Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Perfect/Absolute Pitch -- musical skills

Hi there!

I haven't been on this site in a while ... but I thought I'd ask you all. If you have a child (mine is 6) who appears to have a great facility with music notes -- MAY have perfect/absolute pitch -- what could this mean in terms of labeling? He has no labels right now but is either gifted or HG ... no formal testing but crazy memory and high math skills, reading skills etc. Wondering if perfect pitch always equals "savant" or "spectrum" or if you can just be gifted with perfect pitch?? It is just frightening to see what he can identify, not just with basic notes but other subtleties I don't even understand. He I guess "learned" some of this while playing notes on our keyboard which was hooked up to Garage Band on the computer which digitally displays the details of notes and chords played. He was very focused on this at the time.

Thanks in advance!

I'm pretty sure one can be just gifted with pp. As far as I know there isn't any one indicator that is sure-fire for Autistic Spectrum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_pitch

'it has been claimed' is a far cry from 'always true.' yes?

Smiles,
Grinity

I've also known people with perfect pitch who were musically gifted and not autistic.

I had one friend who had a great story about her child who identified the sounds of the household and at some crazy age, like 3 or something, told her that the microwave was an E flat!

My 10 year old has perfect pitch, is definitely not on the spectrum, and is HG+. He's been taking piano for 5 years and it's been a great fit and activity for him.

It's funny the things he does now. If someone sings a song or he hears music he can tell what key it's in. And he can transpose it on the fly. He can sing a note on command and has not done any choir singing or voice training.

Perfect pitch is a neurological quirk that doesn't correlate with autism spectrum disorders or giftedness. It correlates both with tonal languages (Chinese speakers more likely to have pp) and with age at which a person starts playing a fixed pitch instrument (early keyboard exposure increases likelihood of pp).

It is an advantage in playing stringed instruments and memorizing/repeating music; can also get a person into trouble in some kinds of ensemble playing, where tuning issues can become unbearable. As people age their pp tends to go out of tune, which can be a liability rather than a gift.

DeeDee

Wow thanks everyone! I am both relieved and enlightened! We actually did put him in a handful of piano lessons at age 3.5 but he didn't seem to be motivated to practice at home, he just wanted to experiment on the keyboard, so we stopped.

I wonder if I should be nurturing this ability -- but when I called around for piano teachers at that time, they all had such different philosophies and I'm not sure how to find the teacher that would be right for him.

Also, I struggle with what to focus on with this kid! I have a French interest so from birth - age 4 I exposed him to French and he did formal lessons, Rosetta Stone and then lost interest. He was really good at one point but now since not practicing for a year+ he remembers NOTHING! We are shocked!

So I'm wondering what to enroll him in that will actually be worth it long term. He is interested in sports now so that's what we are focusing on with extracurriculars and gifts for holidays. I figure that is a lifelong thing and will help socially long term. I wonder if he will just want to quit music at some point and we will have wasted $$? Also the time commitment worries me and practicing might become a major chore/battle. He is very self motivated with what HE wants to do WHEN he wants to do it. You know?

Ugh, the joys and stresses of parenting!

Mr W( 3Y4M) is not on the spectrum at all - had PP from a very early age. When he was 4 months he would watch people play piano for hours. At one year he would play notes on his kiddie piano to match the music he heard. He can sing just about any song he hears a cappella almost perfectly and knows about a hundred songs. He has his own jazzy versions of a lot of songs. He also makes up his own verses. He now corrects DW and me when we do not sing a song perfectly.

Welcome to my life growing up. My dad and sister have perfect pitch (as does her husband and ALL their kids!!!) but I do not have it. I do have musical ability, but have a terrible singing voice and was constantly being corrected when I sang...boohoohoo!

LOL..same here. I have a lot of deafness.

DW has a great voice and a large body of songs and plays the piano. But Mr W corrects her, too, lol.