Perfect Pitch?

So, we were watching some documentary late night on tv about kids in Russia that went to this music school which was incredible, but they all had to pass some kind of evaluation to get in. We watched the evaluation process where kids would come in and they would sing or play the piano or what not. It was kind of funny listening and saying, "that kid is not getting in!" or "wow, that kid is good!"

Anyway, most of the kids were pretty impressive, but it got to this one girl who was about 8 years old and they sat her down to a piano while an instructor sat at another piano. The instructor would play any note and then the girl had to play the same note on her piano.

Now I would think this is no big deal, but the girl couldn't watch the instructor and so had to play by her own memory to the sound of the note she had heard.

Then the instructor played a few notes in a song or like a little tune, and the girl would have to repeat it. And again this was without looking at what the teacher did.

This girl did it all and I was pretty impressed. Now, we think it is pretty easy to repeat a tune that someone hums or a note someone sings, but I guess that is because we know our own voices and could figure it out, but a piano? I could maybe guess the note higher up or lower on the piano if someone played a high or low note, but to know the exact note someone else plays just by ear and not seeing where they played? Well, we tried this and not Caleb's mom, dad, brother or sister could do it.

So we were interested, and decided to play a little game with Caleb. This is how he did:

Ah, pretty lucky I think, he can tell some white key notes, but what if I try to throw in some random sharps or flats? That will be too hard for him! So I tried:






OK, so he was pretty good. How about if I played a little tune?

Or what if I played some chords?



This one I was surprised at because I didn't want to play the first chord and so played the 2nd chord, and Caleb played them both.

Well, hence to say we were surprised. This is probably no big deal to anyone that plays piano. ??? Can piano players just do this? I mean Caleb is just 6. Finding a note on a piano that is that exact sound is the same as if we were in a choir class and someone sang a note and a person could say, "Yep, that's a B flat." Well, this non perfect pitched mom is impressed.