Why do people with perfect pitch perceive tunes not in 440 Hz out of tune?

Question

I do not have perfect pitch, but I heard that people who have it might have difficulty when a piece of music is not tuned to the usual 440 Hz pitch standard; it sounds out of tune for them.

But this makes no sense to me. As long everything is in the correct relation to each other why should it sound out of tune? It certainly sounds different, and someone with absolute pitch must easily tell the difference, but why might it sound "wrong"?

This is also very confusing with the notion that perfect pitch is a trait people just have, but the standard pitch 440 Hz is in essence just an arbitrary definition. So why should this ability be dependent on some arbitrary chosen standard pitch?

Let's make an analogy, most people can see and differentiate colours. Now suppose people define, very accurately on a physical level, what a standard red, green and blue are (like the 440 Hz standard tone). And from then on every monitor or TV uses just these standard R,G,B colours to combine other colors. Apart from contrast and brightness, the colours on every monitor or TV should then look the same. But then if someone manufactures a monitor (i.e. tunes not to 440 Hz) the colours would look somehow shifted, but does this imply that the colors look "wrong", or does people then have difficulty using this monitor? I guess not... they just might note that it looks different, but that's all.

Answer 1

As someone with absolute pitch and trained in A440 12-tone equal temperament (i.e. the usual) with plenty of vocal music as a backup, I perceive notes that are several cents out of tune as "off" because I am not used to them. I have difficulty listening to music containing those out-of-tune notes unless the music is atonal. (Granted, I don't like listening to atonal music for the most part, probably because of my absolute pitch, but I did find out that I didn't think of quarter-tones as unpleasant in an atonal piece of music I listened to once.)

My experience with this:

as long everything is in the correct relation to each other why should it sound out of tune?

If I find that the out-of-tune notes are in tune with each other, I figure that the music or instrument is out-of-tune and may be able to accept the music more. (I'm interested in hearing what B quarter sharp major sounds like, for example, but not in the context of a C major piece.) If I find that only some notes are out of tune, I figure that the performance is off-key or the instrument was not tuned properly.

I'll have to note that I will not detect music as out-of-tune if it's not several cents off (unless the in-tune note is played at the same time--in that case, everyone can hear the beats that get produced). This probably does make listening to vocal music easier, as people probably go for Pythagorean tuning instead of 12-tone equal temperament within a specific key because Pythagorean tuning uses perfect ratios (e.g. 3:2 for perfect fifths) and 12-tone equal temperament doesn't unless they're octaves.

As for why blatantly non-A440-12-tone-equal-temperament pieces sound wrong to me, I believe this is because of my musical training. A432 sounds slightly off to me, but I suspect that if I were trained in A432, it would be A440 that sounds off instead.

To use your colour analogy, the monitor with the not-perfectly-RGB pixels is just like the out-of-tune musical instrument--the colours look different, the web-safe colours don't display properly, and this time, everyone notices. The extreme example is the dead pixel where one of them is black instead of RGB--people start throwing out their monitors or getting them repaired at this point. (You are right--"people define, very accurately on a physical level, what a standard red, green and blue are"!)

(Caveat: I developed absolute pitch starting in Grade 8 (age 13)--I started with middle C as a reference, needing to use classical music for key references, and writing sorely thin transcriptions by ear. I've read before that absolute pitch developed this way may not be true absolute pitch, and needs constant maintenance or else it will be forgotten. On the other hand, I can instantly recognize soloing on the dominant of minor keys (an unorthodox mode), can recognize modes increasingly well, and can figure out when polytonality (2 or more keys being used at the same time) occurs...)

Answer 2

I don't think I agree with what you have been told.

Perfect pitch is the ability to memorize, and recall, pitches. Now just because you can do it doesn't mean that you always actually do it.

If someone with perfect pitch hears a note and it is slightly below A440 what does that mean? Is the note an out-of-tune A, an in-tune A for a baroque orchestra or a note that the composer has indicated needs to be slightly flat in a modern piece? In one context it is "wrong" and in the other contexts it is not "wrong".

And yes perhaps 440hz is perhaps arbitrary but if you can memorize and recall pitches then 435hz, 430hz etc. would be no different would it?

Answer 3

The 440Hz reference point is a convention, but it's very consistently used. This means that if you can sense it, you will likely form your entire understanding of harmony and music with this included (e.g. people with perfect pitch often report different keys having a distinct "feel") - and why wouldn't you? Humans learn by finding patterns, and so if you perceive all music to be using a fixed set of pitches, that's a pattern that your brain has no reason not to assimilate.

As an analogy: I can see colour, so my understanding of driving includes the colour of traffic lights. If I drove into a different county and their traffic lights were slightly different then I would find it frustrating that "yellow" now meant "go ahead" and I would spend my entire time on edge.

I would expect this effect to be stronger for performers attempting to play/sing along to the music, because their muscle memory will be very strongly linked to their perception of the pitch.

As an analogy for the muscle memory: piano keys are a standard width. It's an arbitrary width, but it's so consistent that a pianist could play on an unfamiliar piano with their eyes closed, using muscle memory to find the intervals. If I sat down at a piano and the keys were 90% the width, I would find it unsettling and difficult to play. Same with playing a violin that's too small, or a clarinet where the keys are in the wrong place.

Answer 4

An addendum, rather than replacement for the two existing answers...

I don't have perfect pitch, but I have good relative pitch.
I have two friends with 'perfect' pitch.

