"as far as i know, what one develops in these instances is more of an ingrained relative pitch; that is, the ability to hear tones resolve through a series to a tonic pitch which has been memorized. so if i manage to memorize what a Bb sounds/feels like (easy enough to imagine...) and then develop the ability to hear every pitch that enters my head relative to that Bb, very quickly, then i've got it.

"i think that if you get to the point where you do this without thinking, it would get confusing when you're playing in any other key. when you want to hear things as they relate to another key centre, how does your body deal? with normal relative pitch, the kind we all seem to develop over time, you can move your mental 'home' around. your body learns to feel and execute the sounds you're hearing in your head in the moment. but when you've internalised 'home' to the extent that these systems call for, I can't see that you could move them around when you need to. so you'd hear an E, say, as a sharp 4 resolving up to 5, F, and then down to Bb. but if you're playing in D, wouldn't it be more desirable to hear the E as a 2nd or a 9th? or as having a certain sort of tension in relation to 'home'? never mind desire, wouldn't it just be more musical?

"even if all of this is my own misunderstanding of what all of these things mean, i think it's better to spend the time and energy learning how to hear your own music and how to get that music to come out of your instrument. perfect pitch is one more on a long list of very tempting but illusory short cuts that sit there and tempt the ego by taking the mind off of the actual goal - making your music. in the end, you've got to walk the path to get where you're going, and it's a long path."

~ Joe Sorbara
(composer, improviser, percussionist)
www.ovalwindowmusic.org/joesorbara