Skip to main content

How Perfect Is Perfect Pitch?

When I was in college, the choir director used to begin every rehearsal with “Sing me an A!”. The 100 person choir would muddle around, with often hilariously off key results.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


When I was in college, the choir director used to begin every rehearsal with “Sing me an A!”. The 100 person choir would muddle around, with often hilariously off key results. Over the year, we’d get better and better, usually because we’d tune in to the few people in the choir who we KNEW had perfect pitch, the ability to name a music note (and then, hopefully, produce it) without the aid of another note to give them a clue.

And usually, if we all tuned in to the people with perfect pitch, we turned out ok. But sometimes…sometimes even THEN we didn’t. Then the people with perfect pitch would look pretty embarrassed. After all, perfect pitch is supposed to be, well, PERFECT!

But is it really?


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Hedger et al. “Absolute Pitch May Not Be So Absolute” Psychological Science, 2013.


(Source)

(more…)

Scicurious has a PhD in Physiology from a Southern institution. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from another respected Southern institution. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher at a celebrated institution that is very fancy and somewhere else. Her professional interests are in neurophysiology and psychiatric disorders. She recently obtained her PhD and is pursuing her love of science and writing at the same time. She often blogs in the third person. For more information about Scicurious and to view her recent award and activities, please see her CV ( http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/a-scicurious-cv/)

More by Scicurious