THE VIDEO SHELF · perfect pitch
Why you DON'T want Perfect Pitch
Adam Neely explains what perfect (absolute) pitch is, how it differs from relative and quasi-absolute pitch, and why he would not want it. He covers its drawbacks, including drift with age.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN links it in threads on absolute pitch as a musician's useful summary of its downsides and age-related decline.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Adam Neely
- Topic
- perfect pitch
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 6
- HN mentions in dataset
- 8
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2021–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
Adam Neely also has a video about age-related degradation of perfect pitch and about perfect pitch in general: [VIDEO] . Relative pitch is certainly learnable.
leoc on Hacker News · 2021-08
In 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: [VIDEO]
mkr-hn on Hacker News · 2021-08
In Perfect pitch study: Why can’t we identify music notes as well as colors?> For example singers, musicians playing bowed stringed instruments or a trombone benefit from perfect pitch. The benefit is rather small if you look at ear training for professional musicians and what properly trained relative pitch looks like. It basically doesn't matter anymore as soon …
2pEXgD0fZ5cF on Hacker News · 2023-04
In Children aged 2-6 successfully trained to acquire absolute pitch
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.
