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Want perfect pitch? Maybe you can take a pill
If you’re like I am, you may have thought half-heartedly about making a New Year’s resolution or two. But one New Year’s resolution that wouldn’t occur to most musicians is to resolve to acquire perfect (absolute) pitch – if we don’t already have it. There are no documented cases of an adult ever being able to…
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More than you may want to know about absolute pitch
Why do some people develop AP and others do not? Well, it’s definitely not due to practice. Various claims aside, there is no scientific evidence of any adult being able to acquire AP through intensive practice. There seems to be a critical period in early childhood when AP is most likely to be acquired, and…
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Perfect pitch may not be perfect after all
If you can name a pitch, either real or imagined, without any kind of comparison to a reference pitch, you have perfect pitch, or in the terminology of scientists – absolute pitch. Non-musicians tend to think that perfect pitch is a kind of ultimate credential for musicians; if you have perfect pitch, you must be…