Perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch, refers to the ability to hear a musical note in isolation and identify it correctly. Some singers with this ability are even able to reproduce notes perfectly. Famous musicians with perfect pitch include Ella Fitzgerald and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Though people used to believe the perfect pitch was an ability that once could only develop in early childhood, later research has shown that people can learn to identify musical notes by ear later in life. With some training, adults may learn to remember notes and correctly identify them even months later with higher accuracy. Thus, having perfect pitch is likely connected to a person’s auditory working memory or the ability to remember and assign meaning to sounds.
Language may also influence one’s ability to identify musical notes. Speakers of tonal languages, in which tone and pronunciation affect the meaning of words, may have an easier time developing perfect pitch. Additionally, having early exposure to music and learning to play instruments at an early age can make it more likely for one to have perfect pitch.
But the best way to predict if someone can develop perfect pitch is a brain response measure called the “frequency following response,” which looks at people’s overall ability to process and classify sounds. However, the frequency following response can change, as individuals can improve this response with practice and training.
While previously only one in 10,000 people was thought to have perfect pitch, it is now considered a more common phenomenon. A recent study found that about 4 percent of music students may have this ability, and there are people with perfect pitch in the general population.