Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch

Rick Beato · 1.8M views · 2017-05-26 · 16:26

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Overview

Rick Beato argues that adults cannot develop true perfect pitch, which he ties to critical-period brain plasticity and language acquisition. He says it can only be developed in young children, and discusses the research behind this.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as the standard explanation of why perfect pitch is a childhood window, in threads about absolute pitch training.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2017–2025

Topics

Neuroscience & the brain Music theory, synthesis & production

What people said

rendall · 2023-04 · Strong recommendation
This video convinced me that adults cannot develop or train perfect pitch. "Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch" by Rick Beato [VIDEO]
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lj3 · 2017-11 · Strong recommendation
Perfect Pitch is 30% more likely in societies with tonal language. Kids who are exposed to complicated music at an early age also have a higher chance of having perfect pitch. Here's the best video[0] on Perfect Pitch I've seen. It starts at 4:25 because he spends the first four minutes responding to indignant youtube commenters. Then he digs into the science. [0]: [VIDEO]
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kerblang · 2023-06 · Recommendation
Rick Beato made several videos about perfect pitch, also featuring his kid who has PP and can identify entire chords. Apparently his opinion is that the key was listening to atonal music at an early age, like you say. Here's one of the more interesting videos: [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by Rick Beato, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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