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Why you DON'T want Perfect Pitch

Adam Neely

1.8M subscribers • 1 video on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 6 people, in Hacker News, across 4 different months.
  • Presented by Adam Neely, as the video describes them

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

2.5M views5 years ago6 recommendations

Brain and nervesAging and longevityNeuroscienceBiology of aging

Adam Neely explains the cognitive downsides of absolute pitch and how this musical ability often degrades or shifts with age.

Perfect Pitch is awesome! But I never would want it for myself, and here's why! Get CuriosityStream AND Nebula for less than $15 per year (26% off!) curiositystream.com/adamneely Intro (tests for AP) AP defined Untrained Pitch vs. Absolute Pitch Quasi Absolute Pitch Relative Pitch Why You Don't Want Perfect Pitch Thanks to Josh Bailey for the drums! Gary Burton on Adam Tan's channel youtu.be/XyvAF5sLtYw Rick Beato's video on losing perfect pitch youtube.com/watch?v=3rx08qWtFak (⌐■_■) ⦿ Adam Neely T-shirts! ⦿ teespring.com/stores/adam-neely-merchandise ⦿ SUPPORT ME ON PATREON ⦿ patreon.com/adamneely ⦿ FOLLOW ME ON THE INTERNETS ⦿ facebook.com/adamneely instagram.com/its_adamneely ⦿ Check out some of my music ⦿ sungazermusic.bandcamp.com insideoutsidemusic.bandcamp.com adamneelymusic.bandcamp.com Peace, Adam

Why it's here

6 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended for explaining the disadvantages of perfect pitch, including how it degrades and shifts out of tune with age.

leocin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Perfect pitch study: Why can’t we identify music notes as well as colors?”

Adam Neely also has a video about age-related degradation of perfect pitch and about perfect pitch in general: link to this video . Relative pitch is certainly learnable.

mkr-hnin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Perfect pitch study: Why can’t we identify music notes as well as colors?”

The good news for people without perfect pitch who feel bad about it is that people who learn relative pitch retain it for life while perfect pitch declines precipitously with age. It has other drawbacks. Video on the subject: link to this video

2pEXgD0fZ5cFin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Children aged 2-6 successfully trained to acquire absolute pitch”

…n actually does. Rick Beato has a certain kind of obsession with the topic that makes it seem so much more important than it actually is in the real world. Also noteworthy that there are disadvantages to perfect pitch (transposing instruments, losing it with age, etc.), and interesting video on that topic by Adam Neely 1 was already linked. 1: link to this video…

eskaytwoin Hacker News • Recommends

On “How My Children (N=2) Acquired Absolute Pitch”

It seems more cognitive than due to physical effects in the ear. Adam Neely had a good YouTube video on it link to this video

physiclesin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Learning fast and accurate absolute pitch judgment in adulthood”

This is currently happening to me: I’m starting to be off by a half step when I guess what key something is in. I’m 40 now, and I started noticing it a few years ago. Maybe it started early because I don’t play much music so I wasn’t using it much. This video by Adam Neely was helpful: link to this video

soyyoin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Learning fast and accurate absolute pitch judgment in adulthood”

…indicates that this is very common, and people with perfect pitch are more likely to lose it than to keep it. This is a huge blow—imagine a whole life relying on this one skill to support all your music-related activities, and suddenly, it's completely gone. I think this video gives a nice summary of all this from the point of view of a musician: link to this video…

tylerhouin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Children aged 2-6 successfully trained to acquire absolute pitch”

There are some downsides of perfect pitch. For one, choral singers with perfect pitch sometimes have a hard time re-tuning if the rest of the choir shifts pitch. (This can happen naturally over a long piece that has no accompaniment.) Another downside is that almost all people with perfect pitch lose it when they hit a certain age. Imagine being an accomplished painter. One day, you wake up and see leaves as blue-ish green instead of green. It might be difficult to adjust to no longer being able to see the world in color. link to this video

KnobbleMcKneesin Hacker News • Mentions

On “How My Children (N=2) Acquired Absolute Pitch”

It gets worse than that. It can drift over time so that even if you're in the right key, you end up as much as a half step out of tune. link to this video