Ken: When you told me Doppler effect the other day, you mentioned that a man with an absolute pitch finds the speed of an object giving out a sound in approaching and leaving him. In a music class, a teacher told absolute pitch today. During WWII, students were educated to have an absolute pitch to distinguish planes of behalf than those of enemies.
I wonder if this is true.

Dad: I have heard it before, too. A man with an absolute pitch can tell musical scales not only for a sound of a certain frequency but also noises from equipment for instance. This is called “Labeling”. This kind of education was done in order to distinguish planes of enemies. I doubt the effect.

Ken: Is such a special ability obtainable through education?

Dad: It is an ability which can be sharpened posteriori by receiving a specialized education since childhood. I heard that the percentage of students majoring in music who have an absolute pitch is much higher than that of ordinary people.
Of course no wonder why, you may say, such a group of students is a group of people who already have.

Ken: In any case, if you can tell any sound with musical scale, it would be fun.

Dad: This is an advantageous ability for those who specialize in music. But what is bothering is that a musician says the more concentrated on his playing, the more noises in a hall pop up in his mind as musical notes or another says he can not read a book with music, or some other says whenever he listens to classical music, it sounds as sol-fa notes. Sometimes having an absolute pitch works against him.

Ken: There are not always favorable things around absolute pitch.

Dad: There are other kinds of demerits to have an absolute pitch. You can not express more detailed sound than semitone using a musical note, can you? But there is music which consists of more detailed sound than semitone. Traditional Okinawan music is written with symbols using Chinese characters called “Kun kun Shi” which indicate musical scale. Do you know sanshin, or Okinawan traditional guitar? Its musical compositions contain a tone tuned by half of an absolute pitch, which does not exist in absolute pitch. It is said that a man with an absolute pitch feels it a tone misaligned or can not play the very sensitive sound.

Ken: I think that an absolute pitch seems to be barren, which has the same impression as digital when you told me about analog and digital.

Dad: It may not be same, but you become inflexible when you have musical notes input in your brain. I found myself to have talked only about demerit side on this matter. It is said that many famous musicians have an absolute pitch. When Beethoven played a horn sonata with a piano tuned lower by a semitone, he played piano part of it tuning higher by a semitone while playing on his own. An absolute pitch brings a merit and demerit even to a musician.