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Why Adults Can't Develop Perfect Pitch

Rick Beato · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Neuroscience & the brainMusic theory, synthesis & production

What it is

Rick Beato argues that adults cannot develop true perfect pitch, which he ties to critical-period brain plasticity and language acquisition. He says it can only be developed in young children, and discusses the research behind this.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it as the standard explanation of why perfect pitch is a childhood window, in threads about absolute pitch training.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2017, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Here's the best video[0] on Perfect Pitch I've seen.”

    Best video on perfect pitch; digs into the science after four minutes.

    lj3, 2017-11 · Strong recommendation · in “How I learned to write music in real time”

  2. “This video convinced me that adults cannot develop or train perfect pitch.”

    Convinced the commenter adults cannot train perfect pitch.

    rendall, 2023-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Children aged 2-6 successfully trained to acquire absolute pitch”

  3. “Rick Beato covers the subject rather well in his video”

    Covers why trained pitch memory is not absolute pitch.

    hashmap, 2023-04 · Recommendation · in “Children aged 2-6 successfully trained to acquire absolute pitch”

  4. “Here's one of the more interesting videos”

    One of the more interesting Beato videos on perfect pitch.

    kerblang, 2023-06 · Recommendation · in “How My Children (N=2) Acquired Absolute Pitch”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: absolute pitch, ear training, music cognition, critical period, rick beato

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