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I absolutely have relative pitch down. I can recognize most intervals immediately. As for perfect pitch, it just doesn't work consistently. I have a tone in my head and when I check with the guitar I'm off. It can be off by as much as a fifth.

Then there's songs. When I sing "Almost heaven" from "Country roads", chances are I'm going to hit that note. I think it has to do with the knowledge I have of my range. Too high and I'll miss that "I beLONG" note. That note is just at my limit.

Edit: Four years later now. I did the "almost heaven" experiment again, from scratch. I hadn't listened to any music in a couple of hours. I was flat by less than a semi so I would have hit "beLONG" perfectly. Somehow my brain knows about my range, and that knowledge informs my pitch perception. I still don't have anything resembling perfect pitch.

Emanuel Landeholm
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    Good question, one that interests me too. I suspect that it's pretty complicated. If I think about it, I can produce an A (or any other tone), usually within a quarter of a tone, but if I think about the Alabama Song by the Doors, I'm usually spot on. But I can't immediately identify a played tone the way people I know who have solid perfect pitch can- it's not an immediate perception, but a questioning of my memory for a G or an A and then comparing. Slow and not foolproof. From what I've heard from other musicians without perfect pitch, this is pretty typical. – Scott Wallace Sep 27 '20 at 11:24
  • @Tim thanks for finding a related post for me! Searching on stack exchange is hard. – Emanuel Landeholm Sep 27 '20 at 11:34
  • @ScottWallace you are like me. – Emanuel Landeholm Sep 27 '20 at 11:35
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    Just trying to help! I often wonder the same - I can usually tune a guitar to pitch, and can usually sing a C note - middle C - but that doesn't make it absolute (perfect) pitch by any means. We do need a term for it - it's in our nature! – Tim Sep 27 '20 at 12:02

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