perfect pitch in children-how common?

What's the difference between perfect pitch, relative pitch and having a very good ear for music? I've never known properly.

Sorry for the hijack, OP!

There seems to be a link between ASD and perfect pitch (eg. more children with ASD have perfect pitch than would be expected).

It is a mixed blessing (DH has it, and not ASD) - it can make "out of tune" music very painful.

yy FNF - I have PP too, and it is often a handicap, and am pro musician!!

Oh Lily, I'm glad you agree that perfect pitch is a "freaky brain thing", but have been feeling guilty all day that the op might feel that I was belittling her ds' s talent (I'm not!!)

Op, I'd be so ridiculously proud if either of my boys were doing so well in music as your boy is! !!

I agree about perfect pitch being a bit of a handicap in certain situations. I don't play the trombone, but tried playing the clarinet for about five minutes before I realised I couldn't cope with the fingering being so different to flute/recorder. I am used to three fingers on the instrument meaning G.

I can't use the transpose function on my electronic piano. I slip into the wrong key every few seconds, and embarrass myselfso horribly. It probably doesn't help that I can't read music, and am constantly making it up as I go along - my brain simply will not compute that the notes I am hitting don't match up with the ones I'm hearing.

I'm still so glad, op, that music is important to your ds, and has transformed his life. Music is so good, I think, for children who are struggling with aspergers, as it is so emotive and helps with getting in touch with feelings.. I speak from personal knowledge, as I could easily get a diagnosis for myself, and gained so much from the musical and social experiences of being in bands when I was younger.

yes to everyone that perfect pitch is quite rare, and that it is just a freaky brain thing, it's not a mark of a musician as such.

Having said that, it's brilliant that your ds is enjoying his music so much, and that's the main thing, and having perfect pitch will really help him as he goes through.

Yes, perfect pitch is fairly rare at any age. I think, if you have it, then you have it from birth.

I come from a musically talented family. None of us are classically trained. I can't even read music, and have totally wasted my gift, but can hammer out pretty much any pop song on the piano, in a disgracefully amateur way.

Ds2 (aged 3) has perfect pitch. He never fails to get exactly the right notes when he sings theme tunes from his favourite tv shows. He gets quite upset when I sing them in the wrong key, because it's easier for my alto/tenor voice.

He also shows more than a few traits of asd. I've no idea if this is linked in any way.

Ds1 has pretty good relative pitch, but is no musical genius.

To be fair, I know two musical geniuses personally, and only one of them (the least commercially successful) has 'proper' perfect pitch. It's useful, but it isn't the most important thing. Perfect pitch is just a weird brain thing. It's possible that even really non musical people have it but don't know how to show it (they could maybe identify the correct frequency but lack the musical understanding to fit sounds together into a 'meaningful' whole that others find beautiful?)

Sounds like your ds is doing really well and enjoying music and that's the main thing.

I've got it. It's mostly useless, but a good party trick! I think DS has it as well as, but won't know until he's older (he's 3).

DS2 has perfect pitch, or at least all his music teachers tell us so.

He is a chorister. The Master of Music uses him to pitch the choir.

It really helps with aural tests.

We've been told it could be a drawback in some ways, eg his trombone playing. And an adult singer says he finds it really hard tolerating anything slightly off pitch.

It does help with aural tests though

It's pretty rare. Relative pitch can be trained (my dd can accurately tune a guitar by ear with only the low E as a reference point) but I gather that perfect pitch is not really something that you can learn.

True perfect pitch is rare at any age .

My DS is at a secondary indy school which has a very good music department. He is involved in singing, and several of the boys he sings with have perfect pitch. However, this is obviously a very polarised section of kids, so I don't know how common it would be in a more general population.
It's great that music means so much to your DS and he is getting so much out of it