Here are some definitions you should know.
| Perfect Pitch: | synonym: Absolute Pitch |
| The ability to identify a specific musical tone without comparison to a reference tone, achieving a minimum of 90% accuracy within plus or minus one semitone. | |
| The positive identification and production of musical tones without using a reference point. | |
| The ability possessed by some people, to name the pitch of a tone (referred to the musical scale) without having to compare it to any external standard. | |
| The ability to identify a musical pitch by name, or to sing a particular pitch without the help of first hearing some other pitch. |
All the definitions above are examples found from a variety of sources. They all propose similar descriptions of a somewhat controversial human ability known as 'absolute pitch'. The controversy raises upon the two opposing schools of thought that absolute pitch is an innate gift acquired at birth and cannot be learned after a critical period of childhood development, or absolute pitch is possessed by all people to some degree and can be improved upon at any age. From a researchers point of view, both sides of the argument have valid points. Many musicians found with the ability seem to have automatically acquired it from a very early age and show no record of every having to learn it. Some musicians seem to pick it up at a later point. Others have successfully learned the ability well into their adult years. They all propose different levels of the ability to the definition.
The definitions listed above also make continual references to musical annotations, using terms like musical tones, intervals, and relative pitch. Some of the definitions even go against the idea that the ability is perfect by giving a common ten percent margin for error. Consequently, it is shown that our definitions of human abilities are created in light of the methods, techniques, and tools that we use to measure the abilities with. If we cannot measure the ability accurately, then how does one propose the ability is absolutely what it seems to be?
In any case the whole situation needs further study and we need to move the study away from a musical forum and approach it from a perceptual learning point of view. Such studies are already occurring in fields such as cognitive science, language, and sensation and perception. In some countries the ability that we define as absolute pitch is much like an ability ingrained in their language. Different meanings are given to similar sounding words that are pronounced in different ranges of pitch. Here it is shown that every individual found in such a culture, shares a similar ability to identify a pitch quality with a part of their vocabulary. This is similar to musicians found with absolute pitch in that they can identify a pitch quality to a musical tone and give it a vocabulary (i.e.: that pitch is A sharp, or B flat).
Taking many of these factors into consideration, some other definitions are needed.
Color Perception - A series of psychological / physiological events that process the sensation of the visible frequency range and uses the qualitative variations therein to propose a chroma objective understanding to consciousness.
Color Naming - A method of understanding a frequencies' chroma that derives from the vision of it, and uses the qualitative variations that the chroma ranges propose to visual perception in order to correctly/consistently identify with it.
Pitch Naming - A method of understanding a frequencies' chroma that derives from the audition of it, and uses the qualitative variations that the chroma ranges propose to auditory perception in order to correctly/consistently identify with it.
The ProLobe project was started in 1996 and was developed by Clint Eckhardt. The purpose of this software was to use chroma identification training techniques, and incorporate them into an interactive training program, which would provide a human unassisted means of developing AP perception skills in adult non-AP possessors. ProLobe was also designed as a musician's tool for practicing and exercising chroma hearing skills, while simultaneously learning them a musically relevant context. The versatility and convenience of ProLobe's compact GUI design allows students to isolate the pitch chroma object easily, and learn to name the twelve pitch objects necessary to pass the tests for absolute pitch.