Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 People with Perfect Pitch
by Stacy Conradt - August 23, 2010 - 11:22 AM

q10

We talked (“talked,” I suppose) last week about people with photographic memories, and in my mind, perfect pitch – knowing exactly what pitch a note is and even being able to sing it back perfectly in tune – falls somewhere in that spectrum of abilities. Here are 10 people who are (or would have been) undoubtedly quite awesome at karaoke thanks to their abilities:

1. Michael Jackson. And he has no less than Will.i.am to back him up. When he recorded a song with MJ in 2009, Will.i.am reported being both frustrated and in awe that Jackson warmed up for three hours to sing a five-minute song. “He mi mi mi’d for three hours. Perfect pitch.”
2. Mariah Carey. Her mother discovered Mariah’s absolute pitch when, at the age of four, Mimi could sing back exactly what she heard in any song perfectly.

3. Ella Fitzgerald. The First Lady of Song was so dead on that her band would warm up to her voice.

4. Bing Crosby. Hoagy Carmichael joked in his autobiography that he once shared a train berth with Bing, who had an interesting sleep habit: “Bing had gone to sleep in a wink of an eyelash, snoring slightly in perfect pitch to the train whistle as we rumbled through the desert.”

5. Florence Henderson actually got a college scholarship due to her pitch-perfect singing talent. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

6. Mozart. People were wowed by him when he was just a young lad – an anonymous person wrote this letter after hearing seven-year-old Wolfgang perform:

“I saw and heard how, when he was made to listen in another room, they would give him notes, now high, now low, not only on the pianoforte mbut on every other imaginable instrument as well, and he came out with the letter of the name of the note in an instant. Indeed, on hearing a bell toll, or a clock or even a pocket watch strike, he was able at the same moment to name the note of the bell or time piece.”

7. Beethoven… we think. Experts just assume he had it since he was able to compose such perfect music without hearing it.

8. Paul Shaffer. The next time you’re tempted to think of him as merely David Letterman’s sidekick, remember that Shaffer is a musician with quite an impressive resume – probably thanks in part to having absolute pitch.

9. Jimi Hendrix. There’s reason to believe Hendrix had perfect pitch. One story goes that when he was first learning the guitar, he couldn’t afford a tuner. Instead, he went to a music store, played the open strings, and then went home and tuned to the notes he heard.

10. Yanni. A Dateline interviewer tested his ability once by playing random keys on the piano and having Yanni identify them. He was right every time.

Julie Andrews, long rumored to have perfect pitch, has denied it on a couple of occasions.

I love to belt out tunes when I’m in the car alone, but perfect pitch? Good God, no. I don’t think I even have mediocre pitch. How about you?

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Comments (35)

  1. Count me in. If it’s not perfect pitch it’s pretty close.

    posted by Tindy on 8-23-2010 at 5:33 pm

  2. I have only known one person with perfect pitch. She is a fine violinist (not a good singer AT ALL!) But had it to a ridiculous degree like is described here with Mozart. You could go up to the piano and play any number of simultaneous notes and she could tell you all of them. It was the same for her as anyone else looking at a handful of crayons and telling the colors.

    So yeah, she could tune the violin with no external reference and be dead on when you would check her with a strobe tuner.

    posted by TimC on 8-23-2010 at 5:35 pm

  3. Oh, Julie Andrews. How much more fabulous is she now that I know she doesn’t have perfect pitch, but still sounds like heaven? She is so cool. SO COOL!

    I used to have “Mediocre Pitch” but after a long illness without much singing it deteriorated into “Bad Pitch” now.

