Group C [Megathread] Daily Proleagues BSL 2025 Warsaw LAN + Legends Showmatch
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Borderlands 3 General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread UK Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
I <=> 9
KrillinFromwales
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1715 users

Anyone have perfect pitch?

Blogs > dm47
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
dm47
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
82 Posts
February 25 2009 00:39 GMT
#1
Just wondering if any other TL musicians have perfect (absolute) pitch. I was lucky enough to be born with it, and it's kind of fascinated me ever since I realized that I have it.

Here's a simple flash game you can use to test your ear.
http://detrave.net/nblume/perfect-pitch/

You can also see if you have relative pitch using that game. If your guesses are very often a half or whole step off, than you have relative pitch, which is good enough for most musicians.

I've also wondered where I got perfect pitch from because my Mom and Dad don't have it and from what I've read it appears to be genetic. But I guess it's forthcoming is also attributed to your exposure to music at a young age, which would make sense for me because my Mom plays piano for a living.

I hope my kids have it, lol.

Cheers,

***
I hate optimists.
tube
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States1475 Posts
February 25 2009 00:41 GMT
#2
not even close
but who cares i play drums
Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection.
skyglow1
Profile Blog Joined April 2005
New Zealand3962 Posts
February 25 2009 00:46 GMT
#3
Do you have active perfect pitch (I think that's what it's called...) where you can like hum or sing any note you want rather than just being able to identify what a note is from listening to it?
LuckyFool
Profile Blog Joined June 2007
United States9015 Posts
February 25 2009 00:46 GMT
#4
On February 25 2009 09:41 tube wrote:
not even close
but who cares i play drums
That's awesome.

I actually did alright. I took Piano for a few years when I was young but I was never very musical.
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24701 Posts
February 25 2009 00:50 GMT
#5
Doing well in that game isn't just something you are born with...

It's also the culmination of practice in music I think.

I'm decent at observing music, but when I go to produce it, the sound in my head is way different than the sound that comes out of my mouth :-/
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
Ack1027
Profile Blog Joined January 2004
United States7873 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-02-25 00:57:02
February 25 2009 00:53 GMT
#6
I had active perfect pitch as a child and it was pretty badass. Its what skyglow described.
I played piano from ages 4-13 and I reached a pretty high level for an amateur. I also sang in the Atlanta Boy Choir for 2 years so that helped a lot.

I've kinda lost it now, and I don't believe its as genetic as information tends to say. I mean yes, I think its a gift especially since when I was younger I'd hear studio recordings or albums and be bothered because they were always slightly flat or high but it can be trained. I guess its kinda like saying to go far in basketball you should be a certain height, but that doesn't mean you can't have short players in pro basketball. My parents certainly don't have it.
blue_arrow
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
1971 Posts
February 25 2009 01:01 GMT
#7
can you still identify the pitch if the note is produced from a different instrument or something that isn't even an instrument?

for me the flash game was easy, probably because I've been playing piano for a long time

I don't recall being able to do this in my early years, so I probably wasn't born with the ability

I also have more difficulty identifying the pitch when I'm playing other instruments that I am less experienced with such as the clarinet and the violin
The difficulty with the clarinet might come from the instrument being Bb and having all the notes assigned to a pitch that is different by a whole step?

Also I think the characteristics of your most-used language helps with developing absolute pitch, because apparently 90% of mandarin-speaking music students possess absolute pitch, whereas their counterparts in western nations have less than 10% of their music students possessing perfect pitch. the book where i read this from also said that students of chinese ethnicity who were born in a western culture and never learned to speak mandarin had the same statistical probability of having perfect pitch as students of other ethnic groups born in the same culture
| MLIA | the weather sucks dick here
Azrael1111
Profile Joined July 2008
United States550 Posts
February 25 2009 01:06 GMT
#8
Just playing around with the game (I've never played piano), this seems like it definitely can be a learned thing.
Ozarugold
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
2716 Posts
February 25 2009 01:08 GMT
#9
Rofl~

I score better with the sound off.
this is my quote.
Ganfei
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Taiwan1439 Posts
February 25 2009 01:09 GMT
#10
On February 25 2009 09:50 micronesia wrote:
Doing well in that game isn't just something you are born with...

