"I have never met anyone who had actually "learned" perfect pitch. I know lots of people who have it but they just seem to have been born with it or something. I don't have it myself but I can visualize a piano keyboard and hear the notes exactly in my head. Same thing with bass. However when I hear a saxophone or a string quartet I can't tell you what notes they are playing. With me it's being totally familiar with my instruments that makes it possible. I know the piano so well that I have developed a sort of connection in my brain between what the notes look like, what they feel like and what they sound like. A friend of mine can visualize a tuning fork and sing a perfect A 440. I don't know if she could sing any other note but the A is always perfect. I do dream in perfect pitch though, or at least my version of it wherein I dream about a playing situation and I am always hearing it in the actual key I am playing. The people I know that have absolute pefect pitch can hear someone slam a door next door and tell you what note it is. I don't know how you could teach or learn that.

~ Don Thompson
(bassist, pianist, composer, vibraphonist, educator)
myspace.com/donthompsonjazz