What is Perfect Absolute Pitch (PAP)?

Perfect Absolute Pitch is the ability to name a note heard as easily as one names the color of their shirt. It allows the listener to enjoy music in a much deeper way. Living without PAP is similar to being colorblind. Having PAP makes music come alive in a way that few people will ever enjoy.

Perfect Absolute Pitch is the ability to hear any note, without any outside reference, and name which one it is. The trained musician with PAP can actually feel and identify the difference in songs starting on different notes (various key signatures). Every note, chord, and key has it's own specific sound and feel (color), but only people with PAP will every feel the colors of sound that the the composer heard when they wrote it.

PAP has nothing to do with the person's hearing. It develops as a result of a part in the brain that is larger than usual due to a genetic predisposition.* This part of the brain, the planum temporale, is associated with language and speech processing. It is consistently larger in the left hemisphere of the brain for individuals exhibiting perfect pitch. Since these skills are developed mostly in the first 6 years of life, it is critical that formal training starts before age 6. It is not about learning songs or reading music; it is about teaching the child how to distinguish the subtle differences in the sounds of each note.

"Our studies tie right in with the idea that we all have this latent absolute pitch ability, but we can't get fully bloomed absolute pitch without early childhood training," says Shepherd College's Laura Bischoff.

"The real puzzle about perfect pitch is not why so few people possess it but rather why most people do not," UC San Diego's Diana Deutsch says. "Everyone has an implicit form of perfect pitch, even though we aren't all able to put a label to notes. They can recognize the note but can't label it. What's learned as a child is the ability to label."

If A Teacher Doesn't Have PAP, They Have A Very Hard Time Teaching It Unless they Are Highly Trained

Teachers that understand PAP are extremely rare. Imagine a teacher that is color-blind teaching students the difference between the color red and the color blue. It's almost impossible for a teacher to explain a concept that they can't hear.

Our teachers that teach piano/voice all have PAP. We have developed exercises to do with our students that will expose them to the colors of each individual note, and give them the "labeling" system to identify them. (I believe many music teachers had the genetic makeup to develop perfect pitch, but were not trained and/or trained correctly when they were young enough to develop it.) This makes them very sensitive to pitch later in life, but they don't know why, nor do they have the first idea what it is they would need to train their students to do. There is a school in Tokyo that trains young children to identify pitches. The school has a waiting list of 1100 students. They recognize how big of an advantage the skill of PAP is in the life of a student.

Could Your Child Have Perfect Absolute Pitch?

Where Are All of the People with untrained PAP? They are the grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins who sing or play by ear? According to recent studies, the gift of PAP is a lot more common in the general population than ever thought before, about 1 in 20,000. There have now been studies done on people who never got musical training, to find out if they would have had the gift if they had had lessons young in life. These people are the parents, grandparents, and other family members of musicians that play "by ear", or sing "on pitch". How sad that so many of these people could have learned to hear "in color" for their entire life, but were denied this gift because their parents had no idea that lessons were crutial for their child. At least now we know that the children and grandchildren of these people CAN develop PAP IF they start lessons young enough.

Use It By Age 6, or Your Child Will Be Musically "Colorblind" For Life!

Studies show if this part of the brain is not used by age 6, it shrinks and loses it's ability to learn to distinguish pitch. A common misconception is that PAP has something to do with singing on key. Although it is an ability that 69% of the most successful recording artists and singers have, singing on pitch is only one of many benefits this gift gives the student. It is similar to how someone identifies colors. We all identify colors easily because we have been taught how to see them, and have been taught names for them. This is called a labeling system, and is learned by children between ages 2-5. Without the skill to "see" colors, people would be "colorblind". This is a page that explains PAP in even more detail:

If Your Child Learns Nothing Else From Lessons, Before age 6, PLEASE Let them Learn the Names of the Notes, and What Each One Sounds Like!

If you have a child with 3 of the 7 signs of musical talent, please get them lessons specifically to teach them how to identify the name of the note by sound. An incredible 55% of students that start lessons at TSM, before the age of 6, are ending up with PAP!

Relative Pitch Identification - It's Not the Same Skill

People sometimes develop a skill that is known as relative pitch identification. With relative pitch skills, a student can identify a note by memorizing the intervals of surrounding notes. It starts with a note, played on an instrument, and another note identified by learning the distance (or interval) between it and the first note. For instance, someone will play a "C" on the piano, and the musician will sing "G" because they were taught to remember that the tone "G" is an interval of a Fifth above it. The two skills are completely different, and they originate in different parts of the brain. In PAP, a C is a C, simply because it sounds like a C. It has nothing to do with hearing other notes, comparing the note to one close to it, or memorizing the pitch. In Relative Pitch Identification, the process of remembering can take 5-15 seconds.

