Perfect Pitch at 4

[saintpeta]

At 3.5 when a train rumbled past the house DS would say "That's f# mummy" so I would go and check on the piano and sure enough it was. He knows his scales, plays simple chords and tunes, picks out music from TV shows he hears...is this gifted and talented?

[DualCycloneCod]

oh yes
it will chaneg his life.

[jezzemx]

Are you musical saintpeta? It sounds as if he is surrounded by music if he can read scales and distinquish notes.
Most 3.5 would not know that f# was a note!!!
because he knows his scales at 4 it does seem as if he has a gift for music. I would encourage it as much as you can.
I'm very impressed. Take a bow master saintpea

[nickytwotimes]

[b1uesky]

I think it?s definitely a gift, is your ds learning the piano already? Another simple test is to play any isolated note which he should be able to name if he has perfect pitch. I think even if your ds hasn?t got perfect pitch now, his skill will develop and he will have absolute perfect pitch in time.

There is a huge advantage to having perfect pitch, especially when it comes to learning the scales and aural. I think your dd will do very well in music, he certainly has an advantage over other children.

[b1uesky]

I think it?s definitely a gift, is your ds learning the piano already? Another simple test is to play any isolated note which he should be able to name if he has perfect pitch. I think even if your ds hasn?t got perfect pitch now, his skill will develop and he will have absolute perfect pitch in time.

There is a huge advantage to having perfect pitch, especially when it comes to learning the scales and aural. I think your dd will do very well in music, he certainly has an advantage over other children.

[NaughtyNigel]

Mozart could do that - have you fallen through a time warp and is your DS called Wolfie?

[Judy1234]

I remember researching it at university as I have it, my brother has it, my mother had it. They think there's a genetic link. My ex husband's grandfather had it (an organist) but not the ex husband who does more music than the rest of us.

It can be a huge disadvantage though if you sing and the conductor says let's just take this down a semi tone - others don't notice a difference but I have to transpose in my head.

It doesn't necessarily mean you'll be better or worse at music. It's just like being able to see in colour rather than black and white or so it feels to me - I hear the key. E major is completely different from e flat major. It's fascinating.

My brother's music teacher at school found he had it aged 10 so my brother tested me (I'm older) and I have it but not our sister.

[JaneHH]

Xenia, exactly what I wanted to post... I have to transpose in my head in choir and it irritates the #"($&#($%#N out of me. I haven't got 100%* perfect pitch though.

Def keep babypeta going on the piano. It's the best way of developing all sorts of musical skills (as well as learning to read bass clef, which lots of people can't do if they've only learned the violin haha). I started when I was 4 and I've only benefited from it (er I think ) - it's definitely the way forward...

[Tamum]

Ds was like this. He's extremely musical still, certainly, and bright but not G&T.

[FAQ]

Perfect pitch not always what it's talked up to be. I went to a specialist music school, about half of the pupils had pp, half of us didn't.....tbh I think the ones with it found it more of a PITA than anything else.

I also know of people with PP who can't play an instrument beyond more than the absolute beginners basics

[Judy1234]

Yes as FAQ says. My ex husband is a musician and by no means all very good musicians have it,. It's a genetic quirk as much as anything and I think in music more people would say it's a nuisance (as Jane and I find when singing ) that an advantage. Except in grade 8 exams when you're asked to name what the piece transposed to you don't even have to listen except to the ending because you just know the key but that's a tiny advantage. Mine was always better at certain pitches and my brother was better at singing a random note if you asked him than I was. I would know just about any note on the piano but not be so accurate if asked to sing one but that might just be how much music I'd been doing at the time which determined that difference. Lots of people will have the ability to develop it but never do music so don't know if they have it.

[blueshoes]

saintpeta, just a silly question. Do you have perfect pitch as well? Because wouldn't you need that to be able to remember the pitch of the train rumbling past to be able to test it on the piano later? Asking as someone without perfect pitch.

[FAQ]

and at the end of the day even getting good marks in your aural exam at Grade 8 isn't essential - I have a TERRIBLE ear yet I still managed to achieve a high merit (1 mark off a distinction) in my Grade 8 organ......yes I would have got a distinction if my ear was better (I only just scraped a "pass" on that section) but no-one ever asks me what mark I got at Grade 8 organ.....