    Reading that bit about Mozart being able to name notes reminds me of failing badly at that very task when I was about 13, during my RCM piano exams.

    posted by Kat on 8-23-2010 at 5:41 pm

  4. The first person I’d ever heard of having “Perfect Pitch” was producer David Foster. I heard an anecdote years ago that when he was a young child his mother accidentally hit a key on a piano and he blurted out “that’s C!” (or whichever note it was). His mother didn’t know if that was right, so she immediately phoned his piano-playing father at work to confirm.

    posted by Kie on 8-23-2010 at 5:44 pm

  5. You’ve left out a prime example, the late Beverly Sills. I remember watching her on the Tonight Show in the early 70′s trying to get Johnny to sing concert A (440 Hz). Johnny kept disapearing behind his desk to blow a pitch pipe, but was always 10-20 Hz off. Ms. Sills by contrast hit the note perfectly at will without any aids.

    posted by Prism on 8-23-2010 at 5:49 pm

  6. I know quite a few people who claim to have perfect pitch and I have no reason to doubt them. One was a trombonist I used to date who would always tell me what note the train whistle was playing, and it checked out (we tested it). Several other friends exhibit this ability on a regular basis. Sight singing comes very easy for them.

    posted by Dolly on 8-23-2010 at 5:52 pm

  7. Hmmm–I think this post needs a bit more research. Being able to match pitches and/or being able to sing a song in tune does not mean perfect pitch. Perfect pitch means to be able to hear a note and know that it’s a C or A# or whatever. Although you;d have to have exposure to the names of the pitches to know what they are, and I’ve always wondered if this is a phenomenon in non-western music. There’s also perfect relative pitch.

    posted by Anne on 8-23-2010 at 5:52 pm

  8. I’ve always had really good pitch, it helped me in band through HS.

    I don’t think I could ever name notes or chords because I never learned it, but I think I could if I got back into music again. I don’t really consider that skill part of perfect pitch.

    I always though it was basically having your ears in tune with your voice or whatever instrument you were playing. Its a blessing and a curse though because bad pitch during concerts can ruin the experience for me pretty easily.

    posted by Troy H. on 8-23-2010 at 5:58 pm

  9. It may not be one in the music world, but Chevy Chase has long been cited as a famous person with perfect pitch.

    posted by JW on 8-23-2010 at 6:14 pm

  10. I’ve got a pretty good ear, which I probably got from my grandmother since she does have perfect pitch. I can’t always sing perfect pitch (which is really, really annoying because I can tell how far off I am). I can’t listen to music when I have a cold because everything sounds wrong.

    posted by KittyCaller on 8-23-2010 at 6:19 pm

  11. Jimi Hendrix and The experience played “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” for the Beatles at that albums release party after listening to it once the night before. His version was edgier and more fun than the Beatles’.

    posted by Anthony on 8-23-2010 at 6:26 pm

  12. I do, but I never thought it was that amazing? I thought it was unusual for people not to have it.

    posted by SA on 8-23-2010 at 6:27 pm

  13. :)
    I just love to sing. Period. Don’t have perfect pitch by any means but I can carry a tune. And that’s something a whole lot of singers can’t do.
    Cheers to all the singers in the world!

    posted by ann on 8-23-2010 at 6:30 pm

  14. I have perfect pitch and I know maybe 3 other people who also have it. It’s not that unusual…

    posted by Michelle on 8-23-2010 at 6:39 pm

  15. My granddad, in the orchestra, had perfect relative pitch. Give him that A and he’d have his viola all tuned, but without it, he couldn’t do much.

    I have perfect pitch, I think. I can certainly name all the notes on a piano by ear, and since I was a little kid I’ve been assigning notes to things like the vacuum cleaner or the coffee grinder… but I always figured that could be learned by memorization.

    What I think perfect pitch really refers to is the ability to generate those notes spot on yourself, tune your own guitar, etc. I’ve noticed that although I can distinguish notes, my guitar tuning is lacking. Each individual note sounds OK, but when they are played together they clash. Weird.

    posted by Jan on 8-23-2010 at 8:15 pm

  16. I only know one girl with perfect pitch; listening to choirs sing a capella was always hard, since if they were even minutely flat, it would really bother her.
    I wonder if quite a few of the people with “perfect pitch” merely have very good echoic memory and/or relative pitch…

    posted by Emily on 8-23-2010 at 8:16 pm

  17. I have perfect pitch and didn’t meet another person with it until I majored in music in college. I read somewhere that one in 10,000 have it, but the rate’s probably higher for musicians.