It's also the culmination of practice in music I think.

I'm decent at observing music, but when I go to produce it, the sound in my head is way different than the sound that comes out of my mouth :-/


Don't comment about stuff if you are not actually a musician

The OP is correct. Perfect pitch is congenital. Relative pitch is what most musicians employ.
You are crushing me like a cheese sandwich
Hippopotamus
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
1914 Posts
February 25 2009 01:11 GMT
#11
We're all born with "perfect pitch", and then we lose it very quickly because we usually don't need it.
pSikh0
Profile Joined January 2009
163 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-02-25 01:14:51
February 25 2009 01:13 GMT
#12
meh this game is ez lol, not that my pitch is "perfect", but to most people, i suppose its perfect enough
Im probably just good at it because of piano though, but hmm yeah its not something I personally consider very beneficial for my life
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24701 Posts
February 25 2009 01:13 GMT
#13
On February 25 2009 10:09 NoobsOfWrath wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 25 2009 09:50 micronesia wrote:
Doing well in that game isn't just something you are born with...

It's also the culmination of practice in music I think.

I'm decent at observing music, but when I go to produce it, the sound in my head is way different than the sound that comes out of my mouth :-/


Don't comment about stuff if you are not actually a musician

The OP is correct. Perfect pitch is congenital. Relative pitch is what most musicians employ.

Well I played piano for seven years, did chorus for about the same... not sure if that counts or not.

But I am still correct in what I said. I didn't say "perfect pitch can be trained." I said more or less "doing well in this game can be trained" which is true, at least up until a point.

Also don't be snooty. "Don't comment about stuff if you are not actually a musician" hahaha and it's better since it's just semantics.
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
404.Nintu
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Canada1723 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-02-25 01:20:50
February 25 2009 01:19 GMT
#14
It is trainable. It's true that you can be born with a certain affinity for it, but it's also something that can be observed and trained.

A very simple way to start learning perfect pitch is to observe a song that you know incredibly, incredibly well. Something that you can hear in your head perfectly. Take the first note in the song and learn what it is. That way, if you ever hear a note that's not that note. you just find where that note is relative to the note you have learned. And as you train it up, you can learn a song that starts on each note. Once you have a few notes down that you can hear in your head as a reference, it also helps with keeping the other songs in line. For instance, if you hear a note that you think might be the starting note in a certain song, but you're not certain, you can try the song "Above", and if that too doesn't sound right, you know you're probably in the wrong key.

I don't know if this is an established method, but it's one I've sorta come up with and has helped me a lot in ear training.

edit: Ah yes, the difference between "perfect pitch" and "relative pitch". =p Call it what you want, but this game and pitch recognition is trainable.
"So, then did the American yum-yum clown monkey also represent the FCC?"
WindCalibur
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
Canada938 Posts
February 25 2009 01:35 GMT
#15
Piano makes this easy -.-. (I finished grade 10 piano in 3 years)
/brag
Xeofreestyler
Profile Blog Joined June 2005
Belgium6771 Posts
February 25 2009 02:02 GMT
#16
Im more of a relative pitch man. I had to hear all the notes one time before getting them right 90% of the time in that game
Graphics
dm47
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
82 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-02-25 02:13:17
February 25 2009 02:11 GMT
#17
@skyglow1 and blue_arrow: yes I have active perfect pitch. If you tell me a note to sing I can produce it, and if you play any note on any instrument I can tell you what it is. I actually didn't know that that was referred to as "active" perfect pitch.

One day in 3rd grade my music teacher played a scale and out of the blue she asked if anyone knew what scale it was, and I knew it was the D scale. I didn't know how I knew it, I just did, lol.

Also, that language correlation is interesting. Do you remember the book that you read that in?

