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Scott · 05-11-2013 06:07 PM

My one natural talent is having perfect pitch. I can sing any note accurately, I can tell you what key a song is in, I can tell if an F# is a bit flat...it comes as easily to me as it is for most people to ID a color.

For years I've wondered if there's ANY way to turn this into something career related. My musical friends are all really jealous of me, and I do appreciate this unique talent...BUT I always remind them, it does NOT make you a better instrument player! I SUCKED at piano, which I played until I was 14 or 15. And guitar has always intimidated the hell out of me.

I just wish I could use this talent in a career, because I'm a natural. But nobody thus far has come up with any ideas. My friend Ryan, who writes music for TV shows, thinks I could be a lawyer who differentiates between whether a song is too similar to another song that has already been trademarked. But he also said those careers are VERY hard to land, and you don't need perfect pitch for it either.

Does anyone have any ideas? Aside from being a piano tuner, which doesn't really appeal to me...if anyone can think of what I can use my perfect pitch for to earn a living, I'm ALL EARS. Mark, I know you're a guitar player...do you have any thoughts? Is it just one of those idiot savant things that really has no practical application?

benny_cw · 05-15-2013 08:19 PM

Wow, this sounds really cool.
It definitely helps if you want to remix a song.

Cowboy · 05-15-2013 09:06 PM

I have perfect pitch too!

I play violin, and it certainly helps to play in tune. But that's just a small part of being a violin player. You would need to also have extraordinary talents, educations, and dedications to make a career out of violin anyways.

I don't know if you can make a career out of it; but it definitively is a source of joys and good times. I like to make improvisation with friends, and the fact that I can tell which key they are playing in allows me to musically follow them and improvise on what they are playing. Plus, I'm not sure, but, because I am more sensible to intonation, I enjoy more music that is on tune - compared with someone who wouldn't know the difference.

Jessie · 05-18-2013 06:16 PM

Having a perfect pitch is all the mind game, if you have a nice concentration level so you can maintain you pitch otherwise you will lose it.

***Mark*** · 05-19-2013 04:35 PM

Wow I hate you guys. Back in music school we used to be super jealous of the perfect pitch kids. Problem is, just because you have perfect pitch doesn't mean you can use it well. I mean, Beethoven was deaf after all.

Halo Effect · (05-24-2013)

I would suggest looking into software to create electronic music. I´m listening to beautiful trance music right now, and there were no instruments used to make it.

Then you don´t have to spend 10,000 hours becoming a master at an instrument, but instead you just have to learn to work with software. That is assuming that you can be creative and create music though. If you´re not, you can probably still collaborate with people and use your skill to make the music they want relatively easily.

Creatine Dreams · 05-19-2013 05:12 PM

(05-11-2013 06:07 PM)Scott Wrote: My one natural talent is having perfect pitch. I can sing any note accurately, I can tell you what key a song is in, I can tell if an F# is a bit flat...it comes as easily to me as it is for most people to ID a color.

For years I've wondered if there's ANY way to turn this into something career related. My musical friends are all really jealous of me, and I do appreciate this unique talent...BUT I always remind them, it does NOT make you a better instrument player! I SUCKED at piano, which I played until I was 14 or 15. And guitar has always intimidated the hell out of me.

I just wish I could use this talent in a career, because I'm a natural. But nobody thus far has come up with any ideas. My friend Ryan, who writes music for TV shows, thinks I could be a lawyer who differentiates between whether a song is too similar to another song that has already been trademarked. But he also said those careers are VERY hard to land, and you don't need perfect pitch for it either.

Does anyone have any ideas? Aside from being a piano tuner, which doesn't really appeal to me...if anyone can think of what I can use my perfect pitch for to earn a living, I'm ALL EARS. Mark, I know you're a guitar player...do you have any thoughts? Is it just one of those idiot savant things that really has no practical application?

Honestly, on its own, perfect pitch is not that useful of a talent. What is much more important is having a good sense of relative pitch, like being able to identify tone intervals and chords.

I think the more important question is whether you like music. If you do, then by all means, try to pursue something in music.

Finally, I do not think that having perfect pitch will really help you with being a music lawyer. Again, what seems to be more important for that type of career is having a good sense of relative pitch, a decent knowledge of music theory, and a thorough understanding of the law.

Scott · 05-20-2013 03:48 AM

(05-19-2013 04:35 PM)Mark Wrote: Wow I hate you guys. Back in music school we used to be super jealous of the perfect pitch kids. Problem is, just because you have perfect pitch doesn't mean you can use it well. I mean, Beethoven was deaf after all.

Seriously Mark, having it makes almost NO difference when it comes to playing an instrument. Sure, I can play the "bare bones" version of a song on the piano/keyboard...ie I can tell you without looking that the chord progression for "Smoke On The Water" is Gm Bb C, Gm Bb C# C, Gm Bb C, Bb Gm. And that might sound cool to you...but you can't do as much with that as you'd expect. It has almost nothing to do with technical proficiency.

I swear to god, if there was an obvious career use for this...but in reality it's no different than being able to distinguish two colors, or a car from a bus from a plane.

***Mark*** · 05-20-2013 05:38 AM

No, I totally get that it doesn't make you a good musician. That was kind of my point. Some of the kids who had it weren't that great. But it always made those of us jealous, because if you're already good, perfect pitch will just make you that much better.

TheoJ · 05-23-2013 10:50 PM

If you have basic instrument skills, you could maybe do something related to tabbing songs. There are always songs being produced, and people always want tabs to play along with the songs.

Try inquiring to a publishing company, or maybe a record company.

Or you can start a website with tabs, a website about tabs/songs and tutorials about your subject of talent and desire.

Start a youtube channel identifying notes of ordinary/famous noises, and take it from there.

Learn software engineering/collaborate with an engineer to develop voice recognition software.

Try singing.

Try voice coaching.

Try orthophony.

Make research about pitch effects on human/animal physiology/psychology and take it from there.

Now, some of these ideas suck but the point is to try hard to find the one or two that are really good!

Put yourself into it, and you will find something.

Postmasculine