The term relative pitch may denote:
- the distance of a musical note from a set point of reference, e.g. "three octaves above middle C"
- a musician's ability to identify the intervals between given tones, regardless of their relation to concert pitch (A = 440Hz)
- the skill used by singers to correctly sing a melody, following musical notation, by pitching each note in the melody according to its distance from the previous note. Alternatively, the same skill which allows someone to hear a melody for the first time and name the notes relative to some known starting pitch.
Some music teachers teach their students relative pitch by having them associate each possible interval with the first two notes of a popular song, see: ear training.Here are some examples:
- Major second: Frere Jacques
- Major third: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
- Perfect fourth: Auld Lang Syne ("Should All...")
- Perfect fifth: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001), or Hey There, Georgie Girl
- Minor sixth: My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean
- Octave: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Intervals are more difficult to hear the larger they are or the more octaves they span. Compound intervals are significantly more difficult than simple intervals.
The recognition of intervals allows musicians with very good relative pitch to easily identify complex chord types (even if they couldn't tell in which key a piece of music was in) and to be able to quickly and accurately tune an instrument with respect to a given reference tone (even if the tone is not in concert pitch).