@Ack1027: I didn't know you could lose perfect pitch. Crap. I hope I don't lose mine, haha. I utilize it almost every day though. btw, how old are you now?

@404.Nintu: I've read about that. The most simple example I heard was just pounding into your brain the first note of "Hey Jude", which is C. And then, once you can recall that note for sure, every time, you can figure out the rest of them.

I guess you could use a similar method to be able to "sing" any note out of the blue, but I think this one would be harder for most people. Those with relative pitch are fine once they have a reference point, but if there's no reference point at all I could imagine it being harder for some.

One of the coolest things I've been able to do with perfect pitch is transcribe any tune/song or melody that's in my head or that I know. If it's in my head, I know what the notes are, and if I know what the notes are, I can write them down. /brag

The worst part that I've found after many years is that I literally CANNOT play any instrument that's not in the key of C. I play the trombone and the piano, and I've tried learning instruments like the trumpet, but I have absolutely no chance. Because, I see a Bb on the page, but when played, it's a Concert C, and that just messes with my mind. So I guess for music teachers, who have to pretty much learn all the instruments, NOT having perfect pitch would be more beneficial. Or I'm just dumb.
I hate optimists.
infinity21 *
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
Canada6683 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-02-25 02:20:50
February 25 2009 02:12 GMT
#18
I got to level 12 without getting a note wrong on easy. Then I screwed up 1 note so I gave up lol

currently doing medium

edit: hmm I get most of them. But the last note gets hard for me once they start playing 3 notes
Official Entusman #21
OMin
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States545 Posts
February 25 2009 02:46 GMT
#19
i have a good knowledge of what my vocal range is, and based on the strain or ease my voice feels, I can guess very close to what note it is.

but i dont have perfect pitch
Fontong
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States6454 Posts
February 25 2009 03:07 GMT
#20
After hearing a note I can play the game, but If I just out of the blue had to play it and try to get the note correct it would just be a guess.

From what I've hear, people who grew up speaking languages that actually have some kind of importance on pitch(like Chinese) are much more likely to develop perfect pitch. I think at least 80% of the people I know who have perfect pitch are korean though. It's really imbal since dictation is no problem for people with it.
[SECRET FONT] "Dragoon bunker"
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Map Test Tournament
11:00
$450 3v3 Open Cup
WardiTV274
IndyStarCraft 175
LiquipediaDiscussion
RSL Revival
10:00
Season 2: Playoffs Day 5
Cure vs TriGGeRLIVE!
Tasteless1089
Crank 870
Rex124
CranKy Ducklings119
3DClanTV 71
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Tasteless 1089
Crank 870
Lowko257
IndyStarCraft 158
Rex 124
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 35677
Calm 8640
Horang2 4084
Bisu 1798
Hyuk 866
actioN 367
Stork 349
EffOrt 274
ZerO 248
Pusan 242
[ Show more ]
Snow 226
Light 190
Last 187
Mini 182
Soma 170
Hyun 134
Soulkey 120
hero 91
ggaemo 68
Liquid`Ret 68
Mind 59
Rush 54
ToSsGirL 46
Sharp 33
HiyA 33
sorry 29
Sexy 28
sas.Sziky 24
Free 23
JYJ19
scan(afreeca) 19
SilentControl 17
Icarus 13
Terrorterran 13
Dota 2
singsing3024
qojqva776
Dendi556
XcaliburYe182
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1764
x6flipin674
markeloff54
edward38
zeus1
Other Games
B2W.Neo740
DeMusliM332
Fuzer 126
Pyrionflax126
XaKoH 124
NeuroSwarm43
Trikslyr11
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 956
CasterMuse 20
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1567
• Nemesis957
Other Games
• WagamamaTV186
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
51m
RSL Revival
21h 51m
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
1d 14h
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
1d 19h
RSL Revival
1d 21h
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Online Event
3 days
Wardi Open
3 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
LiuLi Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL World Championship of Poland 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.