Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch

I am responding to the hundreds of adult musicians that are mad at me for telling them the truth about Perfect Pitch. Unless you are a baby reading this, forget about it! Sorry, but it's not my fault. It's biology. Only children below the age of 6 can develop Perfect Pitch. This has to do the with brain plasticity of particularly the infant brain and language acquisition.

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[CharlieZuko]

I had NEVER felt the need to develop perfect pitch, until this guy said it was impossible... weird.

[omgcheesepuffs]

While it's too late for me. I'm definitely writing this down on my "Things to do as a parent" list.

[bali]

As a musician, I have played enough music to develop tinnitus with a constant pitch that I can use as a reference to find other notes. Tbh its a pro strat

[sephiroth]

But should I tune my baby to 440 Hz or 432 Hz?

[vinman]

What about adults that act like babies? Can they develop 'perfect pitch'?

[CortMarshal]

I don't know why everyone's worried about perfect pitch. It doesn't inherently make you a better musician, composer, songwriter or person.

If your songs aren't good, and you develop perfect pitch, your songs still aren't good. Now you know what key it's in though.

[pianoanime]

I think people need to understand that many trained musicians can imitate perfect pitch without actually having absolute pitch. Having notes fixed in your mind means you’re still relying on relative pitch. Absolute pitch means that you don’t have to think about it.

[sephiroth]

A minute of silence for all the babies whose parents listen to reggaeton.

[StefAnimation]

You sir, just saved yourself $20 on a guitar tuner.. well played..

[blackberryjamchicago]

I have perfect pitch. I can usually guess the right one in 12 tries.

[on_my_own_two_feet]

6:06 as a linguist, I've got to say: this is actually a pretty good explanation of how babies learn language. Your definition of a phoneme is a bit erroneous, but I am so impressed with the rest that it doesn't even bother me. Well done, Rick! Educating people on all fronts!

[freshdachs]

Rick needs to make a 'perfect pitch baby training' Spootify playlist :D

[thomasspina]

I started playing bass at 52, now 55. I'm not worried about perfect pitch, I'm just worried about trying to remember what I studied yesterday. learning something new at this age is tough but a passion. as far as hearing, I can still hear my wife yelling at me. all good.

[grichard]

Perfect pitch is when you throw a banjo out the window and you hit an accordion player.

[ChatBot]

Im an adult and I developed perfect pitch, bud. I can always name the note within 12 tries almost instantaneously. You will probably dismiss that as guessing, but I know what Im talking about.
Sincerely,
Easily offended, highly skilled, internet keyboard warrior.

[JeffMTX]

just told my wife "we gotta have another kid"

[EdBender]

The father of a friend had perfect pitch and he hated it. One day when my friend was rehearsing w/ his band in the backyard, his father stormed all the way from the house, and yelled at the guitar player: "can't you just tune that damn B string right!? Jesus it's driving me nuts!"

He left and they all looked at each other in disbelief. The guitar player got the tuner w/out a word, and it turns out the B string was a little flat for about 10%. The father coudl tell ALL THE WAY into the freaking house!! In the MIX!!!

I'll take my unperfect pitch, thanks.

[rockfreak]

Just hit up my epileptic homie for the sweet Valproate hook up - I’m boutta be a musical genius. Catch me by the freeway diagnosing the pitch of car horns.

[kylestewart]

Dylan’s understanding of chords, pitches, tones, etc is truly amazing. Hearing him identify and sing every note in a huge jumble of random notes is just awesome. That must be an incredible skill to possess, assuming the person who has it is actually interested in creating music.

[alexanderleeart]

people think if only they had perfect pitch they would be creative musical genius. Really, they should just start practicing their instrument and/or writing songs