[Judy1234]

Yes, I know. It's almost a musical irrelevance and in fact with two sons who play the trumpet and constantly having to transpose stuff - because they play say B flat and it sounds C on the piano, it's no use to me at all having perfect pitch. It's just a sort of useless party trick.

[JaneHH]

Xenia - this would have been good for your uni research... until I took up a B flat instrument I had very good perfect pitch. Now, depending on how much I've been playing which instruments, I can "consistently" get my pitch-judging "wrong" if you see what I mean, so that I'll eg actually read a B and think a C. So not B flat but not C either... nice and halfway between I'm convinced perfect pitch is something you can learn with enough stimuli.

[alfiesbabe]

Yes, sounds like your ds is musically gifted. Not so much the playing scales and chords because I guess that;s a learned thing, but his natural interest and excellent ear will serve him well for singing and playing an instrument. Perfect pitch in itself is not particularly useful - more of a quirky thing as described. But yes you can definitely tell if a child this age has a musical talent.

[b1uesky]

I can't see how it could be a disadvantage to have pp to be honest. I guess it depends on how you use this gift.

My DD took her abrsm piano grade 1 and 2 when she was 5 and she scored 18/18 for aural and 20/21 for scales. I am sure having pp has helped her. She can more or less work out the scales just by listening to it a few times, while other children have to practice for days just to learn one new scale. Sighreading is the same, even if she doens't know the note she can pretty much guess what it should be, so for my dd having pp has certainly been a great help to her.

[foofi]

It isn't just a party trick Xenia, there are times when it's really useful, eg sight-singing and aural tests. Playing a transposing instrument doesn't mean it isn't a useful skill to have.

[Judy1234]

It's a disadvantage if you're transposing - it becomes much much harder if you have pp than not. But foofi is right - I sight sing tremendously well, better than many professional singers I've sung with and that's simply because of the perfect pitch.

[FloraPosteschild]

I have relative pitch, not the same...it's useful!

[Blandmum]

can be a PITA as well.

Our school piano was flat and it used to drive one of our cellists bonkers. He had pefect pitch

Unless the perfect pitch comes with a love of music and the patience to practice I'd fight shy of defining it as G and T.

It is a quirky thing to be able to do rather than a life changing ability.

I have an oddly good musical memory, but I ended up a science teacher.

[mistlethrush]

I have relatively perfect pitch - I can tell you what an A is - I can even tell you whether it is 440, 442 or 444 (I like 441 or 442 best) - so, if I think about it I can work out what other notes are from that (am string player). However, major disadvantage in large choirs - I can carry on singing in tune whilst the rest of the chorus descend around me - sounds vile! Alternatively, I can start transposing - was one concert when I had to 'give up' transposing after we'd gone down an horrendous amount. And in small choirs where you get ' we'll do this in E instead of F or Eflat or something, I always have to write this in to remind myself otherwise I'll sing the notes written rather than the transposed ones... So its not always a good thing. However, much easier to stay in tune when you're singing on your own.

Ds (2.10) now makes a nice tone on the violin - not got round to fingers yet and I think he's a bit worried that he's not as good as me yet - I have told him that mummy's done lots of practise . Will start basic piano with him when he shows interest, but at the moment more interest in the violin

[Judy1234]

You've made me go back and forward on this thread as to whether I think it's useful or not. I always thought it was the reason I sight sang so well because even if I lose my place i can come in because I'm pitching the note absolutely and I'm sure that is helpful. I certainly makes it harder to transpose. On the whole I think it helps but I don't think it is a sign of anything particularly gifted - just means you have the relevant gene for perfect pitch.

Much more interesting is a young child remembering notes and their names which is more unusual. We didn't know my brother had perfect pitch until he was 10 and I was even older simply because we hadn't done enough music by then and no one had tested us and I'd never heard of it!

[welliemum]

I agree about perfect pitch being a bit of a mixed blessing - I had perfect pitch before I lost my hearing and as Xenia has said, it's great for hanging onto your line in part singing, but horrendous if the conductor decides to transpose.

It's a useful trick but there's so much more to music and being musical.

That said, it's lovely that your DS is musical, saintpeta - he'll have so much fun with this .

(Slightly off topic, but Xenia, I also found pitch easiest to hear on the piano. The hardest ones were transposing instruments like the clarinet playing "their" keys, eg B flat, solo, where I sometimes had to think carefully about the pitch instread of recognising it instantly. I wondered if this had to do with the tempered scale on the piano making the differences between keys more obvious.)