Perfect Pitch vs Relative Pitch: Which Is More Important? 

Dylan = Perfect Pitch Lennon = Relative Pitch Me= Sounds like a keyboard, but i can't be sure...

I've had relative pitch my entire life and really just thought it was a half-ass version of perfect pitch until today. I didn't even know it had a name, lol.

Relative pitch + Memorize the notes = perfect pitch in 144p version XD

I can do one thing here.... Minor = Sad Major = Happy I can identify the chordal tones.

Can you have perfect pitch and not know it because you have no idea what the names of the notes are?

Perfect pitch is a nice party trick, but real magic lies within the melodies and chord progressions~ For that, you need relative pitch.

I've always had perfect pitch....and would be able to do exactly what Dylan did. I would identify complex chords----but I'd hear them as a collection of individual notes. But some people do lose perfect pitch with age. Oliver Sacks described that in one of his books....where one of his subjects found that their pitch shifted 1 1/4 tones. I'm in my 70's now....and that's what happened to me as of 10 years ago. I will mistake a G and call it an A or a Bb. I was very dependent on my perfect pitch....and haven't developed great relative pitch. Now I need to develop that....and its a challenge. I wish I had developed it as a kid. The two types of pitches----perfect and relative---are totally independent. If you have perfect pitch, you still need to develop relative pitch.

You have pretty amazing pitch memory for someone who doesn't have perfect pitch

I may not have perfect pitch but I have Pitch Perfect on DVD :-)

get relative pitch get tinnitus perfect pitch

This kid has a very big and a bright future ahead of him. So talented.

Oh wow! I just found myself singing out the chord tones as you played. I'm so pleased, my ears were so bad but I've been doing your "7 days to better ears" training everyday for 3 months and folks it really works!

The legend says that Charlie Parker practiced between 10 and 15 h / day when he was a kid. He had relative pitch though.

I just noticed the word “note” is an anagram of the word “tone”. How have I never noticed that?

Hi Rick, Sibelius apparently had a perfect pitch as he described seeing tones in colors from the child. He self trained with an out of the 'perfect tune' piano at home as a child. At some point the piano was tuned to a perfect pitch, which shocked his foundations and he changed to violin. As he describes the color landscape was destroyed and he could not touch the piano after the tune was changed.

You've got such great kids. Reflective of what a great father you are. Well done.

Well done, Rick! Very interesting and of course adorable when you bring in your very talented children. Bravo!

Those "perfect pitch" musicians also had relative pitch though. Without translating the perfect pitch to relative pitch, perfect pitch is near useless. I knew guys in college that had perfect pitch and didn't know B-D-F-A made a half diminished chord.

Thank you. You just explained everything I've been hearing in head musically for the past 40 years.

I love that you included Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Oscar Peterson in “The greatest composers/musicians that ever lived” ❤️

It's wonderful to see your talented children! By the way, a friend of mine with perfect pitch lost it - actually it was "misplaced" by a semitone lower at the age of 70. In the begininng she thought that her piano went out of tune but then she listened to the radio and she heard music of which she knew the tonality a semitone lower. So what she does now? She listens to a tone and say she recognizes as C#. Knowing her problem she makes the correction and she answers D. Wonderful job you do Rick! Thank you so much!

my concert choir in high school was able to blow people away at festivals because we could start a capella songs without a reference note from a pitch pipe or piano. our bass section leader had perfect pitch and could just quietly hum the bass starting note and the entire 80 voice choir could build the opening chord from it. it was awesome, and in 20 years of a music career, i've never met anyone else who had true absolute pitch.

Thank you Rick. Big respect for how you enrich your kids with the gift of music -- I wasn't brought up in a musical household but I am trying to get my son Elliot (I'm using his youtube account) involved as much as possible. You have been a huge inspiration to me. Best, James.

This is the best video I've seen about this theme, **just for the kids**. They're lovely!Congrats, Rick!

Wow actually this was a very informative video. Thank you very much for the demonstration. What I really like about the videos is that you have addressed many interesting points like some people have good pitch memory or levelling up your relative pitch level to a point where you cannot tell the difference between perfect pitch and relative pitch. Now I think I can claim that I actually have a very good level of relative pitch rather than claiming that I have perfect pitch because I can tell relatively fast what all the white and black keys on a piano are within the middle octaves of the piano whereas when you get to the far ends of the piano that it becomes really difficult to tell.

Would have loved to hear Dylan sing the neighboring notes to the detuned piano

omg rick you have literally made my day! i thought that what i had was perfect pitch and i was confused because i couldn't do what your son does, but i'm just like your daughter, i can easily mimic every sound or note i hear, so that means i have relative pitch..awesome!

This topic completely fascinates me! Thank you!

Rich, you are blessed! Two adorable kids! Great to see that you named them after great names in music history. I guess you know that Brian Wilson also named a son Dylan!

