Perfect pitch test
Perfect pitch is naming a note with no other note to go by. This test plays ten piano notes, each after a quick scramble and in any of three octaves: tap the name of each one you hear.
Ten notes, about a minute. Sound on.
How the test works
Listen
A quick scramble of notes plays first, so the note before can’t guide you, then one piano note rings. Play it again as often as you like.
Name it
Tap the note you heard. Its octave doesn’t matter: any C is a C.
See how close you were
Each answer shows the right note. After ten you get your score and how many you missed by only a half step.
What your score means
Guessing names about one note in twelve, so most people score 0 to 2 out of 10. Answers a half step out are counted apart: they are the slip people with perfect pitch make most.
| Right of 10 | What it means |
|---|---|
| 9 to 10 | That is what perfect pitch sounds like |
| 6 to 8 | A strong ear for pitch |
| 3 to 5 | Better than guessing |
| 0 to 2 | About what guessing gets, like most people |
Perfect pitch or relative pitch
Perfect pitch names a note on its own. Relative pitch names it from another: hear a C, then a note a fifth above it, and know it is a G. Perfect pitch is rare and mostly comes from early childhood; relative pitch is a skill anyone can learn, and it is what most musicians play by.
It is learned one interval at a time, often with the first notes of a song you already know for each.
Every interval to hear, with a song that starts with it, is on the interval chart.
Questions about perfect pitch
What is perfect pitch?
Perfect pitch, or absolute pitch, is naming a note, or singing one, without hearing another note first. Someone with it hears a car horn and knows it is an F, the way most people know a colour is red.
How rare is perfect pitch?
Rare. It is often put at about one person in 10,000, more among musicians who started lessons young, before about the age of six, and among people who grew up speaking a tone language such as Mandarin or Vietnamese.
Can you learn perfect pitch as an adult?
Some adults who train for weeks get much better at naming notes, but few reach the speed and ease of people who grew up with it. Relative pitch is different: anyone can learn it with practice.
What is relative pitch?
Naming a note from another one: hear a C, then hear the note a fifth above and know it is a G. Most musicians play by relative pitch, and it is what ear training builds, interval by interval.
Why does the test play a scramble of notes first?
Without it, someone with good relative pitch can work each note out from the one before, whose name the last answer gave away. The scramble wipes that out, so the test asks for the note alone.
Does the octave matter?
No. Each note comes from one of three octaves, and any octave of the note counts as right. People with perfect pitch name a note’s letter; its height is a separate thing.
What does a half step out mean?
You named the key next door, C♯ for a C. People with perfect pitch slip this way more than any other, so the score counts those answers apart from the misses.
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