Perfect Pitch Is In Your Genes---Or Your Auto-Tuner

People who have perfect pitch are able to name notes they hear and sing particular notes on cue without any outside reference. If you ask someone with perfect pitch to sing an A, they'll nail it every time.

Now geneticists have discovered a particular region of genes on human chromosome eight that is linked to perfect pitch. The finding is an important advance, they say, in their effort to move in on the relative roles of early musical training and genetic inheritance on perfect pitch. In other words nature versus nurture.

That leads me to the subject of Auto-Tune. This is the recording software used by Madonna, Celine Dion, Cher and countless rappers and lesser lights to fix their bad nature and/or lack of nurture. Auto-Tune allows people with even no pitch at all to sing in tune.

Here's a funny and informative video clip from PBS's NOVA that shows how Auto-Tune works.