    I always thought it was weird that everyone didn’t have it – for me, it’s just remembering what the notes sound like. But pitch labels weren’t standardized until about 100 years ago, so Mozart’s perfect pitch today would probably be a half step or so off!

    posted by Liz on 8-23-2010 at 8:21 pm

  18. I remember reading once that Keith Richards also has perfect pitch – doesn’t help his singing though…

    posted by Dan on 8-23-2010 at 8:21 pm

  19. Perfect pitch only helps you if you can play an instrument well or sing well. There are very few times when knowing the exact pitch will help you as a musician. It’s more helpful, at least for me, that I can remember something I’ve heard and work it out pretty quick to reproduce it. Very rarely does someone (especially in jazz) do something in the original key, so you have to be flexible with what key you play something in. That said, arrangers need to know instruments can play in any key, but some aren’t advisable. Putting brass in lots of sharps and strings in lots of flat will increase the animus toward an arranger quite quickly.

    posted by Tim S. on 8-23-2010 at 8:35 pm

  20. I agree with Anne. Based on what I’ve always been taught and understood in the various music venues I’ve participated in, I think there are some mixed definitions here. I think several folks have the same misunderstandings.

    Simply being able to match a pitch (eg, vocally) with what you hear is NOT perfect pitch. It’s more accurately called “relative” or “absolute” pitch. Many people (compared to those with truly perfect pitch) have this ability.

    “Perfect” pitch does require a knowledge of music – that is, one must know musical notation (if not the physical notation, at least the relationship between the descriptions of a note, D-flat, and what that sounds like) in order to either 1. reproduce the sound when asked (“sing a D-flat”) OR 2. hear a pitch and know how to replicate that sound on a tuned instrument (particularly as an accompanist to a vocalist). This is MUCH LESS frequent a skill.

    All that said (and hopefully in the spirit of discussion as intended) – I personally believe that matching pitches can be learned up to and including a “perfect pitch” skill level.

    …although I, personally, am not quite there yet. I’m a long-time musician (and drummer – insert joke here) and general aficionado. Anyone with higher-ranking authority feel free to put me in my place…gently. :)

    posted by Jason on 8-23-2010 at 8:57 pm

  21. I think it’s not unusual. We used to have a kid in our chorus (he probably had asburgers btw) and he could hum the first note of an a capella piece and we’d all start singing a piece without having been given a pitch by the piano player. That certainly impressed an audience.
    If I practiced singing a piece over and over I’d find the right pitch right away. And I can probably sing an A to this day from the experience tuning my violin.

    posted by cathysfiddle on 8-23-2010 at 9:27 pm

  22. my pitch is pretty good, it’s my voice that sucks! :P

    posted by sammylee on 8-23-2010 at 9:43 pm

  23. I had professional singing lessons for a number of years, but I don’t know if my pitch is “perfect.” I just like to sing.

    posted by Kelly on 8-23-2010 at 9:47 pm

  24. Anne and Jason, you are correct. Many people can be trained to a near perfect pitch level, but do not truly have perfect pitch.

    posted by Lauren on 8-23-2010 at 9:58 pm

  25. I have to agree with several other posters: “perfect pitch” is not simply being able to reproduce a tone vocally, or to sing accurately. Pitch matching has as much to do with vocal control as aural perception. Many people can achieve excellent relative pitch, even absolute pitch, through training and practice. It’s a necessary skill for any musician, and therefore extremely common. I am one of those people. I can sightsing accurately from notation, I can identify a single out-of-tune student in a room of dozens, and I can match pitch accurately, retaining significant phrases after one or two hearings. I do not, however, have “perfect pitch.” If you woke me from a dead sleep and demanded that I sing a D flat…probably not.
    Perfect pitch is essentially the ability to identify a note by its frequency alone. I’ve known some musicians with true perfect pitch who have told me they find it a disadvantage sometimes, because it’s difficult and distracting for them to blend with an ensemble.

