How my children (n=2) acquired absolute pitch
As a professional musician, this made me very uncomfortable for more reasons than I could easily count. Mainly, it seems to inflate the utility of absolute pitch. Some pros have it, other do not. Some composers have it, other do not. It really isn’t considered a mark of musical ability or competence.<p>I’m a pianist and lack absolute pitch. My violinist daughter has infallibly accurate absolute pitch; but even with bowed instruments where it would seem to be an incredible asset, it’s less useful than one would think because you’re still always playing into the ensemble. You’re matching a consensus pitch within a changing harmonic context. That’s without getting into tuning systems, etc…<p>There’s also something just a little reductionist about the whole enterprise of teaching your kids to have absolute pitch somewhat in isolation. (Yes, there’s something about playing Chopin etc. It just reads like an experiment in trying to develop musicianship by isolating one of a thousand parts rather than developing it holistically and organically.)