Is “perfect pitch” really just about practise?

For years, perfect pitch—also known as absolute pitch—has felt like a rare musical superpower, something you either have or don’t. But new research from the University of Chicago is reshaping this long-held belief. It turns out that perfect pitch might be less about genetics and more about the way our brains respond to sound—and the way we train them to do so.

The study suggests that instead of being a fixed trait, perfect pitch could be a form of auditory learning that’s accessible to many people with the right kinds of experience. Using brain imaging, researchers found that people who excelled at pitch tasks had more adaptable and responsive auditory systems—not just more musical training. It’s not about being born with golden ears, but about how flexibly the brain processes sound over time.

This has big implications for how we think about pitch development in music education. What if pitch recognition skills are more malleable than we thought? Could ear training be reframed as a dynamic, long-term process instead of a race against early childhood windows?

In studio lessons, that might mean incorporating more targeted listening tasks. In classrooms, we might revisit how we introduce pitch—not as a fact to memorize, but a skill to nurture and grow. And for ensemble directors, this could encourage new ways of developing intonation awareness over time.