Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch

#151

Post by a_c » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 8:40 AM UTC

pganssle wrote: post #145

a_c wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it help your son to study music?

I'm not sure I understand the question, but I can answer both interpretations: 1. Did it (the chord trainer app) help my son when he was studying music? Not as far as I can tell. He has also been taking piano lessons and sometimes it helps a little with music theory to tie it back to the chords, but I don't think there's much transfer learning going on. He seems to have a good ear, but my other son is not picking up…

Hey thanks for taking the time to respond, appreciate it! I left the comment in a whim. I meant to ask 1. Do your son find it easier to identify chord because of the app? Do they, when hearing a passage of music, or a chord, say something like "oh this is a minor chord"? I know this is hard to isolate as there are so many confounding factors.

I'm asking because my sons started picking up piano lessons. I think the way their piano is taught relies to much on their eye. They are looking at music much more than listening to it. So am curious if there are ways to trigger their interest in hearing.

Again thanks for your reply!

Re: Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch

#152

Post by BiteCode_dev » Tue, Jun 23, 2026, 10:51 AM UTC

Too bad you can't use the app if you don't have a google account.

Re: Show HN: Teach your kids perfect pitch

#153

Post by SeanLuke » Wed, Jun 24, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

paytonjjones wrote: post #52

SeanLuke wrote: post #38

I have perfect pitch (or as it is more properly called, absolute pitch). To be honest, I am doubtful that these teach-your-kids-perfect-pitch techniques are effective: I don't think there's much evidence that they are, beyond anecdote. Perfect pitch is more a parlor trick than anything. Sure, it's impressive, and I wouldn't trade it away. But the most important skill that a musician can develop (and any musician can…

This is super interesting, thanks for commenting. You've listed a lot of negatives of absolute pitch, and they all make a lot of sense. But you also said you wouldn't trade it away. Why not? What are the positives that outweigh the negatives?

Well, I'll tell you one fun item. My teenage kids are practicing the piano downstairs. I hear a very wrong note being played over and over. I yell down to them what note they're playing wrong and what the correct note likely is. My kids take this in stride -- it's just the thing that their Dad does -- ugh, it's Dad again. Then they occasionally get reminded by their music teacher that it's not normal for a dad to do that. :-)

Though I really am terrible at the Theremin, perfect pitch helps a lot there too. I can walk up to a Theremin and pretty much nail the note despite its current settings.