The thing is, 'perfect' isn't actually perfect. It's good, but it's not an absolute. I can recall evenings in the pub listening to old 45s which were either playing at the wrong speed or had been tweaked up a bit at mastering to tighten them up. My two friends could amuse themselves by shouting the chords at each other... a semitone out from each other. One was perceiving the closest pitch to be A, the other B♭.
They were both 'right' for a given value of 'right'.

On the other hand, both of them are perfectly willing to accept a vocal or instrumental passage which to me clearly is suffering from tuning issues against the rest of the track.
10 cents out & I find it painful, neither of them are bothered in the slightest.

Answer 5

Some people with perfect pitch may be irritated by music not at A=440 Hz. They're going to be irritated a lot when hearing modern recorded commercial music, and some not-so-modern stuff too!

Others can recognise a variance from A=440 Hz, but they aren't obsessed with it. Like looking at a photo or movie with a slight colour cast. At first sight it's noted, but it doesn't stop them enjoying the content.

As already stated, many people confuse perfect pitch with well-developed relative pitch. This is a skill that every musician requires. It can be learned and developed.

Answer 6

Not everyone perceives things the same. In particular, not everyone perceives the relative pitches of a song in a vacuum, only compared to each other.

The human ear is a fascinating device. Utterly fascinating. I found out recently that the most favored theories to date is that the cochlea is actually an active amplifier of sound. It has cells that appear to not just resonate at certain frequencies, but to actually actively provide energy into the fluid of the inner ear to make the sounds louder. We do active EQ on the frequencies we hear with a startling Q factor. Beautiful device.

If one's ear has been tuned for A440, those external effects like the effects of the active cells in our ears matter. This gives them a reason to perceive a A443 as "off." Some people tune their ear in this way, other's don't. Neither is right nor wrong.

You give the example of a TV where the colors are all off, but off in a consistent way. You may think that nobody should care, but a graphic artist who deals with white balance as part of their daily life may pick up the color issues immediately. Why? They're paid to be able to look at a piece of work and, in their heads, predict what it will look like in many different lighting conditions. Their job causes them to care.

I can give an example in my life where perfect pitch lead me to consider an alternate pitch as "wrong," though in my case it was a half step, not a few cents. I was in highschool choir and we were singing a song that was pushing the limits of the high ends of our voices. To reduce strain, our teacher chose to teach the song a half step down. Right before our performance, she tried to raise it back up to the correct pitch. Unfortunately it didn't work so well. There was one point in the song where there was a large interval up to a high note. Every time we tried the song, we dropped back down half a step right there.

What had happened was the strongest singers in the choir all had perfect pitch, and instead of memorizing the interval for that jump, we had basically memorized the muscle positions for our own vocal chords which nailed that note. Our own vocal chords became an anchor for the old pitch. In the end, we performed the song a half step down because the leads simply couldn't make the transition to the correct pitch fast enough.

Answer 7

I kinda have perfect pitch. Your question is difficult to answer, because there are variations. Like, if a door shrieks, I can't immediately say 'That was a G with a slight glissando to a D at the end'. However, if I hear a piece of music, or 'musical sounds' in general, I just hear "well that's a G" without having to think about it.

I don't have any problems with relative pitch though. I feel something is off, but certainly not overwhelming. I can for example thruly enjoy Jimi hendrix jamming along with an out of tune guitar, because musically it makes sense. If I were to write it down though, it would take me a while to adapt to it and transcribing would certainly not be effortless.

I do however go crazy when I hear 'synthetic' notes, like singing with autotune or slighty out of tune square waves (think ring modulators and the like). Too perfect really upsets my musical hearing.

Answer 8

A singer friend who has perfect pitch told me years ago that a typical problem is that when he is given written music to sing along some instrument and the instrument is tuned off 440, he has to transpose the music to be able to sing it, so the effort is a lot greater for him.

Answer 9

People with perfect pitch are able to perceive absolute pitches much the way most people perceive differences in pitch. So non-standard absolute pitches can affect them the same way non-standard differences in pitch affect you.

Answer 10

Perfect pitch should really be called learned pitch because that's all it is: learning which pitch associates with a given symbol. I would equate it to recognizing colors, most people can name the general color they see (green) but painters would be able to name the more exact color (emerald). Similarly in music, most people can tell when a note is high or low and musicians that have spent time associating those notes with symbols are able to name the symbol.

All this is just to say that 440 is what musicians have spent time learning so anything outside that would cause difficulty. If you spend all your life listening to western pop and try to listen to a completely different genre, it can be difficult to feel the groove of the music.

Answer 11

So many contrasting perceptions here! One morning I woke with a tune in my head: the D-E-C-C-A radio ad jingle from 30 years before. Checked with piano, I was on-pitch. Decided to learn to sing that C of 'Decca' at will - and after about a year reached about 90 percent reliability.
It's similar now, 20 years on, following refreshed practice. Not true absolute pitch perhaps, but as with other people here, I dislike music played shy of 440. Intonation sounds wrong from phrase to phrase, though the brain does settle in after a few minutes. And then the timbre of ancient instruments is really enjoyed.

Similarly, when I was involved in broadcast, a turntable off-speed was immediately apparent unless exactly a semitone high or low. Handed a 78 player recently, I first sang a record I recognised from one I owned aged ten and had not since heard. My voice exactly on-pitch, turntable clearly slow!

But as for real singing? I wish! Single notes are accurate, but strung together they lurch here and there by a semitone. Never mind, anomalies aside, I do love music. Wish it were central to every school curriculum from the outset - never mind 440.