Perfect Pitch - The ability for someone to hear music and, without any reference, be able to identify what the notes are. I have seen ads in Sheet Music magazine for a tutorial which promises to develop this ability in people who don't have it, but as far as I know a person is either born with the ability or not. I have known people who have perfect pitch and heard some describe their hearing ability in terms of "color" but I don't believe they mean C is red, C# is blue, etc. It's just another example of the inadequacy of words. Tone Deaf - A slang expression describing one's lack of musical understanding. Someone who is tone deaf may not be able to tell which of two sampled notes is higher in pitch or certainly whether or not a piano is out of tune. People who are "tone deaf" may be taught how to hear. After all, we learned how to hear certain things when we learned tuning. There are also ways in which good relative pitch may be developed. I speak from personal experience. -Matt Wynne, NY
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