Perfect Pitch: Why Do People Lose It?

In this episode I discuss the how and why people who live long enough lose their Perfect Pitch.

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[MateusVerde]

The good thing about not having perfect pitch is that you never lose it.

[verstamp]

Rick saying that the guitar won't be in tune and then it ended up being perfectly tuned was the best laugh I've had today. Thanks Rick!

[mrnelsonius]

Here’s a weird scary story: I’ve been in a band that toured nonstop several years until Covid. 250+ shows a year. One morning our lead singer listens to some music on his phone and says “something is going on with my phone, the music is out of tune”. I pop them in, it’s fine. Then we turn on the radio and he starts freaking out “it’s out of tune too”. We figured out that one ear was hearing music more sharp than the other ear (like a full semitone off). Obviously you can’t perform like that as a vocalist!! Turns out he had a bad ear infection and there was fluid trapped in one ear, and it was altering his ability to hear anything in tune at all. The ear infection got cleared up but for a day, his brain couldn’t hear music properly through his ears. Only time I’ve ever seen him really freaked out

[bernardosantos]

Losing your perfect pitch must be the musical equivalent of an existential crisis

[craigkeyes]

I can name any pitch, I only need 12 guesses.

[jsauginas]

Fascinating stuff Mr. Beato! I have what is called “relatively poor pitch”.

[andre]

Rick,

I'm 63, had a perfect pitch my whole life until into my fifties. I did not know that it is normal to lose it, so this video is a great relief to me! REALLY!

And yes, my current mistakes also differ one or two semitones like you mention in the video. Amazing!

Now l want to add something I have experienced too....curious if any other PP'er have experienced the same.

Before my fifties it was very hard for me to improvise or compose. My whole life I was very jealous on jazzplayers etc. I could instantly repeat playing any song I heard on the radio, but improvising on it....no way. It simply was not there. Composing: the result went immediatly into an existing song.

That changed with loosing my perfect pitch. Now improvising easily an hour on a good composing songs: give me a good poet and two

Anyone the same experience? Please react on this comment.

I read in other comments that people are freightned to loose PP. No worries, playing with others hardly changed and I have exchanged it for something even more beautifull.

Andre
The Netherlands

[jmiclovesyou]

As an audiologist with perfect pitch, I’d like to argue that these older people losing their perfect pitch may actually have high frequency sensorineural hearing loss, which is typical with the aging population. Really what this means is that less of the overtone series, and therefore less pitch information is getting to the brain, making it more difficult to identify.

It’s also not uncommon to have high frequency hearing loss after having a heart attack or stroke.

It’d definitely be an interesting research topic. I’ll have to keep checking my pitch perception in the next 20 years to see if it deteriorates also!

[davcar]

"He's playing all these notes and he doesn't know what they are" welcome to my world.

[absurdist]

Dude tunes his guitar faster by ear than me with a tuner.

[mickhogan]

Very interesting. My son is an audiologist and has a great interest in brain plasticity. He's mentioned to me in the past that many double bass players' intonation goes out as they get older, and that it's recognised in modern medical science.

[josephsantiago]

I just want to leave a comment saying that your videos have helped me out a lot in my guitar playing. Always great to learn something new even when you’ve been playing for a long time now. Keep killing it with the great content. 🤘🤘

[Guitargate]

I never knew this about Gary. So wild I took his course on improv and he’s hearing different tones than I’m hearing. Only on Rick’s channel!!

[PsytranceGOUGAS]

Rick, your relative pitch speed with it jumping in octaves is damn impressive.

[coreybrouwer]

Rick! You're an amazing educator. Thanks for your tireless work to share this information with us all. I'm blown away by your work ethic and consistency. I've been watching since 2016.

[patriciae]

Let me start by saying thank you for sharing your knowledge, skill and talent with so many. I was brought to your channel by a friend 4 years ago who linked to your first video on perfect pitch. Normally I don’t watch these things but I must have been bored that day...in any case I have no regrets. It’s very easy to get sucked down the Beato rabit hole. Dylan’s PP is far more developed than my own, which I know is due to all the early music theory exposure.

Watching this video was absolutely terrifying.

It was discovered that I had perfect pitch when I was 9, but earliest memory of it was when I was 5.

As a blind musician (flute and piano), I rely on it too much. I guess if I ever needed motivation to learn braille music you’ve definitely given me more amunition.

Thanks again for your awesome content.

[Tubatoofpaste]

Some Australian researchers theorise that all children have perfect pitch and use this as well as other auditory elements to recognise their mother's voice. When they get older, it fades and usually disappears. They think that people who begin learning music early are more likely to retain this faculty. Also, some people have it acutely on instruments they play and experience but not as acutely on ones that are less familiar to them.
I haven't lost my perfect pitch, which was very strong when I was younger, but it's fading. I think i might have first noticed this when I was about 60. And, like others, it is now regularly a semitone off. I can even be sitting watching someone play the piano and what it looks like is not what it sounds like!
This is a great channel. You provide so many interesting topics and can speak about a heavy metal band with authority, but also you're not too shabby on the greatest musician of all time, JSB.

[hekk_tech]

im 70% deaf on both ears i love music, watching something like this is making me cry inside my soul but my curiosity overweighs my pain.

[davidbrown]

Excellent video. Watching your videos is like having a musicologist at my disposal. Rick, you always seem to answer my musical questions with all your videos.

[zeronvt]

As a person with perfect pitch, somehow I can relate the story of Perfect Pitch and Relative Pitch to one of the lessons in life: No matter how special your individual self are, it's simply how you are to people around you that lasts.