u/InsightsTarot

Hello! I’m an amateur musician with very little musical training. I started playing the violin at 9, cello at 11 and guitar at 12. Stopped playing music regularly at 15, and I’m 22 now. I also don’t play piano, just to preface.

I can learn basically any song by ear within a few seconds to minutes on the piano. I don’t need to listen to the song again in order to do this. Every pitch is mapped out in my mind, including chords, and I simply “find” what’s playing in my mind on the piano and go from there. I don’t know how to read sheet music for the piano, so I’m just looking for an audible representation of whatever’s playing in my mind.

Is the skill that I’m exercising relative pitch, or related to an absolute sense of pitch? I used to think it was relative pitch, but I’m not so sure now. Mainly because I’m not finding the next note relative to whatever was played before, but instead finding the exact pitch I remember the song playing. This allows me to easily play many different chords to accompany the melody of the song as well, as I can pick out the different notes in the chord and represent that on the piano.

To be clear, I can also identify all 12 notes without an external reference, as well as many chords. But I’m not as good with chords, because I only know the basics by name. By some definitions, I guess you could say I do demonstrate absolute pitch.

I’m just curious if this skill is related to either relative or absolute pitch. Thank you!

I’m an amateur musician who started playing the violin/cello at 10/11 years old. I have a very informal music background (played a bit in my school orchestra as a kid, self-taught guitarist). I’ve never trained for relative pitch.

I don’t fit the typical definition of someone with perfect pitch, and yet I feel I have something very close to it. Does anyone else have this experience?

I can correctly identify which note I’m listening to without an audible reference note with almost perfect accuracy. I can also do the same for chords as well. I can learn songs on the piano very quickly (within a few minutes) completely by ear, and in the correct original key. I do this going purely off of my memory.

However, one thing that sets me apart from someone with perfect pitch is I do have to do some mental calculation to figure out what some notes are. I know automatically what C, D, E, G, and A sound like. If someone plays A#, I’ll think to myself “this sounds a semitone up from A, so it must be A#”. It’s a quick mental process, but not quite automatic.

I know that relative pitch involves the use of a reference, but I don’t need an audible reference to know which note I’m hearing. I feel that I don’t neatly fit into either definition.

I also do have an immediate knowing when something is out of tune, even very slightly. But I don’t fit the definition of someone with perfect pitch. Does anyone else share my experience? I’m often told that relative pitch is common among musicians, yet I don’t find my experience to be common when engaging with other musicians in-person. Can perfect pitch be considered a spectrum?