Perfect pitch test

This perfect pitch test plays ten piano notes, one at a time, without the reference note that most people need to name a pitch. After each note, press any key on the piano with the same note name: an A anywhere on the keyboard counts for an A. At the end you see how many of the ten you named correctly and what that score suggests.

What perfect pitch is

Perfect pitch, or absolute pitch, is the ability to identify a note without the help of a reference tone. Most musicians work the other way: they hear how far one note is from another, which is called relative pitch, and name a note by its distance from one they already know. Someone with absolute pitch hears a single note and knows it is a D, in the same way most people see a color and know it is blue.

How common it is remains uncertain. A figure of 1 in 10,000 people is widely quoted but may not be accurate, and a 2019 review found at least 4 percent of music students had absolute pitch. It is more common among people who speak a tonal language, such as most forms of Chinese.

How the test works

• Ten random notes. Each is drawn from three octaves, C3 to B5, the middle of the piano, and the same note name never comes twice in a row.
• Any octave counts. Absolute pitch is about naming the note, so only the letter matters. You can answer on whichever octave of the keyboard is handiest.
• Replay as often as you like. Play the note again repeats it. Take your time; the test is not timed.
• Instant answers. After each key press the test tells you whether you were right and, if not, which note it was, then plays the next note.

The notes come from the same recorded grand piano as the rest of the site. The first time you open the page, the piano sound takes a moment to load, and the test waits until it has.

What your score means

• 9 or 10 correct. This is the kind of result people with absolute pitch get. One run is not proof, so take the test again another day and see whether you score as well.
• 6 to 8 correct. A strong result. Some answers may have come from relative pitch: each note you hear can serve as a reference for the next, even without meaning to.
• 5 or fewer. The usual result. Without a reference note most people can name only a few notes.

Because each note can act as a reference for the one after it, people with very good relative pitch can do better than chance even without absolute pitch. The test tells you the right answer after each note, which makes this effect stronger as the test goes on.

Can you train your pitch?

Whether adults can learn absolute pitch is debated. For many years no adult was documented to have acquired it, while a 2019 study reported adults who reached performance similar to lifelong possessors after training. Relative pitch, on the other hand, clearly improves with practice, and it is the skill most musicians rely on.

Simple ways to train your ear with the piano on this site:

• Sing, then check. Sing a note you think you know, such as middle C, then play it and compare.
• Learn songs by ear. Listen to a song on its song page, then try to find its first notes on the keyboard before looking at the sheet music.
• Name the notes you hear. Play a random key without looking, then name it before you look down.

For practice at connecting note names with keys and with the staff, try the note reading game. The piano keys lesson explains the note names and octaves this test uses.