Perfect Pitch

Have you ever wondered what it's like to have perfect pitch? Or what perfect pitch even means? Do you suspect your piano kid might have it? How do we, as parents or teachers, train and equip young musicians who have this tool in their toolbelt to use it effectively? If you're curious about any of these questions, you'll want to check out this recent episode of the Piano Parent Podcast where Shelly hosted a Teacher Chat with two piano teachers who have perfect pitch. They discussed the benefits and challenges, as well as some teaching and home practice strategies for these students.  

You can listen to that full episode here, and if you want to know what some of my big takeaways were, read on below: 



I've been teaching for 13 years now, and have definitely had a few students in that time with some degree of perfect pitch. A few of the things that teachers Cheryl Reeder & Brianne Lundberg shared really made sense to me. 

First, perfect pitch is something of a spectrum, not all who have it experience it the same way. Some will just pick out individual notes when played on an instrument. Some can hear each pitch in a chord and identify which chord is being played, and some hear pitches in everything, from the hum of an air conditioner, to the tone a glass of water makes when bumped. This means not everyone who has this tool in their toolkit experiences it the same way.  

Second big takeaway, having a well-tuned instrument is really important. Did you know that an instrument that is out of tune can actually cause physical discomfort for someone who is further along that perfect pitch spectrum? Before listening to this episode, I didn't realize that! And who would want to practice when the sound causes them physical discomfort? This is a great reminder that if your piano kid relies heavily on their ears, make sure your instrument is tuned. Listening to this episode reminded me of a former student of mine who definitely had some degree of perfect pitch, but had a really out of tune piano at home, which I pointed out to the parents and reminded them from time to time that it needed to be tuned. But scheduling a tuner got put off, as it sometimes does, and recital time came around. This student who had been practicing on an out of tune instrument (and internalizing those pitches) found themselves unable to orient on the instrument at the recital hall because they keys produced a different sound than expected, and the performance was very difficult as a result. To their credit, they got through it, but not nearly as gracefully as they would have had they had the proper tools at home when preparing. The parents finally understood the difficulty their child was having and had a tuner scheduled within a week. A well-tuned instrument benefits all music students, but especially those whose ears are more sensitive to pitch discrepancies.

Third big takeaway, students with perfect pitch can end up relying on it as a crutch if we're not mindful about rounding it out with other essential skills. My job as a teacher is to make sure that they learn the other tools they need and how to connect it back to what they already intuitively hear. It's important that they learn to connect the pitch they hear to the notes on the page and in doing so learn to audiate. It's important that they understand notes in relationship to each other, and not just as randomized sounds, because this will build a good understanding of music theory. And it's important that they learn to practice effectively and not rely on their ear to save them. While their ears may hear the notes just fine, their fingers don't necessarily know how to play them with more accuracy. Practice is important for all music students. 

Hopefully this was interesting, an perhaps helpful if you have a child with some degree of perfect pitch. I'd definitely recommend listening to the episode if you haven't already, because they cover so much more than I actually touched on in this post.