What happens to Dylan if you tune your keyboard to A=432Hz? (Should have been the clickbait title)

Your son seems like a sweet kid - What a wonderful gift you have helped him develop, the gift of music! Rock on brother!

❤❤🎼🎵Your kids are amazing. I love that they are trained in recognizing and using their gifts. Great job, Rick!

Fascinating. I wish he'd say more about "pitch memory" since this is what enables you to follow harmonic progression even if you only have relative pitch.

Damn Rick, you not only have two of the cutest kids on earth, but sharp and very talented. Dylan's abilities are staggering. And Lennon being able to instantly identify an interval without knowing the notes...I hope they stay with it and allow music to carry them forward.

Fascinating study! Incredible children with such skill AND gifts! I wish I could go back to school and actually study music theory. Thank u Rick for all you do.

The kid is SCARY accurate! BOTH of them! Congratulations, Rick. Many Blessings on you and your Family.

wow listening to your boy describe the detuned piano as a mixture of 2 notes is so fascinating! Ive never thought about it like that before (I dont have perfect pitch) but I assumed that people with perfect pitch would just hear an 'out of tune' note, but he hears 2 different notes mixed together - liked a mixture of red and blue or something to make a new color. I love these videos - I'd love more!! It still seems like magic to me - that someone could have perfect pitch. Its like being able to look at a color and say the pantone number. Where does it come from!?! :)

Very interesting, thank you! A major advantage of PP is an ability to very quickly chord out the songs, even if the chords are atonal or the progression is unfamiliar, while most people with only relative pitch, including myself, when asked to chord the song out, can only hear the memorized patterns. I can confidently hear only the tonic, the dominant 7th, the second dominant, and several others. I don't hear the individual notes, sometimes I can't even sing the root note of the chord, but I recognize them by their "flavor", the specific feeling, like the "instability" of the dominant 7th. A very high level of relative pitch can compensate it, too, I suppose =)

I definitely subscribed to his channel. This guy is amazing.

Wew... Thanks man for this vid... I finally know myself better right now... Appreciate your time explaining this out...

I don't really have Perfect Pitch but I have an almost Perfect Relative Pitch and I can play piano by ear no problem :)

Confessions: I have read Yo-Yo Ma as Yo Mama.

Thank you for this very informative video!

Very interesting stuff, thanks for taking the time to make the video, explain, and demonstrate 👍

GREAT video

In 7th grade I was the only one in my class that scored 100% on a relative pitch test which makes me think I had perfect pitch as a kid but it was never developed because I didn't have parents to guide me. In school orchestra I never read a note of music. I memorized each piece by listening to the other bass players then just played it back. One teacher was pretty amazed when he gave me an individual lesson.

Rick, thank you for putting in all the time and energy in to making all these videos about perfect and relative pitch. Really love all your videos about this subject beacause you have a analytic look on the subject. A lot of people who put their hard time and energy in music get (sorry for saying it this way) butthurt about perfect pitch, because it gives them the feeling that it makes them lesser of a musician, or that they have fewer knowalage then others of music ( this is just an assumption and not targeted against anyone). This is not the case, everyone is unique in behaviour and feeling. In the end perfect pitch doesnt have to make you a great or better musician( as you stated in more of your other videos), it just gives better knowledge of whats going on. Passion and vision makes a great musician, knowelage is the tool to make people achieve great music and grow further.

Greatest wealth of information I’ve ever seen or heard on RU-vid. It doesn’t confirm my feelings about Perfect pitch. I use to envy those with such ability then I realize that relative pitch is more practical in my opinion. As a guitarist when I tune the instrument without a tuning machine I can not tell whether or not I’m in concert key and I can still play regardless. With perfect pitch it would be painful to the ear especially if one is a microtone away from the actual pitch. Also It seems to me that one with with perfect pitch does not have to practice sightsinging cuz they can already hear the notes.

Thanks Rick, very interesting and helpful video. You're doing a great set of deeds in sharing your music knowledge. My teenaged daughter is learning a lot from your videos.

John Lennon and Bob Dylan, how wonderful

Interesting. Thanks Rick for a compelling body of work. I am enjoying music more than ever and I never thought that possible.

Your videos are great. Thanks Rick.

If I was your daughter I'd be pretty jealous that the other kid has perfect pitch and I don't.

Perfect pitch is inborn. Relative pitch is something one can develop. Throughout my teenage years it was requisite all music teachers I encountered--from private guitar lessons to choir director--hammered home developing relative pitch ear, which I will say now at 37, nearly 38 years of age was most beneficial aspect of music training aside from basic theory and reading. Knowing if a song is being performed in original key, identifying interval relations, etc stronger than ever in my ear brain. As for perfect pitch, I have met only a handful of cats with such ability. I remember reading somewhere that perfect pitch is absolutely an inborn talent and there are zero documented cases of anyone 'developing' perfect pitch post-birth.