    posted by Rach on 8-23-2010 at 10:07 pm

  26. Comedian Bill Bailey, who may or may not have been sacked from his job as a hotel pianist for “freaking out” the clientele, has perfect pitch. He said so himself.

    posted by Deej on 8-23-2010 at 10:48 pm

  27. I saw an interview many, many years ago with Debbie Gibson and she has perfect pitch. There is probably video of it, if I cared enough to find it.

    posted by MattyO on 8-23-2010 at 11:29 pm

  28. Dolly – Good to know that I am not the only trombonist that has been blessed with perfect pitch! It’s a wonderful gift, but it has drawbacks for me. It makes transposing music difficult at times, because when I see a particular note I automatically want to play or sing the exact pitch, not a relative pitch.

    I used to have a career working with electronics. A friend of mine wanted to test my perfect pitch, so he connected a microphone to a frequency counter, and then had me sing an A below middle C. I nailed 440 Hz exactly and he freaked out!

    posted by Gordon Daily on 8-24-2010 at 7:57 am

  29. Brad Nowell was said to have had perfect pitch. Whether you love or hate his music, you’ve got to admit, the guy could sing.

    posted by Red Bunny on 8-24-2010 at 8:10 am

  30. Might make a good lunchtime quiz… so you can prove your pitch (or lack thereof)

    posted by Kathye on 8-24-2010 at 8:15 am

  31. I have to question whether perfect pitch is a real phenomenon when our system of tuning is not an absolute. We use equal temperament (the equal division of the octave into 12 equidistant notes). But there are many other ways of tuning, and even though our system sounds “perfect” to our ears, we sacrifice the purity of many intervals for this system of averages (all tuning systems have to sacrifice somewhere: for a more technical text on it, you should read Ross Duffin’s “How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony).

    Ask any early music specialist and they will likely mention 1/6th comma meantone, well temperament, or Pythagorean systems of tuning. A lot of early music ensembles will tune their A to 415, almost a half step flat of our modern 440 pitch.

    This is why I question perfect pitch. Most musicians I have known who are said to have perfect pitch have only tested that knowledge on instruments tuned in equal temperament. For pitch to be completely absolute, I would be curious to see how many of them could still represent notes in those other temperaments. I’m not saying perfect pitch doesn’t exist, but to prove it to me the person should have the same accuracy in any system.

    posted by Dana on 8-24-2010 at 9:48 am

  32. I have really strong relative pitch–I’d boast perfect pitch, but there are occasions where I do have to think about the note being played before naming it. I get it right, but sometimes it takes a second.

    Still, people tend to hang around when I sing, as opposed to leaving the room, so I guess that’s good. I’m no Ella Fitzgerald, though. She didn’t just warm up the band–she warmed up the entire venue!

    posted by P.F. Bruns on 8-24-2010 at 1:14 pm

  33. I have perfect pitch — I can sing back stuff I’ve heard perfectly in tune, and if you play a note, I can name it (though I can’t do it instantaneously — I have to think a second).

    posted by MH on 8-24-2010 at 2:55 pm

  34. Anthony, you’re correct about hendrix play Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart with his band. I was at a Paul McCartney concert and he told the same story, except he added that they (beatles) wrote the song on a friday, hendrix was there listening and played it at a show on saturday. apparently in those days if you used your whammy bar too much it would throw the tuning of your guitar out. so hendrix saw clapton in the audience and asked him if he could come on stage and tune his guitar. clapton said no and hendrix played the rest of the show on an out of tune guitar.

    posted by rocco on 8-24-2010 at 11:16 pm

  35. A Christian band called PFR (Pray For Rain) were credited in the liner notes of one album by their producer, who thanked them for having perfect pitch. That was back in the day when musicians were virtuosos, and before AutoTune came along and ruined the music industry.

    posted by Alan on 9-24-2010 at 12:49 am

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