Famous Musicians with PAP

Almost all of the truly great composers in history had PAP. These include Bach, Beethoven, Bartok, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Saint-Saens, and more. Some Famous Performers today that have PAP are: Julie Andrews, Leonard Bernstein, Mariah Carey, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Miles Davis, Celine Dion, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Hamlisch, Jimi Hendrix, Vladimir Horowitz, Michael Jackson, Yo-Yo Ma, Yngwie Malmstein, Andre Previn, Artur Rubinstein, Paul Shaffer, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Arturo Toscanini, Steve Vai, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Yanni, and more. 69% of popular musicians have PAP, compared to the general population percentages which are 1/20,000 with the genetic ability, and a lot less than that who actually have training early enough to develop it fully.

How Do You Know If You Have PAP?

A musician who can tune their guitar or violin without an outside reference has the gene for perfect pitch, even if they can't identify the other pitches in a scale. Most of these musicians would have had PAP if they had lessons young enough. Many band or orchestra musicians have tuned their instruments to a tuner since junior high school. As a result, they can tune their instruments to "Concert A" without a tuner. This is a symptom of PAP. It is sad that their parents did not get them lessons with a qualified music teacher before age 6.

If You Think You Might Have Had the Capacity for Perfect Pitch, What Can You Do to Try to Get the Ability Back?

There is a man with PAP, names David Lucas Burge, who claims to be able to teach anyone to have perfect pitch. I have listened to his complete course, which is very extensive, and I believe that anyone would dramatically improve their musicianship with his course on recognizing relative pitch. This type of PAP is not quite the same as the PAP you would have if you were trained young. It is more fragile, and tends to fade if you are not continually working on it. On the other hand, if you had you started lessons as a child, PAP would be as natural for you as naming the color of your shirt!

Training Pre-School Aged Children With PAP

If a student has the genetic capacity for developing PAP, it is critical that formal training, with a teacher who thoroughly understands this gift, begins before age 4 (or at the very latest age 6). The younger training begins, the more chance that the student will have the full range of PAP. After age 6, the ability to hear the pitches significantly declines every year, until at the age of 12, it's almost completely lost.

Not every child who is musical will become a great musician, even if they start young. But if you really believe your child is musical, why would you deny them the chance of developing the one ability that could set them apart from other musicians regardless of how they eventually use their gift? And... if they did go on to really study music...Only 8% of musicians studying in conservatories today have PAP. If your child was one of them, they would stand out!

Bonnie teVelde has PAP. She has met only two musicians with the ability in her musical career. Since she started working with young students, age 3-6, on developing the ability. She started teaching students of this age in 2005, and she has several students ages 4-9 that have perfect pitch. They are currently refining their abilities to the point that they are identifying the pitches in various octaves!

DVD Perfect Pitch Education Video for Children, Ages 0-3

Bonnie is currently producing a DVD that will be tested on young children, ages 3mos to 5 years. It will be about 15 min in length, and will focus on the sound of each note. The younger students start watching it, the more they will be prepared for private lessons on the subject by age 3. If you would be interested in participating in a test group, receiving an opportunity for your child, age 2 or younger, to develop PAP, please email: Bonnie teVelde.

Note from Bonnie teVelde:

Having PAP has been the greatest gift my parents ever gave me. They not only gave me the genetic ability, but music lessons at age 3... even though they couldn't afford it. I have often been looked at, by other musicians, as a complete genius. I feel it has been a wonderful gift, given to me to help me teach others. It is amazing to hear the subtle differences between each note. (The key of E-flat has such a gentle and full sound... perfect for a happy, fun, and relaxing afternoon... reminds me of a family day at the park under big trees! The key of F reminds me of the ocean on a calm day... The key of G is a straight up, fun, sound... and the key of E is energetic, lively, and fast... it has a real edge to it. The key of G-flat is a very emotional, beautiful key... one that show.) I hope to have conversations with hundreds of my students who have learned what Perfect Pitch is, and have developed fully... using it in their own compositions!!!

Here are some links to various informational sites on PAP: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090702170209.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826080600.htm

http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Absolute_pitch

And last, but not least, a link to an article written by a composer/musician who doesn't have PAP, explaining how important it could be if one had it: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/perfect-pitch-verses-the-struggling-musician-246372.html