Nice Job Rick! I completely agree with you.

Hi Rick! I have watched many of your videos and this one definitely impressed me. So really amazing kids you have there! :). I’m always SO impressed with your ability to hear chords and play songs with such ease. It has always been a major struggle for me and has frustrated me my entire life of playing guitar. Do you feel that my lack of chord recognition could be a direct link to my lack of relative/perfect pitch? I remember a theory instructor in college that could break down every note when hearing chords, but I was never able to successfully reach that level of proficiency, even with much listening and attempted practice. Maybe it must be a natural gift that allows this phenomenon and something that can’t be obtained, even with practice?? Anyways… thank you so very much for your videos and I would greatly appreciate any tips on how I could improve my “hearing” of chords and music in general so that I may hopefully struggle less when learning songs and attempting to figure out chord progressions.

This. Video. Is. So. Freakin. Fascinating.

I used to rely on both, when I was younger. Without knowing. But as I develop my musical abilities more and more, I tend to recreate the note directly, without any reference.

This made me realize that I have relative pitch! I plucked out the notes on every chord! I can't read music, I've never learned, but I can play most chords on a guitar by reading their names, but don't know what they're made of or how. This has made me very happy, I don't know why, but thank you!! I'm going to learn how to read music in the future.. You boosted up my confidence!! Thank you!

thanks for the video! Great info and analyzing ~

I always thought I had perfect pitch but it seems I have relative pitch. I was experimenting with alternate tunings when I was 8 and discoverrd by listening that Soundgarden had drop D songs. At the time I didn't even know drop D existed so I tuned the whole guitar a step down to achieve the sound. I can recognize the tuning of any song and tune accordingly. I guess it's relative but as a 37 year old I'm happy with what I got. Dylan is impressive!!!!

Hope your son develops a passion for music along with his perfect pitch. Your interaction with him is priceless. It will be fun to see him grow musically. Thanks for your teaching ability.

Thanks for these videos. I struggle a lot with ear training, and the only improvement I've been able to make has been through a focus on "chunking", or recognizing chords and short melodic figures as basic units. Before learning to listen for these larger patterns, I tried to apply my ear training by identifying every single interval in music I listened to, which is a fool's errand. Music goes too quickly for that, and even if you could do it on the fly, it would be too disorganized. The title of this video seems a little odd to me, though. It's certainly a meaningful question for people with perfect pitch, but for those of us who don't have it (and can't get it, as I'm glad you take the time to point out in your other videos), it's a bit like asking, "Which is more important: climbing trees, or breathing underwater?" Only one of the options is even available.

This is a really really great channel. Very unique. Perfect for my subscription list haha. Saw your channel after your Apple rant, then your response to the ageist comments. You seem like a sensible and smart dude. Keep up the good work! Now off to your "Why do people hate Jazz" video - the question i often ask myself (see? you have a great set of videos) haha.

Wow, very nice. I just hope your kids don't hate music when they become adults as it's often the case with those who were exposed to it so early.

it was a G lol

Your kids are adorable, and very lucky to have such a great teacher.

Another brilliant video. Right on, in every respect.

Amy time I hear C and then F my brain immediately goes to smells like teen spirit right before the lyrics come in.

For the case of Mozart though, I think perfect pitch helped him learn new music styles just by hearing and reading scores, composing without testing on an instrument. Thanks to his father being a musician, he learned music from a very early age, and he could memorize really difficult organ pieces he heard in cathedrals and replicate them himself from memory. When he went to Leipzig to pay homage to Bach, he heard Bach motets performed there, he memorized those just by hearing as well. In most of Mozart's liturgical works and symphonic works, his contrapuntal writing is too advanced for his age (look up "10 great fugues not by Bach"), and part of the reason I think is because he could learn just by hearing lots of music and reading lots of scores.

Thanks for the video Rick.

Thank you for explanation. I thought I had a perfect pitch, because I was able to tune instruments without any tuner and recognize played notes, however when it starts to be really difficult, I have troubles. So it's only like you, thank to a good memory. And now I know I should focus on developing the actual relative pitch.

Don' singers have "relative pitch"? If they didn't have relative pitch, they wouldn't be able to sing in tune, right? Wow, you got really close to a perfect G

What I find most interesting is that having perfect pitch is not mutually exclusive with having musical talent. Granted, my 'evidence' is purely anecdotal, but I've known a handful of people who I would place in this category.

Wow, Dylan is wonderful. I can see a great career in music ahead!

You have a lovely family Rick. Hope all your kids will pursue music. Godbless

Great info from the maestro! Hey, that rhymed.

Beethoven was such a master he had perfect pitch while being deaf

Great content in all these videos. I have to step my ear game up in this gospel situation I’ve been hired for and your channel is very helpful. Maybe do a video of exercises to get your relative pitch going.

