Learn perfect pitch in 15 years

Many of the responses to this comment imply that this is something fundamentally different than perfect pitch and give it some different name ("pseudo absolute pitch", "perfect relative pitch", etc.). While I concede that most people think of perfect pitch as something that is instilled in some way in early childhood rather than achievable through practice, I guess I would ask those commenters... why do you think the latter is fundamentally different, or is using some separate mechanism?

There are many skills which are much easier to instill in early childhood and are simply harder to master if approached in adulthood -- language learning, certain athletic skills, and more -- but we would never consider any of these impossible to achieve through study. Sure, maybe the maximum achievable skill level is less than what could have been possible if study began in early childhood, but we would not say that it is impossible for adults to achieve a level of mastery, or that those who gained a skill through serious practice must be using some separate mechanism than those who learned it in early life.

I contend that it is the same with absolute pitch. After all, there is not even a perfect level of absolute pitch mastery! In layman's terms, "perfect pitch" is usually understood to mean that a person can immediately name a pitch when played -- on a 12-tone western music scale. But some people people with perfect pitch have better precision than that and can estimate quarter tones, etc. If a note is played that's 20 cents sharper than Ab, and person #1 says "that's an Ab" while person #2 says "that's a note a touch sharper than Ab", most people consider neither statement to disqualify them from having absolute pitch. But there is a difference. Moreover, no person on Earth can name a pitch down to, say, a couple decimals of absolute frequency value. Doesn't this imply that the skill exists as achievable points on a spectrum, not as a flat binary?

I believe my claim of having perfect pitch stands on solid ground, and consists largely of what OP is describing. That's because I can demonstrate it. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the described method is a reasonable way to _acquire_ perfect pitch, but I do contend that what is described is a reasonable method of demonstrating and explaining one's perfect pitch. If you do have perfect pitch, that is reflected in the fact that you don't transpose the music you hear on in your head.

This idea of recalling songs is an easy way to explain perfect pitch to others in a way they can easily try for themselves. If you can sing the first note to a song, and then afterwards you actually listen to that song, and you are actually in tune, then you have perfect pitch. That's a far cry from being able to name the note, or rattle off the notes in a chord, but in my view the mental recall is the true innate essence that undergirds every other component of the umbrella of perfect pitch.

I'm fascinated by this discussion because of how imprecise the terms "perfect," "absolute," "pseudo-absolute," etc. are. It's doubly interesting because we're describing things that happen in our own minds, with each of us having potentially different abilities and training and no common reference to what a "typical" person can do.

For me, sometimes, I can hear the opening note or chord of one song and it will immediately remind me of another unrelated song. When I check, they're almost always either in the same key or a semitone off. It happens most reliably when the timbres are similar. It's not a conscious thing, and the more I try to make it happen the less it ever does. Oddly enough though, I am terrible at identifying intervals. (Major third, perfect fifth, yeah, I know they're different and I can hear that, but ask me out of the blue which one was just played and I'll manage to get it wrong.)

Another thing I can do is play what is essentially a "mental recording" of a song I know well in my head. It's like if I had an iPod, and I felt some urge to listen to "La Grange" by ZZ Top, I can hear it in my head -- guitars, drums, vocals. I can skip around to whatever part interests me. I find that when I start tapping out the rhythms of what I'm recalling, or humming along with its melody, my recollection is pretty spot on when played against a real recording on speakers. Again maybe a semitone off at worst.

Both of those suggest to me that, somewhere in there, I do have an absolute pitch reference that I'm drawing from in an undisciplined way. If I sat down and practiced I bet I could refine it, but... why? Might be a neat party trick, but aside from that I don't really feel like I'm missing anything without it.

Choral/string music is quite nice - the musicians have an opportunity to bend pitch as locally appropriate to make perfect intervals. I definitely did this when I was singing in a chorus. But piano is still my first love :)

Yeah I would agree that with proper practice (assuming you have a "locked in" song for every semitone in a scale) - that this could probably be extrapolated to being able to hear a random note on an instrument and then naming that note, and vice versa singing a given note on command.