Hands down most fascinating content online today.

How do people identify notes using relative pitch once you have heard a succession of notes and have deviated somewhat form the initial reference note, do you still use the initial reference note or there comes a point in which you have to identify the note from the interval it makes wuth the last note heard? I suspect some people can remember the initial reference pitch despite the clutter or time passed, but I imagine for most it will fade out as you hear more notes and have to rely on the last note heard.

Just for your information, I have had relative pitch all my life, but with some caveats. I can identify the tonic in most songs, but minor keys can confuse me. I have tested many people and have never found anyone else who could do this tonic identification trick. When I was younger I could name intervals instantly, but now, at 87 years of age, it's a little less easy. So I guess aging affects relative pitch as well as perfect pitch.

Thanks for another great video, Rick. It clarified my questions, and I also checked my relative pitch:D P.S. You're kids are wonderful.)

Breathtaking! As allways!

When you all hear your favorite song in your head, can you hear it exactly as it sounds? Is that normal? I can hear most of not all of the instruments and vocals and such. I don’t have perfect pitch, so sometimes I hear it in a different key, which is really weird, especially for people’s voices. I can also hear any instrument I want, like if I think of a random melody, I can hear it played in my head by a violin or trumpet for example.

It is kinda interesting in the start and singing the G. I wonder if this is due to guitar playing? I often walk around and just suddenly think of what the "G" string sounds like, sing it, then go to the guitar and walla, it is G. Same with all the other open strings.

Great explanation. I saw Chevy Chase on the Tonight Show demonstrate "perfect pitch" I now understand was relative pitch as he clearly started with a reference note and hummed his way to the note played. Still fun to watch. My issue is learning to play a b flat coronet in band then realizing we were playing a half step down from what was written. And that was never explained to us. Playing with the fam during holidays as a kid was frustrating.

Wow awesome. Thank you for this great vid. I was told that i have relative pitch so decided to check it out. Love that you explained it using kids. How cool.

Lennon is super lovely.

"But I don't have perfect pitch" LOL that G was bang on.

I keep watching your videos and love them. I do want you to talk about the "Grey area" that is "pitch memory." It is a concept we don't talk about near enough.

Always interesting!! awesome!

That "I-don't-know-if-it's-actually-a-G" is pretty damn close to a G. (Spot on if the guitar closest to me was well-tuned, which I can't be bothered to check.)

I have a question for anyone who has some knowledge on perfect pitch. I've got a friend who has no trouble naming a note when it's played to him ( without a reference note), but struggles (and usually fails) to sing a given note. By that I mean, when we ask him to sing a g# he doesn't get it right most of the time, but if we were to play it he would know what note it was easily. Is this a form of perfect pitch?

Great training Prof.

This was excellent and totally addressed an issue that I commented on regarding a previous video. I also feel that with great pitch memory and intonation, plus "perfect relative pitch" (an expression I was glad to hear you use), it is possible to develop what at least looks like (sounds like) perfect pitch. For all practical purposes, this is what is necessary. Music is, after all, about relationships between notes, so it's the intervals that are important, not the names of notes. The names just make it easier to talk about with instrumentalists if you happen to be a singer (I am). But unless one is in a symphony that's been stranded on a desert island without a tuning fork (or set of bells) and no rescue in sight, I can't think of many instances in life where perfect pitch would be super-useful. I thought it was interesting when Dylan said it didn't bother him when the piano was detuned. He was asked if it bothered him that the piano was "out of tune" and he said No. I think that was the wrong way to phrase the question. A piano that's detuned to a different Hz for A, is still tuned to itself and the intervals and note relationships are therefore still the same. So the piano was not "out of tune" it had been "detuned" which is not the same thing at all! My point is, I find it difficult to believe that it doesn't bother Dylan, who has both perfect and relative pitch, if a singer or player is veering off pitch and going flat or sharp within whatever tuning system has been established. It should bother him! It bothers the hell outta me, with only my "perfect" relative pitch, but it even bothers people who aren't particularly musical themselves. This is why singers get booed off talent shows for being tone deaf. Because it sounds like crap. I'd like for the question to be put to Dylan differently to clarify the difference between his experience of a detuned instrument and someone actually playing out of tune. I would think the latter would be very unpleasant for him to listen to, if he is musical rather than someone who just has an odd gift.

Wouldn't you agree that "having perfect pitch" is just an acute form of "having a great pitch memory"? Or do you think there's something substantially different between the two concepts/talents/skills?

Put it like this: trying to “develop” perfect pitch is analogous to trying to “improve” your foot size.

The ad before this said at the end, "Learning songs by ear is usually ineffective." I must be special, I learned everything I know about music apart from the note names and major scales from listening to songs, playing them, and comparing patterns. 🚀 🌎

Tks Rick your advices are precious